A while ago Ranil took a pot shot at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – accusing it of being patronising. Others are more worried about relatively rosy-picture McCall Smith paints of the continent.
This Is Africa (awfully named, but then again we’re called Aid Thoughts) has a wonderful suggestion for McCall’s next project – to satisfy those that prefer their vision of Africa dry and bleak:
Bowing to the criticism, McCall Smith announced plans for a new series, The No. 1 Malnourished AIDS Orphans Agency. This will be followed by a film adaptation of his unreleased novella, The No. 1 Brutal Kleptocrats Club, starring Don Cheadle.
#1 by Ranil Dissanayake on January 27th, 2010
Ha, yeah, actually the thing I mind least about No. 1 Ladies is the positive picture it paints. The situation is complex, so not every picture need be grim. We are all intelligent enough to cope with the fact that sad stories can coexist with happy ones.
What I don’t like is that it patronises all of its characters. They are defined by one or two elements, there’s no complexity at all. but then, I just re-read an Agatha Christie novel for the first time since I was a teenager and was struck by how similar that was: fat short ridiculous belgian, wonderful and well-bred Englishmen talking about India, coolies and servants being faintly incompetent… the lot.