Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

This book is wonderful. Major Pettigrew is "Old British", from a time when being a Major was something that was both prideful and important. He is a military man from a military family. He knows his place, and he knows the place of others. He is elegant, clever, judgmental, and not at all happy with his offspring. Roger is all that the Major is not, and nothing that he is. Where the Major is content with his place in life, Roger is a social climber. Where the Major is loath to take chances, Roger leaps without looking. Roger is just as class-minded as his father, but his plan is to move up, and then look down on those where he once was. The Major is much more modern in some ways than his son--he sees Mrs. Ali as a woman and a business owner. Roger sees her as a foreigner, someone to be frozen out of society, and he is mortified when his father not only dances with her at an exclusive club, but also appears to find her attractive. Mrs. Ali is suffering from culture clashes of her own--she has taken a big step away from tradition when she took over the business that her husband left her--her family now expects her to turn it over to her nephew and then be shut away from the rest of the world for the rest of her days on earth. She sees such a fate as inevitable--until the Major shows her an alternative door that she can walk through with him, and enter a future together. Such a great story!