I put this book down after a few chapters but returned to it because I couldn't get rid of a niggling feeling that i was missing something and I am glad I did.
This book is a comedy of manners , without Austen's biting wit and a gentle mockery of the British aristocracy, without Wodehouse's panache. But the reader gets the feeling that Summerland doesn't aim it to be any of these. So what we have is a gentle love story, with gentle ironies and gentle insight. All so gentle that you have to be on the watch for them or they will slip past you.
A little about the story- Major Pettigrew is a British gentleman in the tradition of British Gentlemen that we have read about- he is all about honour, courtesy , doing the right thing , hunting and the perfectly brewed cup of tea get together. Summerland explores life in modern day English village through their romance. The setting may be provincial but the themes the universal ones of bigotry, racism, class conflict, family pressures and duties and love.
The characters are fresh and so are the situations but perhaps the sheer ness'gentleness' of the novel slows and wears the reader down. Persist- it's the same gentle humour, conflict and irony make it a charming read.
Maya
