JasonKoivu

Youth, love and time on your hands...whatever does one do with it all? What an upper class English lady of the early 20th century does with it is the basis for E.M. Forster's A Room with a View.

I expected more of a Death in Venice kind of languishing prose, but instead it felt, for the most part, more akin to Austen...except when it slipped into a borderline Bronte-esque melodrama. There was the snobbish principles and philosophy du jour as well as serious melancholy to be had in plenty, but to my surprise Forster wedged in enough levity to lighten it all up, not allowing it to sink into a mire of self-righteous platitudes and those all too earnest yet often misguided youthful yearnings. The writing was smart, though not too clever for its own good, aside from one gripe. Knocking down of the 4th wall and addressing the audience once every fifty or so pages was a distraction. Either utilize the technique through out consistently and force the reader to accept it or don't use it at all.

Okay, I lied. I have two gripes. The grounds upon which the love affair between Lucy and George is based on could've used more developing. I didn't fully buy into it. By the end I was okay with their relationship, but the start of it needed something more.

Goodreads' dang 5 star doesn't allow it, but if I could, I would actually rate this 3.5 stars.