Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Picture the quintessential English country village, complete with uppercrust society and town folks mixing it up (a bit) in contemporary times.  That's the setting for this witty, yet at times profound, love story by Helen Simonson.

Our "hero" is Major Ernest Pettigrew: retired, living quietly, and still mourning the loss of his wife after six years.  I loved his wry, opinionated one-liners as he interacts with the village "ladies" as they bustle about running the social lives of everyone in their rather tightly held circle of friends and acquaintances.  Think of Major Pettigrew as a male version of Maggie Smith as Lady Grantham of Downton Abbey, dropping those fabulous, yet very civilized, remarks that put everyone quite clearly in their proper places.

Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali, a Pakistani shopkeeper in the village, develop an unexpected friendship based on their shared love of Kipling as well as their sense of being cut adrift after both losing their much-loved spouses.  . Unfortunately, Major Pettigrew's social circle does NOT approve of their blossoming friendship and the Major has to decide whether or not to pursue his growing affection for Mrs. Ali.

It's really a charming love-story with lots of subplots thrown in that were also engaging and well-connected to the main attraction of the Major and his pursuit of happiness in the face of societal pressure and tradition.

The Major's son, living what appears to be life in the fast lane in London has some deep-seated issues with the somewhat demanding, uptight parenting he experienced as a child, and he and the Major are still as odds in many ways:  at one point the Major thinks "it was frustratingly common that children were no sooner gone from the nest and established in their own homes, in Roger's case a gleaming black-and-brass decorated penthouse in a high-rise that blighted the Thames near Putney, than they began to infantilize their own parents and wish them dead, or at least in assisted living.  It was all very Greek..."  The power-struggle between them is is a running thread throughout the story.

Mrs. Ali has her own challenges: the day-to-day prejudices of the villagers not the least of them.  Totally acceptable as a shopkeeper, but as the Major's love interest? Not so much.  Additionally, her husband's family is mounting a full-court press to have her sign the shop over to them and take her "rightful" place as a stay-at-home, much honored Auntie, which Mrs. Ali is not at all eager to do.

Things come to head at the annual Dance and the Major gets caught up in the "expected behavior" of his social class.  Will love prevail? Will the Major's sense of decorum outweigh his deep seated sense of honor and his dawning realization that his friendship with Mrs. Ali is so much more than that?

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand has been a very popular Book Club choice and I can see why: daily life in a tradition-laden English village replete with the out-of-sync and somewhat questionable village Reverend, the gossip of busy bee ladies, and their entrenched biases lead to plenty to talk about.

It doesn't hurt that the author makes falling in love at sixty rather than sixteen sound pretty darn sweet!