La’s Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith
Normally I love McCall Smith, but this book was entirely different and not at all what I was expecting from him. Once I got past that I actually enjoyed the book, but you know how it is when you love everything an author does because of a certain style that you’ve come to expect and then they come up with something entirely unique and you’re just a little shocked? (Holy, run-on sentence, Batman!) Well, that’s how it was for this book. And it was a lot slower than I was used to.
It starts with two mysterious brothers, visiting an English village that they were once familiar with. No names are mentioned, except La’s and then suddenly the book jumps right into her story. That was a little abrupt and unexpected and through out the rest of the novel I kept wondering who the heck those two brothers were? But, actually it works. It all makes sense in the last few pages of the novel, which is the best way to wrap things up right? It was a surprise ending, but not a crazy surprise, just a nice pleasant one.
Anyway, La’s orchestra (the one that saves the world) doesn’t actually appear until about halfway through the book (I told you it was slow!). La somehow finds herself living alone in a small English village during WWII. And really nothing happens, except that she makes some friends and starts an orchestra. The main event (the saving of the world) seriously happens in the last few pages of the book.
Now, I know I haven’t made this book sound all the interesting, but I actually really liked it. It was slow and sweet and had that lightness that I’ve come to expect from McCall Smith (one of the only ways it was typical of his other works). It lacked the humour of his other novels, but it didn’t fit in with the theme of the book. This was definitely a good book, just not full of adventure and excitement.
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