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La's Orchestra Saves the World

by Alexander McCall Smith (Goodreads Author)

3.59 of 5 stars 3.59 · rating details · 3,107 ratings · 726 reviews

La Stone is a widow who, as the Nazi threat looms, assembles a ragtag orchestra in rural Suffolk in hopes of altering "the temper of the world." She falls for one of her recruits, a Polish pilot with a suspicious past. But patriotism trumps passion, leaving La to worry if her life will always be "a play in which I have no real part." In McCall-Smith's quintessentially Engl...more

Hardcover, 250 pages

Published November 1st 2008 by Polygon

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian

The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard

World War II England

9th out of 57 books — 38 voters

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Fiction for the Musically Inclined

15th out of 24 books — 5 voters

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May 05, 2011 ruzmarì rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a sweet novel, and a frustrating one. McCall Smith (of the Ladies Detective Agency fame) here offers a stand-alone volume about the cultural act of healing from war, the redemptive power of music, and the trials of patient love. The La of the title (short for Lavender) is plucky, respectful and brave - also independently wealthy after the death of her philandering husband, and as it happens displaced from London. She takes up farm work in a rural community to help with England's WWII eff...more This is a sweet novel, and a frustrating one. McCall Smith (of the Ladies Detective Agency fame) here offers a stand-alone volume about the cultural act of healing from war, the redemptive power of music, and the trials of patient love. The La of the title (short for Lavender) is plucky, respectful and brave - also independently wealthy after the death of her philandering husband, and as it happens displaced from London. She takes up farm work in a rural community to help with England's WWII efforts, and soon meets a quirky and diverse cast of characters, whom she brings together in a community orchestra that gathers in a time outside of war-time, rehearses, and performs a victory concert when Germany surrenders. Again thanks to her deceased philanderer, La has the capacity of material generosity, and she gives to her adopted community in very real ways. This is, so far, all standard McCall Smith stuff - perhaps a little more grounded in history than the Ladies Detective series.

Frustrating in the novel is its tendency to gloss over both relationship details and, sadly and ironically, details of the music that purportedly saves the world. La conducts and the orchestra swells and soars, but there is no actual music in the writing about music. Hardly even any details about the composers and works the orchestra rehearses and performs ! And granted, this may seem a fairly specific (ie a musician's) quibble with an otherwise enjoyable novel, but I think it stands as a symptom of something larger in the novel as a whole, namely that tendency toward glossiness without depth, as if the novel, written in haste, had to satisfy a certain number of feel-good requirements that left little time or room for depth of detail. (Another irony about the novel is that it actually does contain a fair amount of details - about La's wartime job working with chickens. Just not about the title subject.)

It's worth a read if you've got a spare few hours, and it is just feel-good-y enough to leave a good taste in the mouth at the end. Still, since I dearly love Mma Ramotswe from McCall Smith's famous series, I was disappointed to find so much surface and so little genuine feeling in this novel, especially since it promised so much to this orchestra conductor's daughter.(less)

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Apr 27, 2013 Afaf Finan added it

Thank you Dianne!

How appropriate ~ I am wearing my butterfly ear rings as I receive this and send it on!
Thank you much!
Edie

Dianne Belbeisi wrote:

Subject: Re: To My Sister Butterflies
From: imanaldaoud@hotmail.com
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2013 23:31:20 +0300
To: tamimioh@yahoo.com; sdbelbeisi@hotmail.com; dalalaldaoud@hotmail.com; ghadakhatib2@hotmail.com; nashatmahayri@gmail.com; rb566@cam.ac.uk; nance_daoud@hotmail.com; f.lattouf@hotmail.com; minoaqleh@hotmail.com; samirakayali@hotmail.com

Sent from my iP...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars

my real rating would be somewhere between 'OK' and 'Liked it.' I found this book because I wanted to read more about the Home Front during WWII. La, the main character, is one of those passive people who allows life to happen. She marries -- because her husband pursues her. She eventually falls into romantic love with him -- only to be abandoned by him for another woman. She moves to the country from London -- because her inlaws offer their country home to her. It is only when the war begins and...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Gwen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Every February, in honor of Valentine's Day, my local library has a "blind date with a book" feature whereby books are wrapped in gift paper and topped with a chocolate. Patrons are encouraged to checkout a book without knowing what is inside, thereby taking out something which they might ordinarily not select. This past February, I had a "blind date" with "La's Orchestra Saves the World".

