I used to teach reading and phonics for about thirty some years. I guess that process left me interminably trying to sound out any new word that I encounter. That's wonderful unless it is one of the characters in a novel whose name defies decoding. For instance I recently read Elizabeth George's newest mystery in the Inspector Lynley series. The story revolves around a large family of characters whose last name is Fairclough. Okay, so how would YOU pronounce it? There are 70 or more words in the English language that end in "ough". Think about it. There is : rough, though, thought, through, bough, etc, etc. So which pronunciation should I use at the end of Fairclough? And let me tell you that name appeared on every page of this very long novel. I just couldn't give it up. I kept on trying to pronounce it correctly as I read.
So this weekend I read Alexander McCall Smith's novel "The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection."
This is the 13th in the "#1 Ladies Detective Agency" series. The setting of the stories is Gaborone, Botswana in Africa. I can actually pronounce Gaborone and Botswana. No problem. But let me introduce you to some of the characters. First and foremost: Mma Precious Ramotswe who is married to Rra J.L.B. Matekoni. Her assistant is Mma Grace Makutsi who is married to Rra Phuti Radiphuti. AAaaargh! Help me please! And these characters NEVER speak to one another using a first name. They ALWAYS use full names. On every page my simple little phonics-driven mind continues to try and correctly pronounce the names. I did figure out that Mma must mean Ms. And Rra is Mr. (I think.)
In spite of all this, I do enjoy Mr Smith's books. Do you think because he is a "Smith" that he is fascinated with hard-to-pronounce names? Even so, the detective agency books are so charming. I have really enjoyed them even more since I watched the HBO series of these stories. Now, as I read, I have a very real picture of each character, how they dress, and how the scene must look. I can see Gaborone, and the countryside of Botswana.
Another item in this book was very interesting to me. When Mma Ramotswe decided to open her detective agency (all the way back in book one of the series), she found a book at the book store that she used as a guide for being a good detective. It is a book titled "The Principles of Private Detection" written by Clovis Andersen. Both Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi (I hope you are going crazy trying to pronounce) have committed most of the text to memory, as the manual has guided them through the events of thirteen novels.
You won't believe it, but in this No. 13, they at last get to meet their hero, Mr. Andersen, who appears in Gaborone visiting a friend.
And, guess what? Mr. Andersen tells them that he is from (hold on to your hat!) Muncie, Indiana. He says that he is a detective in Muncie, Indiana, a midwestern town where glass jars are made. Not only that, but he graduated from a university in Bloomington, Indiana. I don't know why he couldn't have gone to Ball State. The funniest development is that at the end of this book, Mr Andersen admits that he is now retired, and was a terrible detective. Not only that, but his manual was self published, and he only sold about 30 copies. The rest were home in his garage. And this manual has guided the two detectives through many successful adventures in all thirteen books.
I was very interested in reading Alexander McCall Smith's biographical information. He was born in Zimbabwe, graduated from the University of Edinburgh, taught law at the University of Botswana, and now lives in Scotland. I wonder how he decided to include Muncie and Indiana into this story.
No comments:
Post a Comment