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juice916's review against another edition
4.0
I think the word needed for this book is delightful. It's a perfect vacation read: interesting plot but won't make you cry, enjoyable characters, happy ending. It's been compared to Austen and I can see that. It reminds me of The Marriage Bureau for Rich People (another great vaca read).
anotherdayreading's review against another edition
3.0
I would have preferred to read this story from Mrs. Ali's perspective. I loved her character and wanted to learn so much more about her.
susiesbookbubble's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this book, not one to race through to find out the ending, more of a gentle stroll with a good friend. Loved the characters and the detail, I miss it already.
mike_morse's review against another edition
5.0
What an unexpectedly delightful book! Given the title, if it weren't for all those 5 star reviews on Amazon, I would not have read this book. Part love story, part humor and part British culture, it feels as if the author just created her colorful characters and let them loose in the British country side to do what they would. Along the way, they grapple with intolerance, disappointing children, urban sprawl, small-town gossip, religious fundamentalism, brash Americans, and all the good and bad of families.
At the center of the book is the Major, 68, decidedly British old-school and proud of it. The Major says things like, "Black tie is not a [dance] theme, it's the preferred attire of people of good breeding" and you still root for him, I suppose because he doesn't take himself seriously, or maybe it's the author who does not: "The whole event was unworthy of a golf club of pedigree, and the Major had considered writing a letter of protest. He had composed several serious but witty versions in his mind." Maybe it's just me, but I laughed out loud at this passage.
My Dad used to subscribe to Punch magazine, which, as a youngster, I found completely inexplicable since I could find absolutely nothing funny in it. Now I'm wondering.
What really endeared me to this book is the love story. It's got me thinking that maybe being 60 years old won't be so bad after all.
At the center of the book is the Major, 68, decidedly British old-school and proud of it. The Major says things like, "Black tie is not a [dance] theme, it's the preferred attire of people of good breeding" and you still root for him, I suppose because he doesn't take himself seriously, or maybe it's the author who does not: "The whole event was unworthy of a golf club of pedigree, and the Major had considered writing a letter of protest. He had composed several serious but witty versions in his mind." Maybe it's just me, but I laughed out loud at this passage.
My Dad used to subscribe to Punch magazine, which, as a youngster, I found completely inexplicable since I could find absolutely nothing funny in it. Now I'm wondering.
What really endeared me to this book is the love story. It's got me thinking that maybe being 60 years old won't be so bad after all.
sydyoungstories's review against another edition
5.0
Ah! The most romantic book I've read in a long time. And so well written. I can just picture the Major in a movie! Still smiling about this one.
jbyesh04's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely could not stop listening to this audiobook. I loved the wry, Dickens-esque humor, I loved the Major, the wacky cast of characters, and
Mrs. Ali. I thought it was such an adorable story, I plan to buy the book and read it again!
Mrs. Ali. I thought it was such an adorable story, I plan to buy the book and read it again!
korrick's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
This book is borderline insufferably self-congratulatory. It's also rather sweet at times and rides that fine line of acceptable diversity that I as a white person still, frustratingly, deem the norm on a subconscious level. So, did I like it? Yes; quite a bit in a number of places, but for such a sizable text, it could have obsessed far less over plot machinations and probed more than it did the postcolonialism era that is Britain After Empire. Then again, no work tackles such and cultivates such a feel good demeanor with this number and overall average of ratings on a site such as this, so I'm probably barking up the wrong tree. Still, this is a work that would go down far more smoothly for me as a film than as a book, so, while this wasn't an absolute favorite, I wouldn't mind a well crafted visual piece, especially the sort that glories in the aesthetics of landscape the the main character has a healthy appreciation for. All in all, a heartwarming type that pays enough lip service to the 21st century to get by and was an easy enough read to make up for its halfhearted stabs at national self-awareness and the broader scheme of things.
Much of the reading I've been doing in the last month of 2019 has been rather nonchalant to the point of self-indulgence, and it was with expectations of this continuing that I picked this up. I found myself not too enamored with the main character's foibles at the beginning, but I suppose that was part of the point, as tragedy and conflict (albeit on not too devastating a scale) and, most importantly, unexpected sources of happiness lead him to question, perhaps not everything that he's ever valued in his entire existence, but enough to ever so slightly stop being such an ethnocentric git (although he could well afford to branch out his reading tastes in Arabic writing a tad). It wasn't exactly a predictable plot, but it was rather unnecessarily busy, and it would, as I said previously, have benefited much from a more contemplative frame of view that more fully engaged with cultural differences without a background of corporate machinations overshadowing everything. I also would have preferred that the villain not be so predictable, but the overall work was both credible and heartwarming enough to rise sufficiently above the tropes it utilized, if not enough to propel it into stardom. So, I will be on the casual lookout for the film of this. Otherwise, I recommend this to those with an inclination to stiff upper lip Anglo types of romance and are fine with mere touches on brutal themes that the narrative doesn't follow through on.
