Comment: Years and years ago, this book caught my attention and, later, the fact there is a movie based on it added to my interest (I have not watched it yet). Time passed by and I made no decision to read it, always thinking "one day", until now, when the challenge I'm doing with a group on GR asked for a book preferentially set in Asia. I even went through the effort of checking out Kobo to buy an edition with a white cover, so that it would suit another topic at the same time!
This 1924 classic by E.M. Forster is the story of a small group of characters in a fictional city in India during the 1920s. Adela Quested and mrs Moore traveled to India, during the British occupation, so that Adela could meet mrs Moore's son, who is an official there, in the hopes that they might suit to become married. Adela and mrs Moore, however, are not behaving like the usual British citizens, always somehow diminishing the locals and acting as they are inferior. In fact, Adela and mrs Moore want to see "the real India" and the people living there and learn about their culture. One random night mrs Moore meets dr Aziz, and after some turn of events, he is to be their guide to some fascinating caves. The problem is that something happens to Adela there, and dr Aziz is seen as guilty, and what will this mean to everyone involved?
I will admit that I imagined this story to be even more vibrant that what it ended up being. I thought the plot would be more objective and to the point and not as vague in some aspects as it was. I also imagined that the elements one would expect to find here, considering the prejudice in the setting, would be more obviously noticed and mentioned. I suppose all these things are included, but not in the way I thought, which made me think the writing is quite clever, but a little boring to me.
I'm certainly not an expert on the author's writing and I haven't read other things by him to compare, so while I can subjectively understand why his work is studied and considered as classical literature, I still found this one book to be a little disappointing, for I expected something more evident and focused on the fictional drama. This isn't to say that the novel isn't worthy of accolades or that the author should not be praised, after all he does try to present the British occupation as something negative and that most of the interactions were incredibly inconsiderate and racist, but... I couldn't quite get past the academic subjects to really appreciate the fiction.
Of course, the two things cannot be separated, I am aware of this. But I did expect the characters' actions and how everyone reacts to the big event to have been something more detailed. I can imagine this is the author's style, and a sign of the times, but a lot of the information is given in a very vague kind of way, a lot of things must be inferred and guessed, and some things are told after they happen and aren't truly explained. I must be spoiled by the contemporary thrillers of dealing with crimes and investigations because I wanted the court scenes to have been more explicit and detailed!
Without much of a surprise, one must realize this is a criticism to how the British occupation was done and what it meant. I think the prejudice and the racism in the novel isn't a novelty, but I think that what shocks is not the fact nor specific scenes, it's the way the racist characters are portrayed, as if their behavior was just the way things were. History lessons do make us think it was so, people are a product of their time and culture, but I thought the unfairness of such a thing would be more obviously debated in the novel. Perhaps my ability to philosophy about it is missing, but the story was presented in a slightly boring manner, it was a bit dry and the author could be writing a small treaty instead of a novel...although not all his criticism is towards the British, so...
I believe I will now sound incredibly wrong to many, but I'm thinking perhaps the movie will present the energy I imagined in a better way than this book did? What blasphemy for a reader to say... but the cleverness of the novel, the several elements used and how the portrait painted of that part of the story of India was done weren't always well done, no matter how one might perceive the message intended by the author.
I think one of the main issues is that this was written really close to the events it was critiquing, and it was written with a very specific audience in mind: white Brits.
ReplyDeleteI find that people writing contemporary fiction tend to have short hands that they are not even aware of using--sort of like a dress or knitting pattern from the 1870s (or the 1950s) saying, "finish in the usual way", because of course, anyone using it at the time of publishing it would know what "the usual way" meant.
I think that this is the issue many of us reading Forster decades later have, especially if we don't hail from Britain (or really, the U.S., where the same imperialist/colonial dynamics played, only domestically rather than abroad so much): we are supposed to understand a lot of subtext that's barely hinted at, or if it is, so subtly that it passes us by.
That, of course, makes the narrative harder to follow, and the stakes less weighty.
Hello!
DeleteAfter reading the book, I've checked other reader's reviews (always a fun entertainment when the book in question has things that make you think or make you confused). I think I understand what you mean, and that is inevitable when a novel isn't only a fictional story.
What I wasn't as happy with was precisely the fictional elements. I already knew the plot would be focused on some sort of assault, and that the nationality of each main character would play a part in the whole thing. But more than that, i was interested in the personal reactions of those two main characters and what would surround their dealing with it. In that regard, this book wasn't as engaging to me as I imagined.