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sasmort's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted something easy and fun to read. This did fit the bill although I didn’t enjoy it as much as I normally enjoy books by this author. I thought the plot was a bit thin. I didn’t really find the main character that believable. I can’t believe somebody would really have absolutely no friends in the way she does. It is quite a fun read though and it passed the time during lockdown.
asienerbrown's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
athoffman18's review against another edition
3.0
A wonderful book, telling the story of a woman's life as she meets with a broken heart, moving to someplace new, new friendships and war.
bak8382's review against another edition
4.0
I discovered this book while doing research on read-alikes for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for a class. I've never read anything by McCall Smith before, but I've heard so many good things I decided to try this one.
La leaves London on the eve of WWII after her husband abruptly leaves her. She settles in a cottage in Suffolk where she begins to rebuild a life for herself. Along the way she begins an orchestra, befriends neighbors, and rediscovers love.
I always find it interesting when authors write from the perspective of the opposite sex, and McCall Smith has been doing this successfully for years with his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. He succeeds here for the most part as well. The one plot point that was a little odd was when La tells an officer that she suspects her love interest is a German. Not only did she have flimsy reasons, but also I just can't see a woman doing that to someone she loves. What was even more absurd is that she was actually right about him! The subplot with the neighbor's son was a bit weak as well and was resolved too neatly.
I was surprised to find that the orchestra feels like an after thought in the story, and it was really organized by someone else, La even admits it! I was also disappointed that it took so many years for her to finally be happy, so I definitely could have done without the mention in the foreshadowing prologue that she died somewhat young.
Yet even with these weaknesses I enjoyed the story as I found La's life and her interactions with other characters interesting, and I enjoyed both the time period and the setting.
La leaves London on the eve of WWII after her husband abruptly leaves her. She settles in a cottage in Suffolk where she begins to rebuild a life for herself. Along the way she begins an orchestra, befriends neighbors, and rediscovers love.
I always find it interesting when authors write from the perspective of the opposite sex, and McCall Smith has been doing this successfully for years with his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. He succeeds here for the most part as well. The one plot point that was a little odd was when La tells an officer that she suspects her love interest is a German. Not only did she have flimsy reasons, but also I just can't see a woman doing that to someone she loves. What was even more absurd is that she was actually right about him! The subplot with the neighbor's son was a bit weak as well and was resolved too neatly.
I was surprised to find that the orchestra feels like an after thought in the story, and it was really organized by someone else, La even admits it! I was also disappointed that it took so many years for her to finally be happy, so I definitely could have done without the mention in the foreshadowing prologue that she died somewhat young.
Yet even with these weaknesses I enjoyed the story as I found La's life and her interactions with other characters interesting, and I enjoyed both the time period and the setting.
annebennett1957's review against another edition
4.0
The ending was very sweet and looked toward the future. Parts in the middle seemed a bit milquetoast. Here we are in the midst of the worst war ever and it was possible to not be aware of it, since it was mentioned so seldom. Mysteries were presented and then mildly wrapped up. I did like La as a character but didn't ever bond mentally with anyone else. But the ending...I could live inside an ending like that for a long time.
liliales's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. For now, my favorite Alexander McCall Smith book. I read through it this evening with fervence. I will go to sleep thinking about it.
I realized I felt like I was watching a movie. Even though I was subvocalizing much of the time, it was still very quick to read. This is a book for a quiet reflective type of person, I think. I've read several series by this author, though none of his most famous one, and though I have enjoyed them all so far, I liked how particularly sensory and sensitive this was, like really peering into someone's life. I would probably give it 4.5 stars, that is to say, 9 out of 10, if that were possible. It wasn't perfect, just perfectly enjoyable.
I realized I felt like I was watching a movie. Even though I was subvocalizing much of the time, it was still very quick to read. This is a book for a quiet reflective type of person, I think. I've read several series by this author, though none of his most famous one, and though I have enjoyed them all so far, I liked how particularly sensory and sensitive this was, like really peering into someone's life. I would probably give it 4.5 stars, that is to say, 9 out of 10, if that were possible. It wasn't perfect, just perfectly enjoyable.
shanviolinlove's review against another edition
3.0
Charming, but wanting novel. In several ways, it bears similarities to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (in that both novels feature an urban literary woman relocating from London to rural nowhere to find or to found a miraculous artsy/cultural community, be it a village orchestra or a book club, and that both novels follow a WWII romance with a woman falling for a foreigner; in Guernsey, these are two different women, and in La's Orchestra, it is one and the same). My main beef with La's Orchestra Saves the World, however, is that it is not necessarily about an orchestra, much less one saving the world. My guess: there are many WWII romances. What distinguishes this one from the others is the (marginal, I would argue) detail about a village orchestra corralled together (and not even by La) to boost morale. Hence, a title!
