Major Wonderful

Every once in a while a book will come along that really tugs at my heartstrings, one that's difficult for me to put down, and makes me want to be a better writer. That's how I felt about Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. It's such a simple little novel- character driven (my favorite!)and so beautifully written and engrossing. I was sad to reach the The End. I absolutely fell in love with Major Pettigrew, a 68 year old retired British army major and perhaps one of the wittiest and most romantic heroes ever written.

While reading this book I used the highlight feature of my Kindle for the first time, which is so cool because you can use a cursor to highlight sections of the book that you want to remember.

These are few of the many sections that I highlighted:

He had forgotten that grief does not decline in a straight line or along a slow curve like a graph in a child's math book. Instead, it was almost as if his body contained a big pile of garden rubbish full both of heavy lumps of dirt and of sharp thorny brush that would stab at him when he least expected it.

..."These days, men expect their wives to be as dazzling as their mistresses."
"That's shocking," said the Major. "How on earth will they tell them apart?"

"But I must ask you, do you really understand what it means to be in love with an unsuitable woman?"
"My dear boy," said the Major. "Is there really any other kind?"

"That's what love is about, Roger. It's when a woman drives all lucid thought from your head; when you are unable to contrive romantic stratagems, and the usual manipulations fail you; when all your carefully laid plans have no meaning and all you can do is stand mute in her presence. You hope she takes pity on you and drops a few words of kindness into the vacuum of your mind."