Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

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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.

It's Christmas Day and it's already past eight thirty," said the Major. "You must get up and put on the turkey, Roger." When I hear "character-driven novel", I usually roll my eyes. I expect navel-gazing and lots of exploration of self, and it comes a bit too close to self-help for my tastes. But Simonson gets it absolutely right in Major Pettigrew. This book is filled with dry humor, social satire, and a message of acceptance. Major Pettigrew is a 68- year-old widower. When his brother dies suddenly, he is comforted by Mrs. Ali, a widow, and they become friends. Their friendship blossoms, then is almost derailed by an episode of cultural appropriation and prejudice. Through interactions with friends and family in this small English village, the author sheds light on intolerance in its many forms, such as race, class, sex, age, religion, and ethnicity. The author can turn a nice phrase. But, the Major excepted, the characters are terrible. I know so little about Mrs. Ali, which is a shame; she seemed like she must have been a hell of a lady.There were similar problems with the plot: There were several scenes where I thought, "Oh, BS. The author has no idea about this." A lot of the gun stuff, specifically, and people's behavior at a hunt, was simply not credible.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is a story of grieving, family, love and duty. It is charming, funny, honest story with a strong theme of cultural clash.

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A] beautiful little love story, which is told with skill and humor.”— The New York Times Book Review