I think I would have to classify Major Pettigrew's Last Stand as one of my favorite novels ever. I had decided to listen to audiobooks in my car as I was making frequent trips to see my mother in Massachusetts and I was very fortunate to pick this one. It is the incredibly heart-warming story of an old-fashioned, set-in-his-ways widower, a retired major, Ernest Pettigrew, living in a little English Village called Edgecombe St. Mary. When he receives word that his only brother has died, the Major is shaken, but he ends up embarrassed when Pakistani neighbor and shop-owner Mrs. Ali catches him cleaning his house wearing his wife's dressing gown over his clothes (it makes him feel closer to her), when she stops over with some comforting tea and biscuits.
Watching the blossoming relationship between a traditional upper-class Englishman and the sweet, caring Jasmina Ali is a wonderful experience. Their friendship forms over a mutual love of the works of Kipling and the shared experience of widowhood and as the relationship evolves the very proper major begins to question some of the accepted societal norms that have been a part of his life. Every single moment of this novel was a joy to read!
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