I'm still not having much luck with turning my brain off and simply enjoying some of the more casual books on my shelves, but I've been having enough with other forms of media that I don't mind so much. The world still persists in the same old same old in terms of media representation, and this work, published within the last ten years, is an uneasy truce between the horrors of history and the systems of bigoted ostracization today. It also tries to be a sort of toned down romcom at points, and at parts, it didn't seem like it knew what it truly was all about. It pulled itself together by the end, but it had easy themes to do it with, so it would have had to really screw things up to fail in that regard. That can summarize the whole book, actually: easy goal, easy achievement, and no real room for bounds and soars. Ah well. If social machinations, understated compassion, and a sprinkle of diversity is your thing, you'll probably have fun with this. Or you could just wait for the movie like I'm doing.
This book is borderline insufferably self-congratulatory. It's also rather sweet at times and rides that fine line of acceptable diversity that I as a white person still, frustratingly, deem the norm on a subconscious level. So, did I like it? Yes; quite a bit in a number of places, but for such a sizable text, it could have obsessed far less over plot machinations and probed more than it did the postcolonialism era that is Britain After Empire. Then again, no work tackles such and cultivates such a feel good demeanor with this number and overall average of ratings on a site such as this, so I'm probably barking up the wrong tree. Still, this is a work that would go down far more smoothly for me as a film than as a book, so, while this wasn't an absolute favorite, I wouldn't mind a well crafted visual piece, especially the sort that glories in the aesthetics of landscape the the main character has a healthy appreciation for. All in all, a heartwarming type that pays enough lip service to the 21st century to get by and was an easy enough read to make up for its halfhearted stabs at national self-awareness and the broader scheme of things.
Much of the reading I've been doing in the last month of 2019 has been rather nonchalant to the point of self-indulgence, and it was with expectations of this continuing that I picked this up. I found myself not too enamored with the main character's foibles at the beginning, but I suppose that was part of the point, as tragedy and conflict (albeit on not too devastating a scale) and, most importantly, unexpected sources of happiness lead him to question, perhaps not everything that he's ever valued in his entire existence, but enough to ever so slightly stop being such an ethnocentric git (although he could well afford to branch out his reading tastes in Arabic writing a tad). It wasn't exactly a predictable plot, but it was rather unnecessarily busy, and it would, as I said previously, have benefited much from a more contemplative frame of view that more fully engaged with cultural differences without a background of corporate machinations overshadowing everything. I also would have preferred that the villain not be so predictable
Spoiler
(a witch? really? not to mention the whole knight in shining armor/mirroring of earlier white ancestor's prowess)I'm still not having much luck with turning my brain off and simply enjoying some of the more casual books on my shelves, but I've been having enough with other forms of media that I don't mind so much. The world still persists in the same old same old in terms of media representation, and this work, published within the last ten years, is an uneasy truce between the horrors of history and the systems of bigoted ostracization today. It also tries to be a sort of toned down romcom at points, and at parts, it didn't seem like it knew what it truly was all about. It pulled itself together by the end, but it had easy themes to do it with, so it would have had to really screw things up to fail in that regard. That can summarize the whole book, actually: easy goal, easy achievement, and no real room for bounds and soars. Ah well. If social machinations, understated compassion, and a sprinkle of diversity is your thing, you'll probably have fun with this. Or you could just wait for the movie like I'm doing.
mascha_blue's review against another edition
3.0
This is a pleasant story that plods along charmingly to its expected ending. Major Pettigrew is a retired British army officer and widower. He lives in a village where Mrs. Ali has a small grocery store. Both are kind and cultured, and their friendship deepens and develops in a satisfying way. The story simply had too many annoying stereotypes for me. The wonderful migrant; the shallow, consumerist son; the brash, clueless American and so forth. For a book that denounced bigotry, it painted its characters with a broad brush.
allieta's review against another edition
4.0
Very cute little read about tradition and change in a little English village. Major Pettigrew, rep. tradition, begins a friendship with Mrs. Ali, rep. change, and it goes from there. Charming and enjoyable story.