"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson

My Childless Collective Nomo Book Club co-host and I are always looking for potential books the group could read and discuss together. So when she told me she was currently reading "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson and thought it might fit the bill, I decided that I would check it out too.   

I vaguely remember seeing "Major Pettigrew" on the shelves and hearing good things about it when it was first published, back in 2010.  As the story begins, 68-year-old retired  Major Ernest Pettigrew -- the very picture of a proper English gentleman -- has just learned of the death of his younger brother, Bertie.  (His wife, Nancy, died several years ago.)  Reeling from shock, he answers a knock on the door: it's Mrs. Jasmina Ali, a widow who runs the local convenience store, and she's collecting on behalf of the paper boy, who is sick. She quickly recognizes the Major's distress, makes him a cup of tea and stays to chat and offer her sympathy. 

This marks the beginning of a seemingly unlikely friendship:  the two come from very different cultures and different social classes, but they share a common bond of grief and loneliness, as well as a love of books. 

Of course, not everyone approves of this budding relationship -- including many of the villagers (who have been promoting one of their own single ladies as a perfect match for the eligible widower). It includes the Major's adult son, Roger, who works as a London financier, but has decided to rent a nearby cottage for weekends with his American girlfriend.  And it includes Mrs. Ali's young adult nephew, Abdul Wahid, a devout Muslim, who lives with her and helps her run the store since the death of her husband. There are a number of subplots interwoven throughout the book, including Abdul Wahid's estranged girlfriend and her young son (whom Mrs. Ali adores), a prized set of valuable antique guns that once belonged to the Major's father, the golf club's annual dinner and dance, and a proposed development of luxury homes on the estate just outside the village.  

Beneath the wry British humour and gentle social satire, the book deals with some serious themes, including grief and loss, family conflicts, clashes between generations, city versus country living, aging, classism, colonialism and racism. The writing is great, the characters are vividly drawn, and (bonus!) Mrs. Ali is that rare creature -- a warm and sympathetic CNBC character -- an older one, too!  

On the minus side of the balance sheet:  several of the characters, most prominently the emotionally repressed Major Pettigrew, seem solidly stuck in a rapidly fading past. I had to check a couple of times to remind myself that the book really IS set in present-day England! (My co-host thought the same thing!) Maybe I'm naive, but I cannot imagine anyone in Britain -- even 20 years ago -- would have thought the colonial Indian theme (including costumes) of the golf club dinner & dance was appropriate! -- or that the relationship between the Major and Mrs. Ali would have caused such a stir among the villagers. And the climactic scene of the book was a little melodramatic. 

For those reasons, I can't give this book a top rating. After some internal debate: 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 3 on Goodreads. 

(Apparently, the book was optioned for a film adaptation that, to date, has never been made. Too bad!  I think it would make a great little movie, or a mini-series on PBS Masterpiece.)  

This was Book #35 read to date in 2024 (and Book #3 finished in December), bringing me to 78%  of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 8 (!) books behind schedule to meet my goal. :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books."