An Inauspicious Start?

I am going to start out my thoughts on Book 1 in the same way Ann did: A Passage to India is a book about...150 pages too long. This was really a grind for me to get through, not because it was difficult but because it just couldn't keep my attention. It had its moments, a few passages in which I found myself saying "finally, some insight," but there just weren't enough of those.

As I was getting close to the end, I realized that there wasn't a single character in the book that I was pulling for. Aziz was clearly getting a raw deal from the most abhorrent character in the book, Miss Quested, but I found him to be very inconsistent in character. He was a likeable guy in the early going and during the trial, then he seemed bitter in his dealings with Fielding, then he was Joe Johnny Nice Guy again at the end. I suppose you could argue that anyone would be bitter having gone through what Aziz did, but he was bitter with the only Englishman that stood up for him.

Maybe I'm just not well read enough, or smart enough, to "get" A Passage to India. But maybe I am, and I can't imagine why this book is on any 100 Greatest Novels List when names like Mailer and Dos Passos are absent. Notwithstanding my poo-pooing of the first book, I am 100% committed to the project. What I am hoping is that in the next few years, as we all read through the List, we can have some good discussions over some good beers why certain books should be out and why others should be in.