Author: Helen Simonson
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is a novel by Helen Simonson blending satire, romance, and social commentary. In the latter, the author focuses on class, tradition, and multiculturalism in the UK. I don’t normally like books that have elements of romance, but this is a notable exception because romance is packed in a really well-written social commentary, and the writing focuses on the character and their personal development.
Therefore, we learn about life in a small village in England through the eyes of Major Pettigrew, and we also learn a lot about his worldview, then follow how that worldview changes after an interaction with Jasmine Ali, a Pakistani local shop owner who approaches him and offers help when he faints following the news of his brother’s passing. Jasmine, or Mrs. Ali as she is called for the most part of the book, also looks after Major, and he surprisingly discovers how similar they are and that Mrs. Ali has manners and worldviews that he actually finds acceptable, but rare in a changing England.
Major Pettigrew’s relationship with Mrs. Ali becomes central to the novel, but this is not just romance; the novel also focuses on social norms in the village, class relations, and unspoken prejudices about race, class, and cultural belonging. At the same time, we also learn about Major’s strained relationship with his son, who works in a finance center in London but appears to be shallow and overly focused on networking and appearances that Major does not approve of. He is also engaged to an American fashion PR professional, whom Major initially does not like, and she gets presented through a stereotypical portrayal of Americans as blunt and abrasive, but later in the book, he warms up to her.
I particularly enjoyed the part on class relations and gossip because this felt real, along with social expectations that are imposed on people, both by the Major and the villagers. There is also a dispute over a pair of family heirlooms, hunting rifles that run through Major’s family; thus, the book also talks about heritage and status.
The novel is compelling because it uses humor to explain British manners, and then underneath that narrative tackles issues such as the so-called polite society masking prejudice and resisting change; colonial legacy (Major’s military past conflicts with the presence of immigrant families who have different views of colonialism), and a romance in late life, which is rare in romance books that mainly focus on younger couples.
From a sociological perspective, the village society portrayed in the novel is structured by cultural capital because membership of the village elite is not defined by wealth but by familiarity with local practice and taste. This would include knowledge of social etiquette and ‘proper’ manners, participation in traditional activities such as shooting, familiarity with British history and imperial narratives, and mastery of an understated conservative style. What particularly surprises the Major, who possesses this cultural capital, is that Mrs. Ali also has it because she also reads a lot and likes similar literature; however, while the Major’s background is that of an upper-middle-class British, rooted in colonial military culture, her background is more cosmopolitan and shaped by education, migration, and her father’s academic career. However, because of her background, her capital is not recognized as legitimate in the village, which functions as a field, so despite her sophistication, such as reading habits, manners, and moral character, she is not automatically accepted because she lacks markers of Englishness. This presents what Bourdieu would call misrecognition because Mrs. Ali has cultural competence, but she is not recognized as legitimate.
In the Bourdieusian sense, the village also embodies symbolic boundaries because there are subtle mechanisms such as gossip framed as a concern, social invitations withheld, there are assumptions about who fits in, and there are references to tradition and community harmony. The question the novel tackles is who is recognized as legitimate within a social field, and thus the title of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is also symbolic because he has to decide whether loyalty to tradition should be more important than loyalty to justice and personal integrity.
I enjoyed this book despite the romance element, and could not let it go. The book is very different from stuff I normally read, so it was a welcome change. The part of the class was particularly compelling because an insufficient number of British novels tackle social class and the question of who belongs, and under which circumstances.
Thank you for reading!