A Passage to India

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Summary: We'll never know what happened in the Marabar Caves...
Review: A classic that kids shouldn't be assigned to read in 10th grade, as I was. I truly hated this book, didn't understand it at all, at all. The symbolism, the racism, the class system, the whole period of the British raj - it all went right over my head. Then, to discover it in adulthood! Well, it was an awakening. It was as if I'd never read it before, and indeed on most levels, I hadn't. What really happened in the Marabar Caves? Was it an assault? A dream or hallucination? An actual rape? Nothing? A case of mistaken identity? This mystery, unanswered at the end, lies at the heart of A Passage to India. We have Muslims, Hindus, and the British Christians mixing within the society. Dr. Aziz is a good and gentle man, a friendly, open-minded, highly educated Indian who is eventually accused of assaulting a British women - and that sort of thing doesn't go over well with the high-mucky-mucky of the era. According to the political sensitivities of the era (1920s), there's always bound to be trouble when you mix the races within society.
Passage to India presents British colonialism at its worst with a marvelous and deeply-layered cast of characters. This is probably Forster's best book.

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Summary: Thought-Provoking
Review: I have always been a fan of E.M. Forster. His ability to understand the way that society and humanity works has always managed to astonish me. This work is thought by many to be the greatest that he ever wrote. I tend to agree "Howards End", "A Room with a View", and "Where Angels Fear to Tread" were stepping stones to this novel. The story is simple. A man is accused of doing something his friends believe him to be innocent all others believe him to be guilty. Yet, the story is not at all simple. It explains how horribly off things in India were when Britain still maintained an empire there. That man accused is an Indian. The person accusing him is an English woman. In these two characters, Britain and India are made real. The reader sees how wrong the whole situation was . Be prepared to leave the book angry at the British for doing what they did in India. Read and learn this book!

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I've read in ages.
Review: I wasn't particularly looking forward to reading A Passage to India. Forster, in my mind, seemed to suggest implausible romance, pretty scenery, and Helena Bonham Carter, and I'd never actually bothered to read one of his books.
Now I can hardly wait to read another. I absolutely loved this book, without quite knowing why it was so magical. I do know that I found the first chapter absolutely perfect, as it allows the reader to go into a "descriptive section" daze, and then jerks are attention suddenly back to the Marabar caves. And with the exception of one or two patches that dragged a little but were soon over, I found the rest of the book equally magnetic.
I enjoyed Fortster's deftness in portraying all the characters, not so much as individuals, but in terms of how they felt about each other. In particular I loved the relationship between Fielding and Aziz, while understanding completely the dislike each had for aspects of the others character.
The ending is marvelous. So often books that hold your interest like this just peter out, but it's refreshing to find an author like Forster who understands that what makes for an ideal conclusion is to give the readers a taste of what they want, and then hold back the last little bit.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary Classic
Review: I've read and enjoyed several Forster books, but "A Passage to India" tops them all. The plot concerns the arrival in Chandrapore, India of Ms. Quested and her potential mother-in-law, Mrs. Moore. They come to visit Mrs. Moore's son, Ronny, who is engaged to Ms. Quested. Ms. Quested and Mrs. Moore are the typical new arrivals, and they desire to see more of the "real" India than they can see with their fellow Brits, who tend to gather in the state Club and socialize only with each other. They become involved with Dr. Aziz, a local Indian physician, who promises to show them the famous, nearby Marabar caves. Dr. Aziz is solicitous toward the Brits and craves their friendship, but he clearly has negative feelings toward them also.

At the Marabar caves, an incident occurs (or does not occur) to Ms. Quested that alters all of the characters and their town inextricably. There is a trial and a bit of a mystery, but the focus is always on the characters and their conflicts. In particular, the tension between the English and the people of Inida is beautifully portrayed. The characters are multi-dimensional, as are their motives, which makes for a fascinating read. I found the book to be quite moving and sad - a true classic.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book never grabbed me the way I had hoped it would. None of the characters is particularly engaging, and indeed some are barely tolerable. This is a 360 page book that reads like a 600 page book. I'm not what you'd call a plot-junky, but this book was just too slow and too boring. There are only three or four memorable scenes in the whole book, and only one of them possesses any dramatic tension. I think Forster set out to make a statement about relations between colonial power and colonized people. Certainly he accomplished that, but then again he could have done it in a page or two. Instead he threw together a mediocre work of literature to demonstrate his point.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece.
Review: This is book is incredible, and one of my personal favorites. Its beauty is too easily overlooked, because it is so elegantly subtle. Every aspect of the storytelling is masterful: the prose is lush and nuanced, and every character is exquisitely drawn. Drawing from the slimmest of plots, Forster weaves what seems to be an isolated incident into a complex tapestry of emotion. The central focus are the characters, who are sharply realistic and utterly, utterly human. Another aspect that I liked very much is that it takes an era, the British Raj in India, which is otherwise interpreted only with the most hotly colored emotions, and presents it with a marked neutrality, presenting it only through the eyes of the characters. A marvelous read.

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Summary: Great memorial to British India
Review: With all due respect to Rudyard Kipling, E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India" seems likely to remain the definitive novel about British Imperialist India written by an Englishman. It does not merely see India as a picturesque land in which to set an exotic adventure, but examines the complicated relationships between the British and the Indians with penetrating wisdom, astuteness, and fairness. Forster is not shy about portraying the British attitude towards the Indians as one of bigotry and condescension, but he also notes the considerable cultural and religious conflicts between the Muslims and the Hindus.

Most of the action takes place in a city called Chandrapore and concerns the friendship between a British school principal named Cyril Fielding and a Muslim physician named Dr. Aziz. The novel's events are set in motion in an empty mosque, where a praying Aziz meets an elderly Englishwoman named Mrs. Moore. After some friendly conversation, they take a liking to each other, and Aziz learns that Mrs. Moore's son is a man he knows well -- Ronny Heaslop, the Magistrate of Chandrapore. Later, having tea at Fielding's house, Aziz meets Mrs. Moore again and her companion, a young lady named Adela Quested, who is vaguely affianced to Ronny. Eager to see the "real" India, Adela enthusiastically accepts Aziz's offer to go on a picnic to the Marabar caves, a nearby tourist attraction, and Mrs. Moore is convinced to accompany them.

Forster lavishly describes the journey to the caves -- by train and then elephant -- and the caves themselves, each of which apparently is shaped somewhat like a frying pan, with a short corridor ending in a circular chamber. The outing proves to be much more eventful than the three spelunkers expected. Mrs. Moore, haunted by the eerie echos the caves propagate, crosses the threshold of insanity. And upon their return to Chandrapore, Adela claims that she was sexually assaulted in one of the caves and accuses Aziz, who is consequently arrested and tried for the crime.

Of course, there are a few different explanations for what really happened to Adela in the caves, but the British are prejudicially biased against Aziz. This puts Fielding in a quandary, as his defense of his good friend Aziz infuriates his British compatriots and gets him kicked out of his club. When Adela later admits that she can't confirm Aziz's guilt, Ronny acknowledges that a retraction of the charges would embarrass the British; he even hustles his mother out of India because, as a witness, her increasing incoherence would damage the case for the prosecution.

Although the cave incident and the subsequent trial drive the plot, the novel is more about the clash of three headstrong societies (Muslim, Hindu, and Christian) forced to dwell together amidst political turmoil, and how certain members of these societies manage to reconcile themselves to each other's differences. The final scene between Fielding and Aziz, in which Aziz uncannily predicts an independent Indian nation resulting from British dissolution, is a poignant display of this theme; for all the trouble and conflict in the world, there is always room for friendship and understanding.