I’m not going to lie to you, this book was quite hard to read and it took way longer than I expected. For the most part I enjoyed it, but there are lots of boring sections I had to reread several times because I didn’t want to miss any great quotes, like the following:

★ ”Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are bound to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence.”

★ ”She felt increasingly (vision or nightmare?), that though people are important, the relations between them are not, and that in particular too much fuss has been made over marriage; centuries of carnal embrasement, yet no man is nearer to understanding man.”

★ “’Then you are told a lie,’ he flashed, for she had spoken the truth and it touched him on the raw.”

In addition those quotes, I loved the commentary this book makes on mortality (the idea of resurrecting someone merely by mentioning their memory, and also Godbole’s notions of absence and presence), and all the race and cultural conflicts that arise, which, white though I am, I thought Forster handled with amazing humanity. All the characters are annoying, changeable, and peevish, just like everyone in the world.

Overall though, 3 stars because the pacing was very slow and honestly barely anything happens.