This is chiefly a love story, and an unsatisfying one at that. The orchestra doesn't factor into the protagonist's motivation for carrying on during the thrusts of the second World War. La (short for "Lavender") is a recently widowed Cambridge graduate who had just relocated to her in-laws' country cottage after her husband left her. The events that follow her move to Suffolk include his untimely death; her budding friendships with the locals; and the war, which compels her to tend to the hens of an arthritic farmer as part of the war effort. It also sets up the "romance" of the novel when good-looking displaced Polish would-be doctoral student Feliks is assigned to the same farm to help with the hardier labor.
Reasons why I kept returning to the novel after I completed it: McCall Smith delivers a beautiful mise-en-scene. You smell the farmland, see the different flora, know where each piece of furniture is orchestrated with his diligent attention to detail. The structure of the novel is interesting, as the first chapter of the novel actually functions as the last chapter as well. Characters are lovable.
Areas where I found this novel frustrating: it is a tad simplistic. As mentioned above, the novel goes into great depth describing the set-up of each house and room, yet skips over meatier areas. The backstory of La and her late husband Richard feel rushed, as if choking down the courtship and marriage to position the characters where they need to be for when the story actually begins: Richard dead and La in Suffolk, tending a hen house on a farm. The brutal betrayal primes the reader's sympathies for La, which may be necessary, as she sometimes comes across as a one-dimensional character. The characters in Suffolk add some charm with their speech, idiosyncrasies, and behavior. They take action and sometimes misbehave in interesting ways. Yet it takes entire chapters before the eponymous character does something interesting--propose an orchestra--and even then, it is a minor character, Tim Honey, who does most of the work gathering players. The rehearsals are so sparse and so under-detailed that the titular feature of the novel becomes a mere backdrop to the real action (or, at least, the one given the most attention: the relationship between La and Feliks).
Except that the relationship is one-sided. You are supposed to believe that La falls in love with Feliks, even though the only attraction (and the protagonist herself admits this) is based on his looks. McCall Smith mentions that she comes to enjoy his company when he helps her with her garden, but these conversations are omitted. You are simply told that they share these moments. The details that are given about their conversations supply the basis for her ultimate suspicion in his background--far from romantic. The most intimate scene that they share (with the reader) is when La presents him with a lavish flute. His emotion is entirely registered with the gift, not the giver, to whom he insists on making a payment. La thinks to herself that she would give him anything, but again, we don't know where these potent feelings are coming from. As the narration confesses, she doesn't have a real reason for feeling this way towards him, apart from his good looks. Considering that she had been so heartlessly dumped by her good-looking husband, it is hard to believe she would not be nursing wounds from such a rupture. To be fair, she acknowledges this and, suspecting that her feelings are unrequited, tries to divorce herself of romantic feelings towards Feliks. But we're not given enough reasons to understand why she has these romantic feelings towards him in the first place. Other than offering to help her with her garden--and this is a stiff gesture of payment towards what was meant to be a gift--we really don't see him do anything affectionate or even likable towards La. He gruffly accepts a dinner invitation, shows up 45 minutes late, and leaves immediately after it is finished. We don't see any details about him that would be endearing--hobbies, interests, other idiosyncrasies. The reader may feel allied to him when he is falsely accused of theft by the arthritic farmer, but La's feelings for him far predate this incident. In fact, La even admits that her strong feelings for him predated her actually meeting him--feeling sympathetically protective over him, she cleans out his cottage before his arrival. Hardly anything substantial is added to their relationship after he arrives, and when he leaves Suffolk, she confesses to a friend that it is probably because of Feliks that she never sought a partner. But this makes no sense, as she kept her feelings distant, thus likening them more to a crush--one that lasts years. What is it about Feliks that warrants such loyal affection? The reader is given no satisfying reason.
