|
I've seen some comments about the book in other threads, but nothing here so far. Well - I guess I could start the actual book-commenting...
First of all I wish I'd had the opportunity to go through this book in a few longer reading periods rather then many short ones. As somebody else mentioned, the fascination of this story is about getting into the "frame of mind" of people living in a radically different place and time period than me. As it was - I got a little restless in my reading, generating an urge for something to actually happen during the first few hundred pages... First impressions was heavily influenced by this, and I found the authors strange way of describing people interacting with each other a bit tedious.
After a while, though, there was a "change of pace". I'm not sure whether it was due to changes in my mental state or the content shifting (this is a question I frequently ask myself when either entertained or bored by something). Anyhow, I "got into it" in a hole different way, and suddenly found it amusing at times. I found it timely that the author introduced some "action" when he did - the incident in the caves. A much needed boost in my opinion, but not really enough to last to end of the story. And after things had settled, the main point was yet again the difficulties regarding Anglo-Indian relations...
All in all, I found "A passage to India" to be not very entertaining, but quite educational. Obviously, the things that actually happens is not important, but rather the strange atmosphere that is created throughout the story. Strange gallery of persons - everybody comes off as rather stupid, either directly or through their actions. For several of the characters, though, this is mixed with sympathetic features and good intentions. This is sometimes amusing, and sometimes just plain annoying...
|