The Full Cupboard of Life

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The Full Cupboard of Life is the fifth in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Gaborone, Botswana, and featuring the Motswana protagonist Precious Ramotswe.

[edit] Plot summary

Mma Ramotswe is now engaged to the mechanic Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, but he seems reluctant to set a wedding date, which makes her a little unhappy. She takes on an interesting investigation: Mma Holonga, a rich businesswoman, is seeking a husband, and asks Mma Ramotswe to check the men on her shortlist of four, to eliminate those who only want her for her money. She discovers that one of the suitors, Mr Bobologo, is on a moral crusade to reform street girls and wants Mma Holonga's money to help in his project, and another, a radio DJ, is vain and faithless. Meanwhile Mma Makutsi, Mma Ramotswe's assistant, moves to better rooms thanks to her promotion and extra income, but is mourning the loss of her brother, who died recently of AIDS.

Mma Potokwani, the formidable matron of the orphan farm, manoevures Mr J.L.B. Matekoni into agreeing to do a sponsored parachute jump to benefit the orphans. The gentle and timid mechanic is terrified at the prospect, and then further upset to find that a local garage has been carrying out fraudulent repairs to a fine old car owned by a butcher. Ashamed for his profession he offers to fix the car, but when he remonstrates with the other garage he is threatened by its aggressive owner.

Mma Ramotswe solves the parachute problem by persuading the garage apprentice Charlie to do it instead, convincing him that it will make him attractive to girls. Mma Potokwani solves the problem of the garage owner by arriving in the nick of time, scolding him, and threatening him with his mother. She also offers to sort out the matter of the wedding by arranging it all herself, and presenting it to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni as a fait accompli - Mma Ramotswe agrees, although Mma Makutsi is horrified.

Everyone assembles at the orphan farm to watch Charlie's parachute jump, which is successful. Mma Ramotswe meets Mma Holonga there and gives her a progress report, only to discover that she is already engaged to Mr Bobologo, and will hear no ill of her fiance. And then Mma Potokwani surprises everyone by announcing that she has made all the preparations for the wedding, and with the help of a priest who is present, Mma Ramotswe and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni are married there and then.

[edit] Awards and nominations

2003: Winner of the first ever Saga Award for Wit. ^[1]

[edit] Sources, references, external links, quotations

• "Precious little happenings": Review in The Guardian by Marcel Berlins, 19 July 2003.

• "Botswana's lady detective takes on suitors": Review in The San Francisco Chronicle by Clea Simon, 25 April 2004.

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