A review by sallytreanor
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

3.0

This is my least favorite of the three Forster novels I've read. I hate to blame it on the central female character, but I found her insufferable. To be fair, that's the point. When you contrast Adela's naivete with that of Lucy in A Room with a View, it's a bit easier to see the problem here. Where Lucy's lack of experience makes her more open, less afraid, the opposite is true of Adele. The more she purports to want to see the real India, the more ultimately self-interested she appears, and the consequences are too drastic to forgive her that flaw. She's the worst. I think I'm supposed to think better of her in the end, but that will never happen. That's not a particularly enlightened reaction to a classic literary work, but sometimes I just can't be smart--only pissy.