Also hard to believe is that, after La denounces Feliks as a possible German spy, leading to his interrogation and relocation, their very next encounter (years later) is a warm one. I can believe that there was forgiveness--he could have empathized with her position, given his slip-ups and reticence around her as well as his confusing background--but warmth? Her faulty denouncement could have led to his execution! Why not hold at least some reservation around her, as he had no problem doing when they were together? Why not underscore the gravity of her action? (A la Atonement, another WWII novel whose main character launches a false accusation toward another character.) To keep a hairy situation as uncomplicated as possible, the character Feliks merely dismisses the betrayal in one sentence and moves on. The reader infers that this is because, deep down, he loves her. But if we the reader are meant to believe that La's feelings were not unrequited, we are simply taking the author at his word. There is zero chemistry between these characters. The narration seems to acknowledge this with the constant reminders that Feliks is reserved, shy, old-fashioned, polite--as if to excuse the glaring lack of sexual tension. But with pivotal scenes sparsely described or skipped altogether that could have otherwise alluded ever so covertly to an attraction, it is hard to believe that the romance could have even been one-sided, let alone tw0-.
I wish I had seen more of this orchestra come into play. The denouement goes far beyond the end of WWII, covering the exclusion of Polish soldiers from national veneration, the Cuban missile crisis, the not-so-subtle moral finger pointing to the necessity for all of us to do our good in the world, if just at a local level, and plant our gardens. I want to see more interplay with the musicians (we are given a couple paragraphs for the first rehearsal and then the fact that Feliks later joins). If this novel is really about La's orchestra saving the world, then I want to see it being saved. I want to hear the chatter of the musicians excited about the orchestra, the villagers priming for the concerts. I want to see people carrying themselves with courage against the onslaught of the German attacks. I want to hear La singing the music they're rehearsing while she's tending to her potatoes. About every action she takes with her orchestra is linked somehow to Feliks; even the purchasing of the music is immediately followed by the purchasing of his flute. La is so emotionally detached from her orchestra, reluctant to conduct it and wanting to quit it several times, only for Tim Honey to insist on its importance. (And on that note, it's one thing for amateur musician Tim Honey to presume that conducting is easy, that La just needs to pick an instrument line in the score and conduct it; it is another thing for this strategy to actually work. Considering that this is a novel about orchestras, McCall Smith needed to do some homework in this department and give La some reason for her ability in conducting--even at an amateur level--to explain how she could seamlessly pull it off. As her character also innocently presumes that conducting is merely keeping a beat--to be fair, in performances, this is so, but the behind-the-scenes is much more involved--it would have been interesting to see her struggle and grow and learn in this endeavor as well.) But we need to be shown that importance, not simply told. For a character who professes to love music as much as she does and find healing powers in Mozart and Bach, we really don't see her thinking about or listening to music all that much in the novel. The reader gets far more insight on her war effort tending to chickens than conducting an orchestra. It's also unclear why, given that the orchestra disbanded after WWII and only re-gathered for a peace concert decades later, it is still being continued after her death (not spoiler, as it is mentioned in the first chapter). Far from being a habitual practice, why is it still carried out? There are a lot of questions intentionally or unintentionally left unanswered. The first chapter, for instance, reveals that two grown brothers lived with La until they were pre-teens, but she was still alive when they moved away. Yet there is no reason given as to why the move. They heard about her death when they were late teenagers--what's to account for this time lapse? If she indeed played such "a big part" in their lives as they claimed, these questions deserve some answers. The reader intuits the ways she played a big role in their lives, but these are vaguely hinted at, if at all.
I think this is a charming summer read that poses good efforts to show a humble marginal side of the grand theater of WWII, but I think it could have easily been 100 pages longer to supply these very necessary details that the otherwise rich narration for some reason omitted.
This is chiefly a love story, and an unsatisfying one at that. The orchestra doesn't factor into the protagonist's motivation for carrying on during the thrusts of the second World War. La (short for "Lavender") is a recently widowed Cambridge graduate who had just relocated to her in-laws' country cottage after her husband left her. The events that follow her move to Suffolk include his untimely death; her budding friendships with the locals; and the war, which compels her to tend to the hens of an arthritic farmer as part of the war effort. It also sets up the "romance" of the novel when good-looking displaced Polish would-be doctoral student Feliks is assigned to the same farm to help with the hardier labor.
