A Passage to India

1924, 1984 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich edition
E. M. Forster
A Passage to India
Bought newish for $6.95
Worn paperback
B-

This is a good example of a book that I can see is well-written but which I don't enjoy enough to rate higher.  Forster does a fine job of portraying the conflicts between Indians and Anglo-Indians, the latter being the Englishmen who've come out to India to rule, and the families of those Englishmen.  Some of these conflicts are not just the obvious ones between those of different nationalities but also the ones among Indians and those among the English.  As Dr. Aziz says though, the Indians hate the English more than they hate each other.

Aziz is my main problem with the novel.  While Maurice's flaws enhance his heroism, Aziz is only heroic in his ambitions for India, as stated in his speech in the end.  Too much of the novel has him unforgiving of not only Miss Quested (which is understandable, even if he expresses it in terms that are the opposite of his earlier chivalry), but of his friend Fielding.  He shows little recognition of Fielding's loyalty to him and, on very little evidence, starts thinking the worst of him, i.e. that Fielding has had an affair with and/or married Miss Quested.  Perhaps Forster is underscoring the point that with India at that point, true friendship between Indians and English people is impossible, but since we spend so much time with Aziz, particularly in the last section, I get really irritated with both Aziz and Forster.

That aside, I do like the complexities of social interaction, that there's so much more going on than trying to play bumble-puppy when a prig is gone.  Here the prig, Miss Quested, is the true heroine, going against what would be her social group if she married Heaslop, and trying to make amends for her mistakes.  If only the novel had focused more on her, but I understand why so much about what she does and what is done to her has to be heard second- or thirdhand.

And, no, I haven't seen the movie.