A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m glad I finally read this novel for a handful of reasons—the sensitive, complex portrayal of Dr. Aziz, the disarming (and downright disturbing) descent of Mrs. Moore, the shifting alliances of Fielding, and overall portrait of people in the midst of great flux. I’m sure there’s room to criticize the colonial depiction of Indians, but I found the novel rooted so deeply in its characters (and unwilling to take shortcuts in character development) that most everyone comes off as sympathetic, complicated, and human. And there are some simply gorgeous lines of descriptive prose (in depicting lackluster Chandrapore and the Malabar Caves) as well as eminently quotable lines like, “Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually.” This is a book I’ll return to.