A Room With a View

Middle number of stars? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I kind of just want to sum up this review with an “Ugh, MEN.”

‘Cause it's like poor Lucy just escaped a fiance that wouldn't stop telling her what she was feeling or how she should be, and then guy-she-kissed-in-Italy-once's DAD is like, “Oh but you love my son, I know you do even though you say you don't, because I am a man and obviously what I think is more important than what you think.”

But as I've said before, I struggle a lot with interpreting satire, so I'm not 100% sure that Forster's not just fucking with me, but I don't know how else to read this. It definitely picked up and got way more interesting in the second half, once Lucy and Charlotte left Italy. I don't know how I feel about Charlotte - sometimes I hated her and sometimes I felt bad for her, but she never came across as entirely sympathetic even on her best pages.

Also, how awesome would it have been if, instead of elderly spinster sisters, the Miss Alans had in fact been life partners that just couldn't be out because of Victorian Constraints or whatever. Once I started thinking that, it became head canon; you cannot convince me otherwise.