Reviews for Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

The average rating for Major Pettigrew's Last Stand based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-29 00:00:00 Yvonne Mayo If Masterpiece Theatre doesn't make this book into a movie starring Derek Jacobi, it will be a crime. There has not been so perfectly English a read in its deadpan humor in a very long time. Meet Major Pettigrew: widower, retired army officer, and pillar of the community in his small English town. He is set in his ways: tea with acquaintances, shooting parties with friends, reticence at all times. But the Major's life starts falling into chaos when he falls in love, and with a most unsuitable candidate - Mrs. Ali, a charming Pakistani widow with a shared passion for Kipling. But while the local community might be willing to see the Major marry a proper tea-drinking Englishwoman, they are certainly not prepared to see him waltz off in the arms of a woman in a sari. The delight of this book lies in its humor, and its even-handedness. The writer pokes equal fun at the young and the old - the Major might be set in his ways, but his bumptious social-climbing young son is far worse. It's also refreshing to see the "East vs. West" stereotype turned on its head: the Pakistani families in this book are not simply portrayed as saintly picked-upon underdogs who can teach their English counterparts all about life, but as a fully rounded culture in their own right. The author observes with humor and tact that in any culture the young dismiss the old, the old roll their eyes at the young, and local traditions are sometimes beautiful and sometimes ridiculous wherever you happen to come from. All one can do in the face of it is laugh - and cheer that the Major and Mrs. Ali might waltz off to a happy ending despite the opposition of their families. And how lovely to see a passionate romance between a Romeo of sixty-eight and a Juliet of fifty-eight.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-08-09 00:00:00 Keith R Brown Whoever read my Olive Kitteridge rant, probably knows that I am not much into reading books about old people. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, however, proves that any book about any subject matter or any type of characters can become a great experience if written well. This novel is, essentially, a love story between a 68-year old retired Major Ernest Pettigrew and a 58-year old Pakistani shop keeper Mrs. Ali, brought together by their loneliness and love of literature. Yes, it doesn't sound very exciting, and yet it is an absolutely charming story. Set in modern England, it encompasses many facets of British life - clashes and frictions between generations, social classes, religions, and cultures - all portrayed from the POV of an aging, conservative and very proper man who, because of his late love, finds himself compelled to face many issues he preferred to avoid or overlook in the past. English-Pakistani relationships take a center stage in this novel and are written in a particularly tactful and insightful way, without sugar coating the difficult colonial past of both countries and prejudices that exist up to this day. The writing style deserves special mention. Not only the novel is never boring, but it is written with an Austen-like elegant humor which I don't come across very often in contemporary literature. I highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in a cozy read set in a tiny English village populated by colorful tea-drinking characters.