Although Alexander McCall Smith is "only a man"—and a Scotsman at that—he tries to create a story world that is dominated by women and women's values in his latest novel The House of Unexpected Sisters. The values he expresses in his heroine are sympathy and understanding, compassion and cooperation, toleration and forgiveness.
The context for this fantasy is an idealized country in Africa, called Botswana. While Botswana is a real place, and all the place names and geographical features described in the book are real, the country in the book is an ideal place, a sort of Heaven on Earth, where people act with respect for themselves, for other people, for tradition, and for the land.
The House of Unexpected Sisters is the 18th novel in Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which features Precious Ramotswe, who has created herself as the first lady detective in Botswane. The name 'Precious' is traditional in her country, but it also symbolizes her character, like the name of her assistant, 'Grace.' Precious is exquisitely sensitive to the feelings of others and couches every utterance as tactfully as she can. Her investigations are slow and polite; no violence, no speed, no threats, no danger. Just complexity—overlapping motivations, misunderstandings. Some problems seem to be solved by the mere process of investigation.
Her clients don't bring her the big scary problems, like murder and gang activity. That stuff naturally goes to the police. They come with vexatious problems, like a rash of petty thefts in one of the stories; the culprit in that one turned out to be a mischievous wild monkey. There might be a question of suspected impersonation, or suspected adultery. In this book the problem is wrongful termination; a client says she was fired for no good reason. Investigation of that issue reveals various other shenanigans by the people involved. And, very realistically, Precious has some problems of her own to work out. I think it won't be too much of a spoiler if I tell you that everything comes right in the end, and everyone gets justice.
The book's theme is indicated in the title, and it is a basic tenet of feminism: women stick together, women support and encourage each other, women are sisters by nature. All of the women in the story, except for the villainous Violet, cooperate to bring about equitable solutions.
And what sort of roles do men play in this feminine universe? Precious' husband isn't nearly as smart or useful as her friends, but he loves and supports Precious as well as he can. One of her part-time assistants is a mousy male, retired and feeling useless, who has a good heart and occasionally a good idea. Her first husband, Note, has been a villain throughout the series—having battered Precious during their marriage, and returning now and then to cause her trouble. Her late father was the epitome of wisdom and virtue. The employer who is accused of wrongful termination is a philanderer. In general, men make a mess of things, and women set things straight again.
This novel is not what you would call great literature. It's so easy you can read it while waiting in line at Starbucks, as I have. In fact, the series makes great reading for jet travel; I discovered my first one at an airport bookstore. You could say that McCall Smith churns this stuff out exactly for that purpose, especially for women passengers. However, that doesn't mean it is without charm. The culture of Botswana, both real and imagined, is very colorful and exotic. The characters are irresistibly nice; it is soothing to hear the way they reason. And it seems clear to me that the author genuinely cares about the values he depicts, and he is genuinely fond of the way women do things.