As it so happens, I would not have chosen this book on my own. I had previously read one of McCall Smith's...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: absolute-favorite-authors, own-it, historical-fiction

Wow...quite a unique story, in my opinion! La was not a particularly forceful person, but she participated in life to the fullest extent possible, given her personality and circumstances. I love the way McCall Smith tells La's story and virtually no details of what I presume to be the happiest time of her life, with Feliks. I particularly appreciate the emphasis on the reality of making a difference, although in very small ways, as the overall majority of us are limited in societal power. I do b...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Sheila rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cultural, current_issues, historical, relationships, romance

London, Cambridge and Suffolk all play their part in this historical novel by Alexander McCall Smith. Set in the time around World War II, it builds a convincing picture of war-torn Britain where human kindness wars with the darkness of suspicion and fear. Real characters fill the village streets, farm the fields, and feed the airmen stationed nearby. But if foreigners are dropping bombs, can a Polish pilot with a German accent really be worthy of trust?

Betrayed by her husband, Lavender—called L...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Carol Moore rated it 3 of 5 stars

World War II, reminded me a bit of the Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society book.) ***1/2

Author's words:

“I wrote La’s Orchestra Saves the World because I wanted to pay tribute to rather brave people. I wanted to say something about how ordinary people managed to get by during the Second World War. Most of them would not have regarded themselves as heroes and heroines, but they were. La (short for Lavender) was one of these. She worked on the land, helping a farmer with his chickens, and also s...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Helen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, humour, historical-fiction

This is very different from other of McCall Smith's books. It is set in Suffolk just as the second war is about to begin in earnest. La (Lavender) has been abandoned by her husband and her in-laws, who are shocked by their son's behaviour, have given her the use of a house they own on the edge of a very small town. The book tells how she settles into the area, takes on a "war-work" job looking after a farmer's chickens and eventually starts a small orchestra. This is partly to provide an activit...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Lisa added it

This was a lovely story about a woman who goes along nicely with what comes her way in life, agrees to marry someone just because he asked, and found herself falling in love with him, then he dumps her and runs off with another woman, so she goes off to the countryside to start a new life for herself...the 2nd world war happens and she volunteers herself for voluntary duties, working on the surrounding farms, she misses London, but doesn't go back there because of the dangers of war. She sets up...more

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Mar 10, 2011 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoy Alexander McCall Smith's writing and his value system. This isn't one of the books from his series, and it parallels his own love of music. La (short for Lavender) is betrayed, then widowed, then moves to the country and finds peace in her garden, until the outbreak of World War II. Her contributions to winning the war are caring for chickens and, more importantly, keeping the semblance of peace and the normal rhythms of life moving forward by forming an orchestra. It combines tow...more

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Mar 10, 2011 Carol rated it 2 of 5 stars

I am a fan of Alexander McCall Smith’s books and usually love his simple story structure that allows for profound commentary on everyday life. I felt that this particular book fell short of the mark. The book is set at the outbreak of World War II in Great Britain. LA, an abbreviation for Lavender, is living in the country recovering from the betrayal of her philandering husband and his subsequent accidental death. She is the type of person who has a tendency to let life pass her by, being more...more

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Nov 01, 2010 Michele rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-of-2010

Decided to try something besides Ladies #1. I enjoyed the style and writing of this book very much. It has a feel of Potato Peel Society but not quite the happy ending you want or expect. I loved how you got an idea of what is like for people before the war started. I thought it gave some interesting history.
pg55 War is madness let loose.
on page 59 She plants a garden for the future, not knowing what it hold, and and says, "I shall not starve. Whatever happens in the world, I shall not starve h...more

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Oct 18, 2010 Edward rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Edward by: book group

Shelves: fiction

Apparently, readers familiar with the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series are somewhat disappointed by this book. Not having read the series, I wasn't disappointed at all and was even delighted. That might seem odd considering the story takes place in England in the years leading up to and through WWII.

Lavender is a rather ordinary heroine. She maintains her poise and perseveres despite setbacks and unexpected events. I think that's the whole point. She embodies her country's spirit as she mak...more

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Jul 17, 2010 Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-general

A pleasant story, something I might have found in a Good Housekeeping or Redbook Magazine years ago when those magazines still printed novella-sized fiction.

