I originally felt hesitant because I was worried it would be dark. Anthony Hopkins just gives off that vibe I guess. That was not an issue. It's basically the story of two Romantic thinking sisters, Margaret and Helen, and their interactions with the more modern Enlightenment thinking Wilcox family. I feel like I should say more but honestly, until past the half way point, that would be my only way of describing it so anything more would be a spoiler. But I promise no hidden wives in the attic or skeletons in the closet. But I still didn't really like it - at least not until the very end.
My issues with it at the beginning were mostly the meandering and slow moving plot and the distance Forester keeps between us and the characters. There were some great quotes and ideas and I'm sure if I had a physical copy and not just an e-book, I would have be putting book darts all over the place. But that's not enough for me. I want to me immersed in the world of the book, the people and the places and I just couldn't do with this book. Instead it's like your in a helicopter, watching these people you don't really know, not really do anything. I do think, especially after listening to the podcast, that was intentionally, but I didn't enjoy it.
Around the half way point or a little bit after that, we finally start to have some story and some sense of where the book is going. But at that point, I didn't like where it was going! The only character I had at least some sense of connection with was Margaret. And from mid-way on, I was annoyed with her - and Forester. It's not just that I didn't agree with her choices, I didn't understand why she was making them. I still don't. It didn't seem like something she would do and all the logical reasons I can think of why someone in her situation would make that choice, don't really seem to match up with what Forester is trying to say. I can not like Mr. Wilcox as a character, and I don't, but not have an issue with Forester's portrayal of him if it's real. And I have no doubt that there were men just like him in those times. That's a different issue that the Margaret issue. And that I do think it's a failure on the book's part. He manipulated characters for a purpose, specifically Margaret, instead of creating characters that would actually act that way.
That said, it did pick up at the end and I read the last quarter of the book quite quickly. And happily, I do feel like Margaret somewhat redeemed herself from poor choices and I was able to feel like she was acting like Margaret again. So I didn't end the book with quite the bad taste in my mouth that I had expected and I certainly enjoyed listening the David, Tim and Angelina talk about it, but it's not a heart book, I have no plans to re-read it and I will mostly likely skip watching the movie even though I had thought I would since it's available on Netflix.
Howard's End is the Back to the Classics Challenge 20th Century read.
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