La’s Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith
It’s no secret that I love Alexander McCall Smith. I think his No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series is pretty darn near close to perfection.
In La’s Orchestra Saves the World he writes with the same simple, pure style that he does in his other books and it works so well. I always feel as if life slows down and I can, figuratively speaking, smell the roses when I read one of his novels. I love the feeling of peace and calm I get and how he always finds the gentleness and kindness in people, no matter their nationality or circumstances.
Despite living in heart-breaking times and having a life that isn’t filled with perfect scenarios, Lavender (La) crafts a corner out of her small world in Suffolk and lives through the horror of WWII doing what she can to help. I found it fascinating that, in reading through the book, the little things she was doing seemed .. somewhat small and inconsequential to me, the reader. That’s not to say I didn’t appreciate them, they were just things that seemed normal and things I would hope I would have done if I had lived during that time period. After putting the book down and thinking about it for a bit though, those small, seemingly inconsequential things start to grow and I started to realize how much the story of La meant. I always think that my small actions won’t make that much of a difference and sometimes get discouraged – but every little thing does help. And I think that’s what this story is all about.
Over the last several months I’ve read quite a few WWII books dealing with the Polish and I know this ranks up there as one I’ll read again.
I’d recommend this book to anyone, just as I have with Smith’s other books. It doesn’t take long to read and it’s worth every minute invested.