McCall-Smith's writing is sparse, pleasant, and easy to read. He is at his best with his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series where his characters, the locale, and the story line make the best possible use of his style.

The story is about a young English woman, recently widowed by an unfaithful husband, at the beginning of WWII. When readin...more

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May 24, 2010 Carolyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

La’s Orchestra Saves the World centers on an ordinary Englishwoman in the years just prior to and during WWll. It is a quiet, graceful book, describing the small day to day activities of ordinary people trying to keep some semblance of order in their lives while dealing with the abruptly changing times.

The main character, La (short for Lavender) Stone, grew up on a hilltop in Surrey, and left to attend Cambridge where she expected to “be taught how to think.” Instead, she married immediately upo...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: war, light-and-fun

Alexander McCall Smith has a penchant for “cute” titles, some quite funny(At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances). However, something about a character named La, short for Lavender, struck me as too twee even for my low standards. I should have followed my instinct and skipped this, but I hoped for shades of Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society, or maybe “Paradise Road,” or at the very least some insight into the Women’s Land Army.

In brief, the story is about a woman who moves to a farm...more Alexander McCall Smith has a penchant for “cute” titles, some quite funny(At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances). However, something about a character named La, short for Lavender, struck me as too twee even for my low standards. I should have followed my instinct and skipped this, but I hoped for shades of Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society, or maybe “Paradise Road,” or at the very least some insight into the Women’s Land Army.

In brief, the story is about a woman who moves to a farm to wait out World War II and starts an orchestra that meets once a month or so. The book’s failing can be summarized as briefly: None of the plotlines, let alone the themes, is developed. There’s a Polish refugee who might not actually be Polish (spies? moral dilemmas? star-crossed lovers?!?) but nothing thrilling happens. There’s La’s farm work that breezes past chickens and planting potatoes for about five paragraphs total. Then there’s some thief-in-the-neighborhood intrigue that I can’t remember the resolution to because it was dull and underdeveloped, and finally there is the orchestra, the one that “saves the world,” which practices only a few times and has two performances at which nothing happens.

Books that can’t help but be dull are one thing; who would expect drama from Bird Watching for Beginners or How to Be Your Own Accountant? But dull books that should be intriguing are the worst kind of bait-and-switch. This could have been about conflicts of personal and national loyalties, the transcending power of music, and ordinary people coping with extraordinary circumstances. The big mystery is how you could take these elements and turn out a tedious story. It also — worse still — is philosophically unmoored. For example, La wails about the destruction of war, but then thinks, “Hmm, those Nazis are so terrible that they’re actually evil! We must stop evil.” Later she laments, “Why would we develop more weapons? Who would ever go to war again? Let’s revive the old orchestra and have a concert for peace!” Imagine this oversimplification stretched out for three hundred pages.
(less)

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Mar 15, 2010 Joan added it · review of another edition

Not every battle of World War II was fought by soldiers, on the seas and oceans, on the beaches, on the landing fields. And if there were no combatants involved, some were still indeed fought in the fields and the streets, as ordinary English men and women went about their lives, riding out the storm of war, doing the small things that needed doing.*

This novel, a departure from McCall Smith's usual serial work, is about one such Englishwoman, Lavender Stone, in one small Suffolk village.

Lavender...more Not every battle of World War II was fought by soldiers, on the seas and oceans, on the beaches, on the landing fields. And if there were no combatants involved, some were still indeed fought in the fields and the streets, as ordinary English men and women went about their lives, riding out the storm of war, doing the small things that needed doing.*

This novel, a departure from McCall Smith's usual serial work, is about one such Englishwoman, Lavender Stone, in one small Suffolk village.

Lavender Stone did not go to Cambridge to find a husband, yet she did. While at Girton College, she met and was pursued by Richard Stone. Marrying him, she fell into an ordinary sort of marriage, gradually coming to love him as she had believed he loved her, only to find the idyll shattered when he absconds to live with another woman in France. La retreats to a cottage owned by her in-laws to lick her wounds, but is shortly called to go to France where her husband has been fatally injured in a freak accident. On the way home, her ship stops and the captain informs the passengers that England is at war.

