A Room with a View, E.M. Forster

I read this basically to fully appreciate Kevin Kwan’s Sex and Vanity, but I ended up enjoying it thoroughly. The first thing that struck me is how contemporary it feels.

For example, he takes the piss out of the British traveler, especially the kind that is on a quest for authenticity and who sneers at the typical traveler.

Then, there his lampooning of the British obsession with class. This is something I noticed in the only other book by this author that I’ve read – A Passage to India – which vividly brought home how the British concretised the caste system in India because of their own classist mindset. While I was reading that book I was pretty hung up on seeing it orientalist. I had no agenda with this one, and I fully appreciated Forster’s satirical powers.

There is also an engagement with feminist themes – this is really an anti-Pygmalion novel, but I was impressed that Lucie not only called out the obvious attempts of the anti-hero to mould her to his fantasy, but the subtle attempts of the hero. The difference between the two men is that one accepts the criticism immediately and it is clear he can change.

𝕊𝕖𝕩 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕍𝕒𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕪, Kevin Kwan

Read my thoughts on the chick lit blog here.

All Adults Here, Emma Straub

Just a great book driven by the characters and their lives. There is a queer relationship at the heart of it that pleasantly surprised me, but it is also about family, siblings and friendship.

The Windfall, Diksha Basu 

Excellent rendition of the middle class India. At some points, I felt that there was too much layering on about how the protoganist feels the need to keep up with the Joneses, but the additional plot of the son in America adds variation.

The Oxford Murders, Guillermo Martinez

This is supposed to be a mathematical murder mystery, but that turns out to be a red herring. It’s a well crafted story, easy to read.

Not a Sound, Heather Gudenkauf

One of the those mystery/thriller things that I did not love, but did not hate either. Do female protagonists in this genre have to be this tortured type? Also I guessed the killer quite early on. The last bit dragged on a bit too much.

What She Saw, Lucinda Rosenfeld

How did such fiesty seemingly well adjusted young woman turn essentially into a clone of the over angsty type in Normal People. Are we to assume that this is what college does to a slightly awkward young woman ? I could get on board with the horrid disaster of the professor but it did drag on and then she never seems to break the pattern, until she does and then it seems rather abrupt. She’s still better than the woman in Normal People because at least she has some bitchiness left  so there’s that.

I Don’t Care About Your Band, Julie Klausner

Thankfully, a memoir in which the fiesty protagonist stays fiesty, even though she does also stay in something of a rut. This is a single woman in New York’s romp through dating, but the woman in question is a comedien, so the writing benefits from her acerbic wit.