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Jan 22, 2012

Diletta rated it:

Cerchiamo di mantenere la calma.

Premetto una cosa.
Quando ho preso in mano per la prima volta questo libro, io e lui ci eravamo chiariti per benino. Della serie "tu non piaci a me, io non piaccio a te, cerchiamo di concludere il nostro rapporto nel modo più indolore possibile e col minor spargimento di sangue."
Pensavo che lui avesse capito il patto, e accettato. Infatti la prima parte scorre abbastanza bene, parlava di cose di cui non me ne fregava nulla, ok, m More...

9 comments like (8 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2008

Erik rated it:

Sometimes the idea of rankings is tedious and shallow, especially when it comes to novels, but this book has to be one of the twenty greatest books written in English in the last century. In addition to being a gripping, at times harrowing, story, the overall form of the book is perfectly constructed. That E.M. knew what the hell he was doing.

6 comments like (16 people liked it)

Nov 01, 2009

Choupette rated it:

Somewhat to my surprise, I discovered that this book is seen by many as a sort of force for good. Last year, my mother spontaneously borrowed the DVD of the 1984 adaptation for me, saying “I think you should watch this.” Incidentally, it is very good - very faithful to the book. Later, my boyfriend saw the book on my bedside table and said “I have to respect anyone who reads this.” Later again, someone else saw me carrying it around – she hadn't read it, but she said “it's really good, it's abou More...

9 comments like (16 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2007

Elizabeth rated it:

I enjoyed reading this novel again - although I’m torn about what to think of it, ideologically speaking. I like Forster - Howards End in particular - and I think his portrayal of colonial relations in India is complex and interesting, and does not necessarily come out in favor of the English. Yet his characterization of the Indians (even Dr. Aziz) is often patronizing and infantilizing, which makes it difficult to read. I re-watched the film as well - and found it interesting that David Lean th More...

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 20, 2011

K.D. rated it:

Chandrapore, India during the British Raj in the 1920s. This is about a British young woman, Adela Quested falsely accusing an Indian doctor, Dr. Aziz of attempted rape. During the trial, Adela withdrew her lawsuit and admitted her mistake. The false accusation, the trial and the retraction further divided the nation between the white colonizers and the dark-skinned natives.

"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet"" wrote Rudyard Kipling in More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 05, 2011

Shovelmonkey1 rated it:

Written in 1924 this so called literary classic and 1001 book is set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the slow move towards Independence. This book has been showered with awards - I gave my copy of a good shake just to see if any of the awards had got stuck between the pages - although personally the only award I would be inclined to hand out for E.M Forster's most famous novel would be the highly coveted shovelmonkey1 pillow award for producing an epic snooze fest.

I read t More...

7 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2008

Heather rated it:

I completely related with one of the main characters in the book, Miss Questad. She accuses an Indian man of assaulting her while they are hiking in some caves (sorry if I just gave part of it away) and realizes later that she made a mistake. Her mistake brings out the worst of racial tensions and class distinctions. It reminded me SO much of my experience in Jordan a few summers ago when a Jordanian man at one of the tourist attractions was not very "gentlemanly". The laws in Jordan a More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 01, 2007

Teddy rated it:

A Classic of Epic Proportions!

First published in 1924, over the vast sweeping landscape of India under British rule A Passage to India examines the cultural differences between the Indians and the English.

As the novel opens Ms. Adela Quested and her potential mother in-law, Mrs. Moore arrives in Chandrapore India. They both have the desire to see the real India and not just hang out with other British citizens. Mrs. Moore becomes friends with a local, Dr Aziz who promi More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 28, 2008

Lauren rated it:

Honestly, I can't believe I had never read this book before. I should thank Ginger and Katherine for wanting to read it together because I don't know when or if I would have ever gotten around to reading it. Forster is so magnificent. Next I should read his "Where Angels Fear to Tread."

How I managed to read my fair share of post-colonial lit (Gautam, it's fair to call this post-colonial lit, right?) and not read this is appalling. It is not only a beautifully written book, More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 21, 2009

Becca rated it:

A classic story about learning to understand our fellow man and the social barriers that obstruct that understanding. Almost a century after “A Passage to India” was published, the book remains as timely as ever. Our country is currently at war and while it has been described as a War on Terror, it is more correctly characterized as a War of Ideas. Today there is a fundamental lack of appreciation for how the other half lives. This book addresses a similar conflict – illustrating how even open-m More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2011

Amanda rated it:

This review and others are from my blog: http://deadwhiteguyslit.blogspot.com

HEY, hey guys! Did you know it's HOT in India? Because E.M. Forster would like you to know that it's really hot there. Surface of the sun hot. Old-people killin' hot. And dusty. Doesn't that sound like a place you'd like to read about for 300 pages in August? No? TOO BAD!