Back in Suffolk, La begins to rebuild her life under the cloud of war. She must learn that life here is different from life in London, that people are different, that customs are different. As we have come to expect from McCall Smith, we are introduced to a variety of interesting folks, from Henry Madder, the arthritic farmer for whom La begins to do a bit of work, to Feliks Dabrowski, the Polish soldier and refugee in whom she takes an interest and who may not be what he seems, to her neighbors the Aggs and their odd son.

Gradually, La settles in. Then a chance word in a conversation with an Air Force officer gives her an idea, an idea that "came suddenly, as perfectly formed ideas sometimes do. She would start an orchestra." And so she does. Villagers and soldiers come together to play music, unifying the community in the face of a crisis that goes on, day after day, until they play a victory concert.

That concert is echoed years later, in the days of the Cuban missile crisis, when La brings the orchestra back together for a concert for peace, a time when, as I well remember, we all thought we were going to die in a nuclear holocaust. She chose "Bach for order; Mozart for healing", good choices, I think.

I don't believe that one can fully appreciate or understand this book if one does not take into consideration the great love that Alexander McCall Smith, a musician himself, has for music**, and his belief in its transformative power. It is music that brings La into her own, after a life that has been mostly reactive, a life that, as she herself says, has been that of a "handmaiden". Music, and the bringing together of others for the purpose of making music, helps her move forward into life and love.

* apologies to Winston for the paraphrasing!

** Surely the fact that he named a character "Leontine Price" is not accidental! (less)

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Feb 04, 2010 Gill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ams, music, other-times

I got this book on a whim, because my sister is Lala (her nickname for herself) and she plays in an orchestra, so I thought I might give it to her. I've enjoyed the Isobel Dalhousie books, the Prof. Igelfeld trilogy and love Mma Ramotswe above all. I've also read many of his short stories and children's books.
After I finished it (in one and a half days, and reading far too late into the night) I read the reviews and was surprised by them.

This book impressed me more than any other AMS book I ha...more

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Jan 31, 2010 salinthebay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One Goodreads crit wrote," (AMS)Reads kind of like a Virginia Woolf novel, except that there is a hopefulness and the characters are less fatally fragile." Right on!

His female character, La, short for Lavender, hence the garden theme, is kind, tough and introspective. La is not unlike his other female characters in the No 1 Ladies' Detective series, and The Isabel Dalhousie series, my personal favorite. His understanding of the famale psyche ceases to amaze me...pehaps his work in bioethics has...more

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Jan 23, 2010 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

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...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, fiction, favorites

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 matt...more

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Dec 27, 2009 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the first of my Christmas gift books -- so I started it yesterday (Boxing Day!) It is by one of my favourite writers -- but very different from any of his other series.

It is set before and during the second world war, mainly in Suffolk, England. The main character, La (short for Lavender) has an unsuccesful marriage (husband leaves her for a French woman, then has an accident and dies.) She moves to Suffolk to get away from memories and to re-build her life. She becomes part of the war...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Rusty rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I quite like the calm, cozy reads that this author provides me. Even this one about La (for Lavender) Ferguson Stone and her life from living on the hill before college until age 50. La is not really as interested in marriage as she is in learning. She loves music, too.

When she meets Richard he falls in love and wants to marry after a few months. Did she love him? Probably not but she marries him anyway. He doesn't want her to work because he has plenty of money and, after all, she will have to...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Brenda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: pass-on, risi-reading-group

The blurb says:
With a failed marriage behind her, La (short for Lavender) moves to the Suffolk countryside on the eve of the Second World War to nurse her broken heart. Lonely and at a loss, she decides to bring the villagers and men from the local airbase together by forming an amateur orchestra; one of the muscian recruits is Feliks, a handsome but enigmatic Polish refugee. A friendship begins to blossom between the two, and La finds her feelings stirring back to life.

I found this an easy to...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Again, McCall Smith writes a story about a female main character and makes it believable. The story begins just before WWII in England, and ends in the 1960's. It is really about the inhabitants of a small village and how they coped with the war in small ways, gardening, war work, listening to the wireless, and of course, La's orchestra. It is about missing opportunities, and then missing them again, and then finally realizing you have nothing to lose and taking the opportunity when it comes you...more

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Jan 30, 2010 Deb rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-books-read

La (short for Lavender)Stone retreats from pre-WWII London to the country after her husband abandons her for another woman. She finds it quiet, too quiet, in fact, at first and she struggles to find a purpose in life. As WWII breaks out, La discovers a purpose by working a "Land girl", assisting a local farmer with his hens, and by assembling a village orchestra. This orchestra becomes a symbol for the village of their determination to "keep on, keeping on" during the long war years.