Reasons why I kept returning to the novel after I completed it: McCall Smith delivers a beautiful mise-en-scene. You smell the farmland, see the different flora, know where each piece of furniture is orchestrated with his diligent attention to detail. The structure of the novel is interesting, as the first chapter of the novel actually functions as the last chapter as well. Characters are lovable.
Areas where I found this novel frustrating: it is a tad simplistic. As mentioned above, the novel goes into great depth describing the set-up of each house and room, yet skips over meatier areas. The backstory of La and her late husband Richard feel rushed, as if choking down the courtship and marriage to position the characters where they need to be for when the story actually begins: Richard dead and La in Suffolk, tending a hen house on a farm. The brutal betrayal primes the reader's sympathies for La, which may be necessary, as she sometimes comes across as a one-dimensional character. The characters in Suffolk add some charm with their speech, idiosyncrasies, and behavior. They take action and sometimes misbehave in interesting ways. Yet it takes entire chapters before the eponymous character does something interesting--propose an orchestra--and even then, it is a minor character, Tim Honey, who does most of the work gathering players. The rehearsals are so sparse and so under-detailed that the titular feature of the novel becomes a mere backdrop to the real action (or, at least, the one given the most attention: the relationship between La and Feliks).
Except that the relationship is one-sided. You are supposed to believe that La falls in love with Feliks, even though the only attraction (and the protagonist herself admits this) is based on his looks. McCall Smith mentions that she comes to enjoy his company when he helps her with her garden, but these conversations are omitted. You are simply told that they share these moments. The details that are given about their conversations supply the basis for her ultimate suspicion in his background--far from romantic. The most intimate scene that they share (with the reader) is when La presents him with a lavish flute. His emotion is entirely registered with the gift, not the giver, to whom he insists on making a payment. La thinks to herself that she would give him anything, but again, we don't know where these potent feelings are coming from. As the narration confesses, she doesn't have a real reason for feeling this way towards him, apart from his good looks. Considering that she had been so heartlessly dumped by her good-looking husband, it is hard to believe she would not be nursing wounds from such a rupture. To be fair, she acknowledges this and, suspecting that her feelings are unrequited, tries to divorce herself of romantic feelings towards Feliks. But we're not given enough reasons to understand why she has these romantic feelings towards him in the first place. Other than offering to help her with her garden--and this is a stiff gesture of payment towards what was meant to be a gift--we really don't see him do anything affectionate or even likable towards La. He gruffly accepts a dinner invitation, shows up 45 minutes late, and leaves immediately after it is finished. We don't see any details about him that would be endearing--hobbies, interests, other idiosyncrasies. The reader may feel allied to him when he is falsely accused of theft by the arthritic farmer, but La's feelings for him far predate this incident. In fact, La even admits that her strong feelings for him predated her actually meeting him--feeling sympathetically protective over him, she cleans out his cottage before his arrival. Hardly anything substantial is added to their relationship after he arrives, and when he leaves Suffolk, she confesses to a friend that it is probably because of Feliks that she never sought a partner. But this makes no sense, as she kept her feelings distant, thus likening them more to a crush--one that lasts years. What is it about Feliks that warrants such loyal affection? The reader is given no satisfying reason.
Also hard to believe is that, after La denounces Feliks as a possible German spy, leading to his interrogation and relocation, their very next encounter (years later) is a warm one. I can believe that there was forgiveness--he could have empathized with her position, given his slip-ups and reticence around her as well as his confusing background--but warmth? Her faulty denouncement could have led to his execution! Why not hold at least some reservation around her, as he had no problem doing when they were together? Why not underscore the gravity of her action? (A la Atonement, another WWII novel whose main character launches a false accusation toward another character.) To keep a hairy situation as uncomplicated as possible, the character Feliks merely dismisses the betrayal in one sentence and moves on. The reader infers that this is because, deep down, he loves her. But if we the reader are meant to believe that La's feelings were not unrequited, we are simply taking the author at his word. There is zero chemistry between these characters. The narration seems to acknowledge this with the constant reminders that Feliks is reserved, shy, old-fashioned, polite--as if to excuse the glaring lack of sexual tension. But with pivotal scenes sparsely described or skipped altogether that could have otherwise alluded ever so covertly to an attraction, it is hard to believe that the romance could have even been one-sided, let alone tw0-.
