La's Orchestra Saves the World: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Alexander McCall Smith has built a following based on his serial novels -- the Mma Ramotswe mysteries set in Botswana as well as the two series of more general fiction set in his home town of Edinburgh. In those, each chapter is essentially a self-contained story, each of which builds on the events in previous chapters and creates a narrative arc leading toward the book's conclusion. In "La's Orchestra Saves the World", the author has taken a much more conventional structure, although his main character, La herself, is anything but a traditional heroine, although in her own way she is just as quirky as any Botswanan sleuth or 40-something Edinburgh bluestock philosopher.
La, the eponymous heroine, after a series of events, is living in the English countryside, somewhat rootless and aimless, when World War 2 breaks out. Her need -- never strongly felt -- to seek a place for herself gives way to a quest to make herself useful. She cares for a local farmer's hens, creates a garden -- and, to her own astonishment, creates a ramshackle kind of orchestra made up in part of the airmen from a local RAF base.
This is not a war novel in any sense; the conflict itself is distant from the day to day lives of La and her neighbors, even as they must cope with everything from the deaths of those they know to the vicissitudes of rationing. The style, plot and character development are as old-fashioned in feeling as La's proper name -- Lavender. But there is a hint of mystery and even tension when La comes on the scene. A Polish airman -- or is he? -- he plays the flute in La's orchestra, and helps out on the farm. But not everyone is as drawn to Felix as is La, and even she realizes there are some unanswered questions about his background...
Ultimately all is revealed, but this is not a conventional love story, either. While this book will probably appeal to those who enjoy reading the musings of Isabel Dalhousie in Alexander McCall Smith's Sunday Philosophy Club series, fans of the Ladies No. 1 Detective Club stories will find it much less vibrant and forceful, either in tone or characterization. The plot meanders gently to what some may find a disappointing conclusion, albeit one that makes sense of what has gone before.
It's an oddly passive story, albeit one that deals in a quiet way with all the major themes of life: love, war and a quest for identity and purpose. Those with the patience to keep reading will find much that is rewarding in a gentle kind of way, particularly in La's quest to create sense of meaning from what often seems to her to be a life that too detached.

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