There
are some among our readership who really have it in for E.M. Forster (what
gives?), but we hope you’ll bear with us as we review that author’s A Room With A View.
The
book was my first introduction to Forster, and I have to say that I came away
generally pleased. It’s not a read that will keep you on the edge of your seat-
its major plot points are conversations, betrayals of confidence, and rumors about
who will rent the vacant cottage at such and such a place. But if it won’t keep
you on the edge of your seat, I think there’s enough to keep you in your seat- to keep you reading right
to the very end.
Now,
it is at its core, a romance. This means that the story is wholly dependent on
a simple misunderstanding between the two principle characters stretching the entire
length of the book. If George an Lucy were able at any moment to actually sit
down and have a half-way decent conversation, there would be no story. But true
to form, they aren’t; and so there is. Fine.
But
here’s where Forster really whimps out: The tension builds and builds (Will
Lucy end her engagement to Cecil? Is George’s father really a murderer? Did
George not only steal a kiss, but blabber about it to a popular novelist?) We
anxiously await the moment when George and Lucy do finally hash things out, when she realizes that she loves him
and always has- but just at the crucial moment- Forster fumbles the ball! He hits
the fast forward button and next thing you know, George and Lucy are back in
Florence, reminiscing about the winding road that brought them back there. No
catharsis, just a few loose ends tied up after the fact. It’s as if he thought that scene
would be really difficult to write, so he played it out off-stage. It was a bit
of a disappointment.
Still,
there is a lot of beautiful writing, some great characters and nice settings. And he presents enough interesting
insights into love and happiness and religion to have earned a second read from
me. So, for the Forster fans out there: where should I go next? Howard’s End? Or A Passage To India?