This is supposed to be as fantastic as Forster's Howard's End, but straight up- that's a lie. A Passage to India is about a han More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Amanda rated it:

This is such a difficult book to describe. It’s a sketch of the conflict between India and Britain, both in the overarching Britain-is-policing-India sort of way, and in a specific-individual sort of way. The two parallel each other. The main characters are Dr. Aziz, an Indian doctor; Adela and Ms. Moore, both British women in India for the first time; and Fielding, a British man in sympathy with Indians. They are supplimented by an entire cast of Indians and British people who live in the count More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 14, 2008

Papa rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed A Passage to India and am now officially a Forster fan. Frankly, I'm not certain how I made it this far through my education without ever picking him up. I can't add much to what's already been written about this book, but I'll mention a few impressions anyway.

Forster tells a great story with enviable economy and style. Like a work of impressionist art, A Passage to India is superficially enjoyable, but the real treasure is found in what's not there. Rich, beauti More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2008

Paula rated it:

Contrary to what you might expect "Passage" is not a travel guide to India. Most of the book, in fact, takes place in the sleepy little village of Chandrapore. Or at least, it's sleepy for half the book. Then it becomes a hotbed of controversy and a public trial of the British occupation of India. Yeah, didn't see that one coming, did you?

More than travel, more than romance or anything like that, "Passage" is a hypothesis: can a British man and an Indian man possi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 15, 2008

Laura rated it:

Hailed at its publication as Forster’s masterpiece, A Passage to India explores the complex relationship between Indians and the colonial English, a relationship muddled by racism, cultural misunderstandings, and inherent religious and philosophical incompatibility. The essential question of the novel is whether it is possible for friendship to bridge the racial divide between the English and the Indians. The tragic events of the novel suggest not, or at least not yet, though Forster does offer More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 12, 2008

Michael rated it:

This is my first E.M. Forster book, and definitely will not be my last. His style seems to be a bridge between late Victorian and early modernist, and it is obvious that he is not quite sure which way to go. It is beautifully written, perhaps a little too beautifully written. The characters are fully formed, yet somehow leave you unaffected by the tight reign the author has on their every thought. Forster's take on the complexity of the racial situation in colonialist India is as fair-minded as More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2007

Lunar rated it:

When I've read this novel, I've recalled the situation of the multicultural societies. How (difference) is still unsolved problem among people. The British Imperialism was dified by Indians regardless their various sects. This reminds me of most of the Iraqis' attitude toward the invasion of the USMF and USAF. The 'Club' group are described as prejudice whereas the 'Indian' are of a second class!! Such superiority is the reason of many Indians' hostility which reveals by the end of the novel: wh More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 21, 2007

Sheila rated it:

"I can't avoid the label. What I do hope to avoid is the mentality."

The idea of language (and naming) as the ultimate destroyer of the individual intrigues me. That we lose all sense of self the moment we are given a name by our parents. That something as simple as a label can break us down and keep us there. In the end words mean nothing, they are empty and meaningless until we give them an importance they do not deserve. I love and hate the idea that we are nothing but wh More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2007

Dana rated it:

For the first section of the novel, I was thoroughly bored, but I persevered because I knew there had to be a reason it was a "classic"; also, the relationship between East and West has always intrigued me, partly because I embody it.

The second section of the novel, "Caves," is the heart of the novel. The landscape is the main character, more vibrant than the shadowy people that pass through it. The caves distort and intensify; once inside, the characters' reali More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 28, 2007

Matthew rated it:

This was a complicated and sad story. It offered a dispassionate look at relationships that was sometimes quite wrenching. I found a degree of satire in Forrester's prose; or else a sort of veiled contempt at Britain's institutionalized colonialism and hereditary victorianism - and plenty of evidence in the novel that both were dehumanizing. The melancholy that pervades the book seems to stem from the fact that the wealthy, powerful European character seemed so inept at finding happiness. Though More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 13, 2011

Holly rated it:

