Gifted writer takes interesting detour with ‘La’s Orchestra’

Yes, says Alexander McCall Smith, simple gestures by ordinary people can save the world, one day or one little village at a time.

Smith, of course, is the author of the best-selling and much-loved series The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, the 44 Scotland Street series, the Isabel Dalhousie series and the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series. Whether recounting the adventures of a "traditionally built" female detective in Botswana or the antics of the dwellers in an Edinburgh, Scotland, townhouse, Smith pokes gentle fun at the foibles of everyday folks going about their lives.

In "La’s Orchestra Saves the World," Smith opens the door on another world, that of a British village during World War II.

A young woman, La, moves to the village after she experiences a personal catastrophe. When war breaks out, she feels called upon, as does every Briton, to "do her bit" in the war effort. She turns her front lawn into a garden. She volunteers for war work and is assigned to help a farmer take care of his chickens. She starts a little amateur orchestra. She meets Feliks, a quiet, mysterious Polish refugee. Has love forsaken her? She wonders, and so do we.

"La’s Orchestra" is set against the perilous years of World War II. England had waited until almost too late to arm itself against Hitler’s advancing armies and after the Nazis overran France, it was not certain that Britain could avoid the same fate. Royal Air Force pilots fought desperate to-the-death dogfights against waves of Luftwaffe bombers targeting London and other cities. Britons huddled under blackout conditions every night.

"Keep Calm and Carry On." It’s a fad phrase right now, in this time of financial turmoil and world uncertainty. It’s on everything from rugs to posters to jewelry. It’s from World War II Britain, and it epitomizes the famous British fortitude of that era. They dug up lawns and planted gardens. They sent their children out of the cities into the countryside. They rationed. They died in air raid attacks, and they took in bombed-out neighbors.

In the pages of "La’s Orchestra," one feels the anxiety, the sadness, the war-weariness and, yes, the sheer grit of Britons during those fraught years. Smith usually finds gentle humor in the circumstances in which his characters manage to lodge themselves. I found this book to be sweet and sad, wistful, oddly unsettling — a different approach for a wonderfully gifted and entertaining writer. A pleasure to read, as all Smith’s books are, but not so easily forgotten.