And in spite of his feelings about Americans: the “assault of American vowels and the flash of impossible white teeth,” their propensity for “publicly humiliating one another” and their poor sartorial habits. She's a woman that lives by the values closely aligned to her culture, yet Major and her grow fond of one another in an organic way, worthy of exploring. Drawn together by a love of books and the loss of their partners, they are soon forced to contend with irate relatives and gossiping villagers.

Ali’s nephew is a devout Muslim and even more overtly disapproving of the friendship than the major’s neighbors.

The obsession with the pair of guns was overdone, and was what finally made me stop reading the book. I’m tired of wearing my dinner suit and having people ask me what I’m supposed to be,” he complains. Peter Altschuler does a marvelous job of supplying different voices and accents (American and British), and switches between them seamlessly.

I enjoyed reading it, but some of it seemed a little schematic and designed as a slight provocation to those who haven’t yet cottoned on to what it means to be woke. A kick in the gut, butterflies in the stomach, that feeling of floating on air, knowing that the next moment could bring you crashing painfully to the waiting sidewalk. I liked the way one character described his feelings for a woman, -- "In her presence, I'm lost to her. British village life novels have long been a cherished enterprise, much adored by the public since the age of the divine Miss Austen and continuing with E. Including Major Pettigrew -- no small thing, when the retired military toff stereotype is so strong.Highly recommended although do bear in mind that my English sentimentality will have influenced my score greatly. The story amiably ambles through the brother’s funeral, the son’s attempts to capitalise on the rather special guns, a shoot with a fading Duke and a predatory American property developer, and a disastrous themed Christmas dance at the golf club. The only thing that knocked a star off this review for me was a slightly hackish plot device at the end, but it's such a minor thing it really only counts for half a star.

I believe wholeheartedly that one of the reasons I gave this novel 5 stars was because of Altschuler’s brilliance.the Major asks, upon seeing the black brush-shaped fake tree that constitutes their idea of clever holiday décor) and has pretentious tastes in everything, including cuisine. But village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as the permanent foreigner. The upper echelons of the village, led by the ladies of the various village committees, compensated for the rudeness of the lower by developing a widely advertised respect for Mr and Mrs Ali. To complicate this sense of loss, the brothers held separately a pair of valuable guns inherited from their father.

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. Plans are, or at least were, afoot for a television production of the novel, but at present, it listed in IMDB. Her characterizations are far more disjointed than the plot, which has its flaws but at worst they’re jarring, not heinous. Such touching delusion must underlie many otherwise inexplicable marriages, he thought, and liked Christopher( the Vicar) all the better for loving his wife.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is one of the most uplifting and rewarding literary romances I’ve read in years. I highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in a cozy read set in a tiny English village populated by colorful tea-drinking characters. The book has a couple of broadly vulgar American characters, and they turn up in the Major’s village in what he regards as disturbingly rapid succession.