Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

This book is a love story between a retired Major (a widower) and a Pakistani shopkeeper (a widow). It takes place in a small town in England.

General rating: 3.5 out of 4 if you can overlook a few objectionable words and a premarital sexual relationship (with no bedroom scenes included).

1. Is it plausible? Yes, except for a bit of Mrs. Ali's behavior towards the end of the book.

2. Is it thought provoking? It is, actually. The major's valuing his Churchill guns over family and friends gives one pause. Then there's also the ideas of selfishness, death, racism, grieving, family, loyalty, hypocrisy, the Pakistani culture (and plenty of other themes too) to mull over.

3. Is it engaging? Yes.

4. Is it uplifting? Well, it ends happily and our main characters make some emotional discoveries about themselves and the others that they care about. BUT! I was very disappointed that the Major and his love consummated their relationship outside of marriage. That really compromised this whole book for me.

Language: all acceptable until 3 obscenities in the last 15 pages of the book.
Sex: no descriptions, but one of the relationships that works itself out in this book is one that has produced an illegitimate child--the double standard by many Eastern Indian cultures about sex before marriage--okay for men, unacceptable for women--is part of the story. AND our two main characters make love before they are married. This bothered me because both characters were so very moral in so many other areas of their life and I was so disappointed that they took the all too common exception to sex. AND I had trouble believing that a 58-year-old Pakistani widow would invite her "boyfriend"--whom she's never even KISSED--to make love to her. It just seemed out of character and I was so bothered by it. No details, no descriptions, no titillation... just the disappointing invitation and the jubilant morning after. Sigh. Are there any modern clean books in the world anywhere (besides the "Christian" ones)??????????

My recommendation: I really liked this book. I was so disappointed by the premarital sex thing, though, that I have trouble remembering how much I was liking it up to then! There was a lot to think about in the book. I liked the Major a lot and enjoyed watching his struggles and triumphs. I didn't ever feel I got to know Mrs. Ali very well--her character was not as completely developed as his. I thought quite a bit about the ever-present disconnect between the generations when parents leave their children to the mercy of the "philosophies of the world". The Major and his son exemplified this kind of relationship. The Major and his wife had tried to pass on their ideals to Roger without giving him any framework ("framework"=religion and its principles) with which to build upon. Therefore they raised a highly motivated, hard-working, completely selfish and amoral boy. Like so many other good people do. On the other hand, the Pakistani family exemplified good religion gone bad, with unbalanced and irrational actions taken all in the name of religion. Sigh. Interesting contrast. Hm. I'm getting sidetracked. This book was a good one. Can I recommend it? Kind of.