A Passage to India

Nope, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth - I've been reading. Gasp! Yep, I had to do some rapid reading so that my book was finished for our book club meeting last night. As William put it - it's a book club not a synopsis club, Mom, you'd better get your book read.  And I did.   

Having tea at the club (source)

I read A Passage to India, E. M. Forster's 1924 novel about racial tension and mistrust in British Colonial India.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I re-read A Passage to India as I originally read it about twenty-five years ago around the time when the movie came out (1984).  This book has been selected as one of the 100 great works of literature by the Modern Library and won the James Tait Black award for fiction in 1924.   

Aziz looking for Adela at the caves (source)

In searching for some photos to use with this post, I found an excellent website (here) detailing the set locations from the movie.  Not only are there screen shots from the movie, but the author has also traveled to India to locate where many of the scenes from the movie were actually filmed.   It is very well researched and an interesting addition to reading the book.  It is very fortunate for me that I found this website as what is a blog post without some photos and these photos are gorgeous.  Anyway  back to the book...

Heading out on the picnic (source)

A Passage to India is a wonderful depiction of life in India in the 1920s as seen through the relationships of the four main characters.   Throughout the novel there are racial tensions and prejudices that interfere with relations between the British Colonists and the Indians; between the Muslims and the Hindus; and between the men and women in the book.

At the club (source)

The novel opens with Adela and Mrs. Moore having just arrived in India from Britain as Adela is to marry Mrs. Moore's son.  Adela and Mrs. Moore hope to see the real India and are dismayed by the prejudice and distance between the British Colonists and the Indians.  Mrs. Moore and Adela become friends with Mr. Fielding, a headmaster of a local school, and Aziz, a Muslim physician. Aziz plans a picnic to the Marabar caves and during the trip the heat and a strange echo in the caves have a sickening effect on Adela.  Adela runs off and when she gets back to town, accuses Aziz of attempting to assault her in the cave.  Relations between the Indians and Brits deteriorate dramatically at this point and all the prejudices are brought out into the open with both sides misjudging situations and each other's actions.  Finally, at the trial Adela is asked directly if Aziz assaulted her and she realizes the truth of the situation.  Not wanting to give too much of the book away, I'll leave it at that.  

Entering the first cave (source)

I love Forster's descriptions of India and particularly some of his evocative ways of describing the heat and the monsoon rains.  My friend Kim and I will be going to Bangladesh in the monsoon season this summer and I was a little bit sorry that the monsoon coincided with the only time of the year when I am available to travel, but reading Forester's description of how highly valued the monsoons are in India made me want to experience them.

The scenery, according to their standards, was delightful - the sky grey and black, bellyfulls of rain all over it, the earth pocked with pools of water and slimy with mud.  A magnificent monsoon - the best for three years, the tanks already full, bumper crops possible. 

"This is our monsoon, the best weather," .... Now is the time when all things are happy, young and old ... the tanks are all full so they dance, and this is India.

Monsoons begin as they leave the courthouse (source)

I found A Passage to India a wonderful book to read and would highly recommend it to anyone.  Although it was set in India in 1920s, the tensions and problems in the relationships are timeless.

Aziz in Mr. Fielding's house (source)

I especially loved reading this book, as I have had Bangladesh and India pretty much on my brain all week.  Kim and I are in the process of deciding if we will go to India for a bit after our month of teaching in Bangladesh this summer.  So as you can see it was a very timely read.  

Linked to What We're Reading at Art @ Home

Summer Reading Recommendation

I read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" about a year ago and I would highly recommend it as the perfect book for your summer vacation - you know one of those books that is easy to get through, with:

• a little romance
• a little humour
• interesting characters
• you can learn a little history
• you can read about someplace you don't live and now will desperately want to visit
• will have you drinking copious cups of tea, just because

The book is written as a series of letters, which initially takes some getting used to and can feel a bit disjointed, but the story is interesting enough that you can get past the letter format.  It is set during the Second World War on Guernsey Island when a group of islanders form the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as an alibi because the members were caught breaking curfew.   Life under German occupation was very difficult for the locals.  Can you imagine sending your children off in the last boat before the Germans arrive, not to see them again for 4 years. It brought tears to my eyes.  It really is a great book and will have you reading late into the night to find out what happens to these endearing, quirky, and at times, brave characters.

So pull up a deck chair, find yourself a cute hat and have a good summer read!

 

Baby Name Wizard Book

Even as a young child and teenager I wanted to be a mother.  I would spend my spare time create imaginary families and then designing homes for them.  Sometimes these homes were small cottages or trailers and sometimes they were enormous country houses.  My imagination was fueled by what I was reading or where we were traveling at the time.  I would create a family, including the ages and names of the children, and then I would plan a house for them. 

My parents bought me many books with house plans in them which I loved and poured over and used as the basis for some of the houses I was planning.  In a bold move, my parents also bought me a baby name book for Christmas when I was 15.  Crazy, eh?  I mean who gives their teenage daughter a baby name book.  However, I loved that book and spent hours reading it.

My daughter, Kate, also loves names and a few years age we were just as crazy as my parents, and gave Kate The Baby Name Wizard book.  

She also loves it, and uses it to name her families on the SIMS.  I just thought I would mention this book as it is so much fun to read and if you are expecting or know someone who is (or you play the SIMS) you would definitely want to search out a copy.  I recently found out there is a website:  The Baby Name Wizard.  It is a treasure-trove of info - definitely worth pouring over.

This book is in a class of its own because it organizes names into categories so if you like a certain type of name, you can search that category for others like it.  It also gives suggestions for sibling's names.

I also like the description and history of the names - she is always positive about names - even the yucky ones.  There is also a little graph showing how popular the name was over the past 100 years.  All fascinating stuff to someone who loves names and had to give each of her children 3 given names!