Prompted to finally read this by Cynthia Ozick's reminder that A Passage to India is one of the greatest works of English fiction of the twentieth century. I read it as a remarkable reflection of its time: the interwar period and prior to Indian independence and the violent Partition. Also considered feminist critiques of Islam (religion or culture as responsible for female oppression?) and orientalism (Edward Said's thesis), and post-colonialism (Bhabha, I think?). The symbolic imagery felt som More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 27, 2008

Nikki rated it:

I'm not wildly enthusiastic about this book. It gives you an interesting view of India as a British colony, and some of the descriptions are lovely, but overall I found it quite dry and hard to read in anything but little chunks. The story itself isn't wildly inventive, of course: it reminded me a lot, at least around the middle, of To Kill A Mockingbird: a native is wrongly accused of assaulting a woman, the woman's part is taken by all, etc. It's not a new story -- of course not, since it coul More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2008

Robyn rated it:

This book shifts underfoot a lot, clumps of prose I couldn't penetrate and then a paragraph of such exquisite insight that I was torn between getting up and finding a pen or staying where I was and re-reading it seven or eight times. In a way, it's prose verite: things are hectic, or boring and you're not sure who is talking or what the words mean, but then sometimes you hit a pocket where something makes so much sense that it seems like everything else must make sense too and then the moment is More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 01, 2011

C.mcdonald rated it:

This would be a phenomenal companion read with The White Tiger as its post-colonial counterpart. I loved this book's departure from the almost caricature roles for the white colonialist (g&ts at the club! Sahib! the white man's burden!) as well as the 2D-roles of the subservient if colorful locals. It's got fault lines between the whites, the ignorance and condescension of those few curious enough who want to "know India," the religious and caste divides among the Indians, the purdah, More...

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Jan 04, 2010

Karen added it

The novel is an engrossing look into England's deteriorating hold on its colony of India. We are introduced to the Anglo-Indians, represented by characters like Heaslop and the Turtons who openly detest the Indian race, to the point of being cruel and grotesque. They need little prompting to believe an Indian is up to no good. Meanwhile, Indians are presented as a race held back by the culture clash, with strong, impulsive emotions and a lack of understanding for the English's reverence for pro More...

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Jan 23, 2012

Jay rated it:

I wonder how this book was received when published in 1924 during the stirrings of Indian independence from Great Britain. Did it accurately reflect the depicted stereotypes and prejudices of both Indians and British colonialists? Or did Forster attempt to explode those stereotypes and prejudices? I saw David Lean's 1984 film (which I, in parts, confused with "Jewel in the Crown" - understandable since both starred Peggy Ashcroft and Art Malik and both take place at the Marabar Caves), More...

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Nov 27, 2011

Ajk rated it:

If you're as big into Central/South (or really, Cool) Asia as I am, you are probably reading some of the good stuff that Jonathan Shainin writes, or what he posts on his Twitter feed. One of his larger rages in the past week or so has been against the Guardian, that ol' English rag that apparently has been celebrating the British Empire and all of its good.

That wasn't all that much good. It's fun to look back wistfully, of course. When I first set off for Central Asia, I was with a bun More...

0 comments like

Nov 20, 2011

Esdaile rated it:

I only gave it four stars not because I do not think it is an excellent novel, it is, but because I believe that these star ratings in Goodreads are intended as honest personal empathy and I like Howard's End and even I think Longest Journey, more. Much has been said about this work-it is a reckoning with the British mission in India, it is beautifully written. For me personally, it comes over a tad too heavily laden with its own political and ethical message-"only connect" in its quas More...

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Nov 16, 2011

Les added it

What really happened in the Marabar caves? This is the mystery at the heart of E.M. Forster's 1924 novel, A Passage to India, the puzzle that sets in motion events highlighting an even larger question: can an Englishman and an Indian be friends?
Written while England was still firmly in control of India, Forster's novel follows the fortunes of three English newcomers to India--Miss Adela Quested, Mrs Moore and Cyril Fielding--and the Indian, Dr Aziz, with whom they cross destinies. The ide More...

0 comments like

Sep 15, 2011

James rated it:

I found the proliferation of characters in the early chapters - none of which I particularly engaged with - bewildering and almost gave up reading. I wondered what all the fuss was about and why Forster was regarded as a great writer.
</br>I'm glad I persevered: to begin with, the novel became more engaging simply through the way the plot suddenly burst into life in the 'Caves' section (with the sudden, barely anticipated and earth-shattering arrest), but, increasingly, because I came to se More...

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