I haven't de...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Jennifer H rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is awesome. To start off, I really enjoy WWII books. It's really something that we shouldn't forget. Her joining the peace walk (toward the end of the book) and seeing the younger generation just didn't understand the atrocities that occurred. No one could have reasoned with Hitler. It's absurd to really think so. And evil person will do whatever it takes to maintain power and continue with the evilness. If the person had been reasonable, they wouldn't have started down the evil path i...more This book is awesome. To start off, I really enjoy WWII books. It's really something that we shouldn't forget. Her joining the peace walk (toward the end of the book) and seeing the younger generation just didn't understand the atrocities that occurred. No one could have reasoned with Hitler. It's absurd to really think so. And evil person will do whatever it takes to maintain power and continue with the evilness. If the person had been reasonable, they wouldn't have started down the evil path in the first place! And look, what Hitler did was evil, no doubt about it; it was on a completely different level than some of the current dictators.

La's path through the war and beyond, her thinking, was easily to related to and understandable. I very much enjoyed the idea of the orchestra, and the difference that it made in the people's lives. Music has such great power - to bring people together, to create memories or feelings, or just to let go and forget about troubles for a little while.

Being the same age as her in the main part of the book, I understand her struggle to be single, happy, and not too lonely. I especially appreciated her relationship with Feliks. "And so I watched him from afar, as some women have to do, they wait upon the man they love, discretely, and in fear of rejection, like somebody worshiping a god whom they can't quite see." I also understood the feeling of all around big things happening, and being outside of those events, standing in the wings. I think everyone has that "what impact am I even making on life" thought at some time or another.

I found the minor reflections on God interesting. I can imagine that at that time people had their beliefs severely tested. Funny that, being a WWII book, there's not a focus on the atrocities, but on the localized impact of this portion of England. It was realistic.

I enjoyed the comparison between city and county people, and about people developing characteristics of a place. "People are different in different places." People do tend to carry on the work of their fathers. You can even see that, though, when people aren't in one place for generations.

Her thinking about the King's extension of his symbol even onto the buttons was true. My mom would never (barely ever?) let us buy clothes that was free advertising for some brand. "A free man - a really free man - could not carry the symbol of another on his clothing."(less)

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Sep 13, 2011 Donna LaValley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a good book, but is miss-titled (imho). The main character "La" helps create a country orchestra during WWII, but the orchestra and how it helped the war effort, or even how it helped more than 2 people through the hardships, is not the focus of the book. It's about the main character and her experiences before, during, and after the war: her loneliness, fears, personal disappointments, and experiences. She wasn't greatly deprived, being wealthy. The charm comes from the village and the...more

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Jul 23, 2010 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

As an Alexander McCall Smith fan, I picked up the audio edition of this book to listen to during my commute. It makes for excellent listening. You really don't want to listen to a depressing story on the way to work. Overall, I give the story 3 stars with an extra star for McCall Smith's style and voice. The story has a quicker pace than The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency so you don't get lost in the characters' meditations. But it has the same light touch conveying a wonderful message of hope.

He...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Afshin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Is life simple and linear? Or as modern literature tried to convince us it’s complicated and unapproachable. Are we lost in maze of life, with different conflicted features in our mind or not? After I finished “La’s Orchestra saves the world” I struggled with these kinds of questions for a while. I could not believe that you can simplified life as it reflected in the story and still believing that the story is “an evocation of wartorn England, with its palpable mood of defiance” as some claimed....more

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About Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the international phenomenon The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie Series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, and the 44 Scotland Street series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served on many national and international bodies concerned with bioethics. He was born in what...more

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Books by Alexander McCall Smith

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1)

Tears of the Giraffe (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #2)

Morality for Beautiful Girls (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #3)

The Kalahari Typing School for Men (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #4)

The Full Cupboard of Life (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #5)

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“We can't afford to be without God," Feliks continued. "Even if he doesn't exist, we have to hold on to him. Because if we don't, then how are we to convince ourselves that we have to go on with this fight? If you take God out of it, then right and justice become small, human things. And weak things, too.” — 8 people liked it

“If you take God out of it, then right and justice become small, human things. And weak things too.” — 7 people liked it

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