Reviews for La's Orchestra Saves the World

The average rating for La's Orchestra Saves the World based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-02-21 00:00:00 Bruce Odle This is a sweet novel, and a frustrating one. McCall Smith (of the Ladies Detective Agency fame) here offers a stand-alone volume about the cultural act of healing from war, the redemptive power of music, and the trials of patient love. The La of the title (short for Lavender) is plucky, respectful and brave - also independently wealthy after the death of her philandering husband, and as it happens displaced from London. She takes up farm work in a rural community to help with England's WWII efforts, and soon meets a quirky and diverse cast of characters, whom she brings together in a community orchestra that gathers in a time outside of war-time, rehearses, and performs a victory concert when Germany surrenders. Again thanks to her deceased philanderer, La has the capacity of material generosity, and she gives to her adopted community in very real ways. This is, so far, all standard McCall Smith stuff - perhaps a little more grounded in history than the Ladies Detective series. Frustrating in the novel is its tendency to gloss over both relationship details and, sadly and ironically, details of the music that purportedly saves the world. La conducts and the orchestra swells and soars, but there is no actual music in the writing about music. Hardly even any details about the composers and works the orchestra rehearses and performs ! And granted, this may seem a fairly specific (ie a musician's) quibble with an otherwise enjoyable novel, but I think it stands as a symptom of something larger in the novel as a whole, namely that tendency toward glossiness without depth, as if the novel, written in haste, had to satisfy a certain number of feel-good requirements that left little time or room for depth of detail. (Another irony about the novel is that it actually does contain a fair amount of details - about La's wartime job working with chickens. Just not about the title subject.) It's worth a read if you've got a spare few hours, and it is just feel-good-y enough to leave a good taste in the mouth at the end. Still, since I dearly love Mma Ramotswe from McCall Smith's famous series, I was disappointed to find so much surface and so little genuine feeling in this novel, especially since it promised so much to this orchestra conductor's daughter.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-10-18 00:00:00 Karen Gamblin Apparently, readers familiar with the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series are somewhat disappointed by this book. Not having read the series, I wasn't disappointed at all and was even delighted. That might seem odd considering the story takes place in England in the years leading up to and through WWII. Lavender is a rather ordinary heroine. She maintains her poise and perseveres despite setbacks and unexpected events. I think that's the whole point. She embodies her country's spirit as she makes her small contribution to the Women's Land Army by planting a garden at her country home and helping a local farmer for several hours every day. The little orchestra of townspeople and local servicemen she organizes is not so good but great for morale. To me, the strongest characters in the book are Tim, the energetic RAF officer who inspires La to create the orchestra, and Feliks, the injured Polish pilot that Tim finds work for. Their stories, along with the lesser ones, are the world in action around La. She works and does her duty but being a woman of her time and age (she's too old to enlist to study nursing) her options are limited. Her stoic determination and her stolid resilience over the years, endeared her to me. In fact, all the characters are so well written and believable they are likable. The whole book is well written. The style is easily understandable making for a quick read and a clear conclusion.