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Product Description
Review
"The real pleasure of this book derives… from its beautiful little love story, which is told with skill and humor… That love can overcome cultural barriers is no new theme, but it is presented here with great sensitivity and delicacy… As for happy endings, [the book] deserves all available prizes."
— Alexander McCall Smith, The New York Times Book Review
"Funny, barbed, delightfully winsome storytelling… As with the polished work of Alexander McCall Smith, there is never a dull moment but never a discordant note either… [the book's] main characters are especially well drawn, and Ms. Simonson makes them as admirable as they are entertaining… It's all about intelligence, heart, dignity and backbone. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand has them all."
— Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"When depicted by the right storyteller, the thrill of falling in love is funnier and sweeter at 60 than at 16… With her crisp wit and gentle insight, Simonson is still far from her golden years… but somehow in her first novel she already knows just what delicious disruption romance can introduce to a well-settled life."
— Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"The beauty of this engaging book is in the characters, particularly Mrs. Ali… Elegant, refined, and full of grace, she is also shockingly, adorably straightforward… a sweet story about the unexpected miracle of later-life love."
— Sara Nelson, O! Oprah Magazine
"Downright funny — that intelligent kind of funny that catches readers by surprise and makes them re-read a sentence several times to figure out how the author manages to make them laugh out loud so unexpectedly."
— The Globe and Mail
From the Hardcover edition.
— Alexander McCall Smith, The New York Times Book Review
"Funny, barbed, delightfully winsome storytelling… As with the polished work of Alexander McCall Smith, there is never a dull moment but never a discordant note either… [the book's] main characters are especially well drawn, and Ms. Simonson makes them as admirable as they are entertaining… It's all about intelligence, heart, dignity and backbone. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand has them all."
— Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"When depicted by the right storyteller, the thrill of falling in love is funnier and sweeter at 60 than at 16… With her crisp wit and gentle insight, Simonson is still far from her golden years… but somehow in her first novel she already knows just what delicious disruption romance can introduce to a well-settled life."
— Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"The beauty of this engaging book is in the characters, particularly Mrs. Ali… Elegant, refined, and full of grace, she is also shockingly, adorably straightforward… a sweet story about the unexpected miracle of later-life love."
— Sara Nelson, O! Oprah Magazine
"Downright funny — that intelligent kind of funny that catches readers by surprise and makes them re-read a sentence several times to figure out how the author manages to make them laugh out loud so unexpectedly."
— The Globe and Mail
From the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
Written with a delightfully dry sense of humour and the wisdom of a born storyteller, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand explores the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of family obligation and tradition.
When retired Major Pettigrew strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani village shopkeeper, he is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Brought together by a shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more. But although the Major was actually born in Lahore, and Mrs. Ali was born in Cambridge, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as a permanent foreigner. The Major has always taken special pride in the village, but will he be forced to choose between the place he calls home and a future with Mrs. Ali?
From the Hardcover edition.
When retired Major Pettigrew strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani village shopkeeper, he is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Brought together by a shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more. But although the Major was actually born in Lahore, and Mrs. Ali was born in Cambridge, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as a permanent foreigner. The Major has always taken special pride in the village, but will he be forced to choose between the place he calls home and a future with Mrs. Ali?
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it down...,
By
This review is from: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel (Hardcover)
Helen Simonson's first novel, "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand", is so well written that I could barely put it away last night to go to sleep. I wanted to find out what happens. Of course, we all know how the book will end, as with any comedy of manners, but the fun part is how the author gets us there. And Simonson gets us there quite nicely.Major Ernest Pettigrew, a widower at age 68 with one grown son, lives in the quintessential country English village, set on the sea, south of London. He has lived there since leaving the British Army, raising his son with his late wife, Nancy, and enjoying his life as a retired military man. He golfs and engages in other local activities and interacts with his fellow, English, villagers. He's lonely and without the resources to know exactly why or what he should do to help ease the loneliness. He falls into first friendship, later love, with a local widow of Pakistani origin. Actually, Mrs Ali was born in Cambridge but is part of a large English/Pakistani family which stretches from London to Lahore. Their "friendship" stirs up feelings among his fellow villagers who don't know what to make of the blossoming relationship. The inter-racial and inter-religious relationship of the two is disconcerting to both the English and Pakistanis who view it. Ill feelings among the villagers begin to show, while the Major and Mrs Ali are not accepted on the Pakistani side, either. Simonson is an excellent character writer. There's not a stereotype among her characters, though, in a lesser writer's hand, there probably would be. Her minor characters are as well-drawn as her major ones. All are shown with the nuances that make people seem "real". There are a few silly plot points, but not ridiculously so. Everything comes together in the end, as a good "comedy of manners" should. A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed Cathleen Schine's new book, "The Three Weismanns of Westport". I gave it four out of five stars because I felt that, somehow, it was a "forced story". Schine, setting out to mimic Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility", needed to make her plot and characters mirror those of Austen's. Which sort of put her in a bind. Simonson, here in "Major Pettigrew" does not give rise to the same expectations that Schine unfortunately did. HER "comedy of manners" is her own creation, not mimicking anyone else's writing. "Pettigrew" is an amazing study of the people and the times.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful story,
By Barbara J. Scott "book enthusiast" (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is an absolutely delightful story. Gentle humour combined with a charming love story make for a compelling read. The British class system is described in a matter of fact style, just all a part of village life at the time. I loved the strength both main characters showed, with all the frustrations of family relationships coming to the fore over the length of the book. I laughed out loud at some of the descriptions, particularly that of the upwardly mobile son trying to parent his father (as so many young adults of that age are inclined to do) while the father resists with all his might. All in all, one of the better books I have read in a long time.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
`She said that if I maintained my aversion to change I risked being reincarnated as a granite post.',
By J. Cameron-Smith "Expect the Unexpected" (ACT, Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel (Hardcover)
Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) is a widower leading a quiet, ordered life in the small English rural village of Edgecombe St Mary. News of his brother Bertie's unexpected death unsettles him, and when his doorbell rings, he answers it wearing his crimson clematis-covered housecoat. His caller, Mrs Ali from the village shop has called to collect the newspaper money. And thus begins a love story. No, it's not really love at first sight, although it seems that the Major's current experience of grief has altered his perception of Mrs Ali and perhaps he is `seeing' her for the first time.Mrs Ali, though, is not really part of the Major's neatly ordered world. For a start, she is of Pakistani heritage and even though they share a love of literature, and have both experienced losing their spouses, any relationship is frowned on by family and friends. While the developing relationship between Major Pettigrew and Mrs Ali is the major focus of the novel, there is plenty of action in the village of Edgecombe St Mary as duck shooting, development and the golf club's costume party vie for attention. Add the Major's obnoxious son, Roger, and various members of Mrs Ali's extended family into the mix and it's difficult to see how the Major and Mrs Ali will ever be able to overcome the obstacles before them. I enjoyed this novel. Some aspects were hilariously funny; others were quite a sad reminder of the barriers posed by ignorance and pretension. `The world is full of small ignorances.' Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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