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A review by allisonjpmiller
Howards End by Regina Marler, E.M. Forster
5.0
When you're assigned to read a novel for class and end up loving it so much you're stopping to annotate every other page (I don't exaggerate; my pen has done violence to my copy; I'll have to buy a clean one for the shelf), completing said novel on time becomes a task and a half. (Somehow, I managed it.)
I adore Forster's narrative voice. It's a character in and of itself, and I find his commentary and asides colorful and insightful rather than intrusive and preachy. (YMMV; my classmates' certainly did.) But my favorite thing is the way he captures the life of England's natural landscape, existing both apart from and in concert with its human inhabitants, forever modeling integration and connection—the way forward—if only people would notice...
The one thing I don't love is the ending, but that may say more about me than Forster. Why shouldn't Henry be redeemed, too, in the limbo of Howards End? It's rather unforgiving of me to want him to remain outside of the liminal space that saves the rest of the characters, when for most of his life he's suffered because of his inability to perceive it.
I adore Forster's narrative voice. It's a character in and of itself, and I find his commentary and asides colorful and insightful rather than intrusive and preachy. (YMMV; my classmates' certainly did.) But my favorite thing is the way he captures the life of England's natural landscape, existing both apart from and in concert with its human inhabitants, forever modeling integration and connection—the way forward—if only people would notice...
The one thing I don't love is the ending, but that may say more about me than Forster. Why shouldn't Henry be redeemed, too, in the limbo of Howards End? It's rather unforgiving of me to want him to remain outside of the liminal space that saves the rest of the characters, when for most of his life he's suffered because of his inability to perceive it.