Major Fun

The Fab 5 spent some time with Major Pettigrew tonight, and we found him quite charming. Actually, the word "charming" was in just about every review of the book that I read before I actually read the book.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson, is a sweet novel, humorous and light in spite of the many human failures and frailties that come up in it. Major Pettigrew is a retired British officer who develops a relationship with a widowed shopkeeper of Pakistani descent. Their friendship reveals many of the prejudices of his traditional English village.

While his fellow villagers seem to have no trouble speaking their minds, the Major feels that the most important thing is politeness. He cringes at bad manners and addresses everyone as "my dear boy" or "my dear woman." He delivers some great lines, such as when one young man asks if he knows what it's like to be in love with an unsuitable woman. The dear Major says "My dear boy, is there really any other kind?"

The young men in the book are struggling to find how the women they love will fit into the plans they have made for themselves. Both the Major and the young Muslim man, Abdul Wahid, are committed, for better or for worse, to protecting their families' honor. Mrs. Ali and the Major are both looking for companionship in the midst of their grief and isolation. The general answer to these issues is ultimately "seize the day."

We had some questions. Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani woman in question, was born in Cambridge. At what point do you stop being from the country of your descendants? The Fab 5 is basically a group of Dutch Americans. I personally am of 100% Dutch ancestry (give or take a stray ancestor), as is my husband. My mother is the child of immigrants. Which generation ceases to be Dutch and becomes American? Some immigrant communities seem to hold onto their identity longer than others.

We wondered if the division in this novel is due more to Mrs. Ali's ethnicity or the fact that she is a shopkeeper? Is it Islam vs. Anglican? Obviously each difference plays a part, but it's hard to tell if it is in greater part racism or classism. We think it's hard to imagine being so classist. However, we would probably be in the "shopkeeper" class. None of us has inherited land or homes or titles, so it might be harder for us to understand.

In relationships we've seen, when a couple falls madly in love, the fact that they don't share the same religious views doesn't seem insurmountable--it seems like something they'll be able to work out. But in the long haul, it can become a much bigger issue than originally thought. The vicar in this novel, though not a terribly sympathetic character, echoes this reality in his opinions on such marriages. There are no easy answers here.

Though some of the events are over the top, we enjoyed it. Barbara suggested that the book is a bit like the Mitford series, with a little more fornication. Nancy declared it "Britford."

Since we were all up during a tornado warning in the middle of the night last night, we felt too tired to make many intelligent comments. There were several moments of silent staring into the distance. We were all impressed when Nancy pointed out that there were two spellings of the same word on a page--fiance and fiancee (with the little mark above the first e that I can't seem to make happen on the computer). Even more impressed when Sonya informed us that fiance refers to the male partner in the relationship, and fiancee refers to the female.

But our night got a little more interesting when Barbara's creepy neighbor got into his pickup and started methodically peeling out in the street every few minutes. We tried to watch him out the window without looking like we were watching him out the window. Barbara said he acts like he lives in "the freakin' country," not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. Just think of it as the shopkeeper pot calling the country boy kettle black.

Get "Shanghai"ed

Tonight the Neland Women's Book Club tackled Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. The novel was a success by book club standards, as it gave us a lot to talk about. Well, most books give this group something to talk about, mainly because we like to talk a lot. Earlier, I gave my halfway-through-the-novel thoughts about the book, considering the immigrant story aspect of it. That was just a small portion of the discussion tonight.

The first thing that came out tonight is something we probably learned a few years back when we read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by the same author, but then promptly forgot. (The nice thing about forgetting things is that you find them interesting all over again when you learn them for the second time.) Lisa See writes about China and Chinese Americans, but her author photo shows a redheaded woman with freckles. She doesn't, at first glance, fit the reader's expectations. However, See's great grandfather was Chinese, and he was one of the founders of the Los Angeles Chinatown area. See grew up in Los Angeles, close to her Chinese-American family and spending a lot of time in Chinatown. She has obviously spent a lot of time in research as well.

The ladies at tonight's meeting agreed that the book was good, that we learned a lot from it, and that some events in the novel were difficult to read about. This past Sunday, our pastor talked about how, when he was young, he couldn't stand reading John Updike, because Updike piled tragedy upon tragedy for his characters. He didn't feel that was reality. Now, in middle age, he realizes that sometimes people really do experience tragedy upon tragedy. He probably wouldn't have liked this novel when he was younger.

In spite of that, and beyond the historical and cultural context, this is still a novel about the relationship between two sisters. Sisters who are closer to each other than they are to anyone else, who make sacrifices for each other, and who are also jealous of each other and bitter over perceived injustices over the course of a lifetime. The book is told in the voice of the older sister, Pearl, but every so often you get a glimpse of the younger sister's point of view. Some of their feelings about who was loved more, or who has sacrificed more, ring very true to a reader like me, who shares both love and childhood rivalries with three siblings. Being family gives you like DNA, but not necessarily like minds!

One member tonight compared this book with books by Amy Tan, commenting on the fact that these women are married off to whomever is chosen for them, and they have very little choice in how their lives play out. We realize that as American women in the 21st century, we have enormous freedoms that are not shared among the women of the world, now or in history.

A curious part of the novel is when Pearl talks about her conversion experience to Christianity. It struck many of us as a conversion written in good faith (no pun intended) by someone who has not really had one. That is a scary statement to post, because we could be so very wrong in our assessment! However, the character Pearl seems to find Christianity a part of new life in a new country, and she mixes it with the spirituality of her past life.

One criticism that came out of the meeting was that sometimes See seems to be talking to the reader, explaining things that shouldn't be explained in an attempt to make sure we don't miss the point. This one criticism against the whole of the novel is a small one; it is a book worth reading if you aren't looking for neatly wrapped up storylines with pleasant characters and happy endings.

Speaking of happy endings, we enjoyed some in-season Michigan strawberries (hard to beat!) with rich almond bars and dark chocolate brownies. Mmm.

In my last post, I was missing one of the titles that we will be reading in the next year. That title is Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez. Now the book list is complete, and I have promises to keep, and pages to read before I sleep, and pages to read before I sleep.