I wish I had seen more of this orchestra come into play. The denouement goes far beyond the end of WWII, covering the exclusion of Polish soldiers from national veneration, the Cuban missile crisis, the not-so-subtle moral finger pointing to the necessity for all of us to do our good in the world, if just at a local level, and plant our gardens. I want to see more interplay with the musicians (we are given a couple paragraphs for the first rehearsal and then the fact that Feliks later joins). If this novel is really about La's orchestra saving the world, then I want to see it being saved. I want to hear the chatter of the musicians excited about the orchestra, the villagers priming for the concerts. I want to see people carrying themselves with courage against the onslaught of the German attacks. I want to hear La singing the music they're rehearsing while she's tending to her potatoes. About every action she takes with her orchestra is linked somehow to Feliks; even the purchasing of the music is immediately followed by the purchasing of his flute. La is so emotionally detached from her orchestra, reluctant to conduct it and wanting to quit it several times, only for Tim Honey to insist on its importance. (And on that note, it's one thing for amateur musician Tim Honey to presume that conducting is easy, that La just needs to pick an instrument line in the score and conduct it; it is another thing for this strategy to actually work. Considering that this is a novel about orchestras, McCall Smith needed to do some homework in this department and give La some reason for her ability in conducting--even at an amateur level--to explain how she could seamlessly pull it off. As her character also innocently presumes that conducting is merely keeping a beat--to be fair, in performances, this is so, but the behind-the-scenes is much more involved--it would have been interesting to see her struggle and grow and learn in this endeavor as well.) But we need to be shown that importance, not simply told. For a character who professes to love music as much as she does and find healing powers in Mozart and Bach, we really don't see her thinking about or listening to music all that much in the novel. The reader gets far more insight on her war effort tending to chickens than conducting an orchestra. It's also unclear why, given that the orchestra disbanded after WWII and only re-gathered for a peace concert decades later, it is still being continued after her death (not spoiler, as it is mentioned in the first chapter). Far from being a habitual practice, why is it still carried out? There are a lot of questions intentionally or unintentionally left unanswered. The first chapter, for instance, reveals that two grown brothers lived with La until they were pre-teens, but she was still alive when they moved away. Yet there is no reason given as to why the move. They heard about her death when they were late teenagers--what's to account for this time lapse? If she indeed played such "a big part" in their lives as they claimed, these questions deserve some answers. The reader intuits the ways she played a big role in their lives, but these are vaguely hinted at, if at all.
I think this is a charming summer read that poses good efforts to show a humble marginal side of the grand theater of WWII, but I think it could have easily been 100 pages longer to supply these very necessary details that the otherwise rich narration for some reason omitted.
smashburger's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
fiddleysticks's review against another edition
3.0
I thought this was a good book, but not the best book I've ever read. I decided to read it because I vaguely remember hearing it on Radio 4 a few years ago. It was nice, but I'm glad I got it from the library! I've not read much by this author, so I don't know how it compares to his other books though!
judyward's review against another edition
4.0
The theme of this book is that "each one of us should do something to make life better for somebody, to change the course of events, even if only in the most local sense." In 1939, Lavender--La to her friends--decides to leave London. Her life is in shambles. Her husband has left her for a woman that he has met in France and his parents offer La their house in Suffolk so that she can begin to rebuild her life. La initially finds living in the country to be too quiet and isolating and she intends to return to London when World War II breaks out and her friends advise her to stay put. Wanting to participate in the war effort, she is turned down for the Nurses Corps because she is almost thirty and so she becomes an unpaid member of the Women's Land Army. She also organizes a small orchestra that includes members from both her rural area and the nearby RAF base. She befriends a young Polish refugee who plays the flute in her orchestra and who plays a major role in the story. The members of the orchestra, because of wartime responsibilities and the lack of necessities such as gasoline, only meet once a month, but they plan to have a Christmas concert to help build morale and optimistically they plan a concert when the war is over. This is one of Alexander McCall Smith's most interesting books because it deals with issues ranging from the power of music both to feed the spirit and to link individuals together, to the power of one individual to change the world around them, to the resiliance of the human spirit. I was transported to La's world and I rooted her for during the entire book. Much of Alexander McCall Smith's view of the world shines through in this story.