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POSTED: 05 APRIL 2010 Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand Allen & Unwin | 320pp paperback | $32.99 A whimsical portrayal of old and new attitudes and morals in modern-day England, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is a kind-hearted take on some of the challenges faced in a changing society. Helen Simonson casts the Major as the quintessential old school gentleman in the midst of small minded, grasping and selfish children and friends. He is somewhat hampered early on by his own prejudices, humorously acknowledged and gradually overcome. His friendship with Mrs Ali, local shopkeeper, blossoms through their shared love of literature and their generous natures, despite the sceptical and sometimes cruel responses of those around them on both sides of the cultural divide. Ironically, the Major was born in Lahore and Mrs Ali in Cambridge, but that doesn’t stop the locals from treating him as the accepted insider and her as the permanent foreigner. A chronic victim of social indecision, Major Pettigrew finally acts on his true feelings and lunges at a new future, rescuing Mrs Ali from the restrictive traditional expectations of her family and recklessly committing himself to a happy future. In the final lines, Mrs Ali looks at those around them and says: “They are a motley and ragged bunch but they are what is left when all the shallow pretence is burned away.” "Will it do?" asks the Major. "Will it be enough to sustain the future?" "It is more than enough for me," she says. "My heart is quite full." Happily, as the book’s cover proclaims — sometimes love does conquer all. |
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