Crumbs! Mme Ramotswe has a rival! (Baking Cakes in Kigali - Gaile Parkin)

Member Name: fizzywizzy

Product:	Baking Cakes in Kigali - Gaile Parkin
Date:	23/08/09 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gentle humour, interesting characters, enlightening

Disadvantages: Not Rwandan enough, poor plot

Allow me to introduce Angel Tungaraza. She's a "traditionally built", middle-aged Tanzanian lady who has recently moved to Rwanda with her husband Pius, a university lecturer, and their grandchildren, the five orphaned children of her late son and daughter. Her son was shot during a robbery; her daughter evidently died as a result of some kind of brain haemorrhage that Angel says was caused by stress when her husband left her and their children for another woman. Just when they should be thinking about taking things easy, Pius and Angel have effectively become parents again. The seven of them and Titi, the young woman who lives with them and helps with the children, live in a small apartment in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and from that apartment, Angel runs her one-woman cake making business. Angel's cakes are the talk of Kigali; there are inventive, unique and so delicious that everyone knows there is only one person to go to when you need a special cake. But to know what kind of cake to make Angel needs to know something of the person for whom the cake is intended and through her clients we learn about the impact of the brutal civil war in Rwanda. The capable and dependable Angel - she describes herself "a very professional somebody" - listens without prejudice and dispenses sound advice when needed. As she gets to understand the people around her she finds it easier to accept her own circumstances and admit the truth about her own family.


It's difficult to ignore the very obvious comparisons between Angel Tungaraza and Alexander McCall Smith's sensible Botswanan lady detective Precious Ramotswe. It's not just the characters of the two women that are similar. The fairly inconsequential storyline (one might say lack of storyline) is generated in similar ways, allowing the women to meet a series of minor characters whose individual stories form separate but loosely connected chapters. With Angel it's the customers who come to order cakes that form the basis for each chapter and while we quickly learn a great deal about Angel, the other characters are developed only enough to tell a brief tale.

That the character of Angel is the most developed is understandable, she is the chief character after all, but the repetition does make her quite irritating at times. There is frequent mention of the voluminous wrap-around skirts Angel wears, her profuse sweating (would you really want a cake from a woman that perspires this much?) and the various items Angel deposits in and removes from her "brassiere". I'm sure this is done to really establish Angel's character and to give the impression that the reader knows her well but it does become quite wearing, I felt that it might also have been done to pave the way for more novels to feature the kind-hearted baker-cum-agony aunt.

While I have read and enjoyed several of McCall Smith's "Number One Ladies Detective Agency" series, I was interested in reading "Baking Cakes in Kigali" not for the connections but for the difference - the location. Post-genocide Rwanda is perhaps an unusual choice for a backdrop but it does through up lots of interesting storylines. In this novel we meet displaced persons - people who managed to flee Rwanda to find safety in neighbouring countries who have now come back to start again in Rwanda, aid volunteers, nurses who work in AIDS education, women who witnessed the brutal murder of a husband or son - sometimes a whole family, foreign judges working in the genocide trials and the wife of an American who everyone is sure is working for the CIA.

Unfortunately I didn't feel that any of this captured what is essentially "Rwandan" and much of this could have been said about any of several African countries. Nevertheless, this aspect is interesting and reinforces the sad truth about much of Africa. I asked two friends about whether they thought the author had given a flavour of the real Rwanda - a Rwandan woman and my English friend who is her husband. They both said the likeness was superficial and that the author didn't really portray any of the Rwandan character.

Of course, as the novel features many characters that are not, in fact, Rwandan at all, this is partly to be expected. However, this was a disappointment for me. If the book is set in Rwanda I'd like to know something of that country foremost. On the other hand, the fact that Angel is not Rwandan is important to the story because she is effectively impartial. People open up to her because she is not Rwandan and her opinions are coloured by her experiences of the war.

In spite of those criticisms I did enjoy "Baking Cakes in Kigali". The writing is quite charming and Angel is an engaging character. I loved the descriptions of her marvellous cakes as well as the hearty meals she cooked for the family. I also loved the strong moral thread running through the book and I couldn't help smiling as Angel worked all kinds of philosophical and ethical questions through her head. Some might say this is a twee book but I think that would be unfair. The humour is gentle but there are some quite serious points being made, even if they could have been made more forcefully.
I do hope there won't be any more books; I can't see how the story can be continued and can only imagine that a follow up would continue this format with a string of cake-buying customers telling their own stories. It could become quite quickly stale.

I'd have thought fans of "The Number one Ladies Detective Agency" would enjoy this but as a stand alone work out of genre it's an enjoyable easy read, perfect for throwing in the suitcase.

361 pages (however, my paperback edition has fewer words per page than many paperback formats so this is deceptive)

Summary: Angel Tungaraza - cake maker, matchmaker, smile maker