Book Review
Nov. 29th, 2011 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariMajor Pettigrew's Last Stand
by Helen Simonson
This novel has all the charm and wit of Jane Austen, but is set firmly in the modern day, in the small Sussex village of Edgecomb-St.-Mary. Major Pettigrew is an aging widower who strikes up a friendship with Mrs. Ali, a widowed local shopkeeper of Pakistani descent. At the same time, Pettigrew must grapple with the death of his brother, the family complications that engenders, and the crass materialism and social climbing of his son Roger. This allows Simonson to take a sharp and often funny look at the pursuit of, propriety, respectability, and success.
As his feelings for Mrs. Ali deepen, their relationship causes the narrow views and undercurrent of snobbery and racism among the villagers the come more out in the open. Simonson does an excellent job of portraying the ugliness of the subtler forms of prejudice - the exclusion, the insidious othering, the condescension, and the rudeness.
The slow-brewing romance between Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali is sweet and understated, until a series of crises both small and large force Pettigrew to decide what's really important to him and how to act on that. Despite a straying a bit towards melodrama, the climax of the novel was both exciting and satisfying.
This novel was an absolute pleasure to read, and reminded me a lot of the very best classic novels. Simonson creates memorable characters, finds the humor and the beauty in ordinary life, creates a moving romance, and explores the conflicts between honor and tradition and the dilemmas of how to follow both passions and principles with a sure and deft hand.
by Helen Simonson
This novel has all the charm and wit of Jane Austen, but is set firmly in the modern day, in the small Sussex village of Edgecomb-St.-Mary. Major Pettigrew is an aging widower who strikes up a friendship with Mrs. Ali, a widowed local shopkeeper of Pakistani descent. At the same time, Pettigrew must grapple with the death of his brother, the family complications that engenders, and the crass materialism and social climbing of his son Roger. This allows Simonson to take a sharp and often funny look at the pursuit of, propriety, respectability, and success.
As his feelings for Mrs. Ali deepen, their relationship causes the narrow views and undercurrent of snobbery and racism among the villagers the come more out in the open. Simonson does an excellent job of portraying the ugliness of the subtler forms of prejudice - the exclusion, the insidious othering, the condescension, and the rudeness.
The slow-brewing romance between Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali is sweet and understated, until a series of crises both small and large force Pettigrew to decide what's really important to him and how to act on that. Despite a straying a bit towards melodrama, the climax of the novel was both exciting and satisfying.
This novel was an absolute pleasure to read, and reminded me a lot of the very best classic novels. Simonson creates memorable characters, finds the humor and the beauty in ordinary life, creates a moving romance, and explores the conflicts between honor and tradition and the dilemmas of how to follow both passions and principles with a sure and deft hand.
