A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

Forster was a fairly insightful guy. A Room with a View involved fascinating character development and apt observances of the human condition, and A Passage to India did too. Still, his worldview was unabashedly atheistic, and his main conclusion was merely a cry for universal brotherhood. Nevertheless, the narrative was enjoyable.

Forster himself seems to enjoy complex relationships and broken engagements, common subjects in the two books of his that I have read. I think he also saw travel as a venue by which a person's character is thrown into relief and magnified. Perhaps, and especially for the early 20th-century Briton, when one is removed from the confines of conventional society, one is able to act how one would without that outside control.

The book gained a new level of realism for me when I dined at an Indian restaurant. The cuisine was fabulous, and it felt as if I could taste and feel the novel, after having read it. Eating unfamiliar food is a singular joy: one does not exactly know what one is dining on, but as it is delicious and exquisitely exotic, it makes for a culinary adventure. So, in that way, I took my own little passage to India, and the experience of the Imperial British visitor became that much more real to me. In fact, I would go so far as to recommend that one should immediately make reservations for the nearest Indian restaurant as soon as one has finished the book. It makes a delicious accompaniment.