Finished: A Passage to India (Forster). A really good book. Full of vivid descriptions and well-developed characters that you become passionate about either towards extreme dislike or extreme like. I'm always amazed at how horribly human beings treated each other in some environments, and sadly, probably still do. This book is set in the time when England ruled in India, so the British people who went to live in India pretty much considered the local Indian people to be so far beneath them in status that to socialize with them in any manner was nearly an atrocity. At first, the story dragged a bit for me as two British women, Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested, come to visit Mrs. Moore's son, and Miss Quested's potential fiance, in the British controlled India. The son, Ronny, is in the government there and Miss Quested has arrived to see if she'll be able to "handle" life in India. The other British wives don't much appreciate Miss Quested because both she and Mrs. Moore want to see the "true" India and get to know the Indian people. As you can imagine, this was pretty much taboo to all the other snobby, pretentious, prejudiced British people. So, the story drags a bit until Mrs. Moore meets Dr. Aziz, an Indian doctor who is a widow with three small children. He is open minded and already friends with one English professor there in Chandrapore, Cecil Fielding. Out of politeness, and out of an instant respect and kinship he feels for Mrs. Moore, Dr. Aziz invites Mrs. Moore and Miss Quested for a day trip to the nearby Marabar Caves. Circumstances collide that unfortunately put Miss Quested, Dr. Aziz and another male guide alone in one of the pitch dark caves. Miss Quested is soon running down the side of the hill and into an awaiting car, back to Chandrapore and signing an affidavit that she was molested by Dr. Aziz in the dark cave before Dr. Aziz can even make his way back down to the remainder of the resting party. Assuming Miss Quested had her reasons for leaving so suddenly, the rest of the party makes their way back by elephant, the same way they arrived, and upon getting back into town, Dr. Aziz is arrested. The only person who completely protests his innocence and stands up for him, other than his own Indian friends, is Mr. Fielding. However, the rest of the British people, most of them in government and/or police rolls, will hear nothing of it and so Dr. Aziz is set to go to trial. Miss Quested is so overcome with horror that she is ill in bed for several days. When she finally gets her strength up to visit with Mrs. Moore again, she can tell that the older woman severely disapproves and doesn't think that Dr. Aziz is guilty in any way. Miss Quested starts to doubt whether she has the right person...and after all, all the assailant did was grab her field glass strap and whirl her around before she ran out. She can't be sure, after all, that it WAS Dr. Aziz and not the guide. Her now fiance, Ronny, and the rest of the pushy Brits encourage her to move on with the trial. The incident has caused much civil unrest in the town and Indian and British relations are at an all time uneasiness. Finally, on the stand, Miss Quested for the first time actually takes her mind back to the incident in the cave and she realizes that it wasn't Dr. Aziz who grabbed her at all, and she says so right on the witness stand. Dr. Aziz is immediately set free...but nothing is the same again between so many of the main characters. Miss Quested, with nowhere to go after the trial, ends up at the only sympathetic Brit's house...Mr. Fielding's. He, at first, doesn't even want to hear a word she says because he cares for Aziz deeply...however, he can soon see that there is nothing malicious about Miss Quested...she made an honest mistake, and now has nowhere to go. Aziz becomes very hurt that Fielding has become friendly with his "enemy" and their relationship is nearly ruined forever. Anyway...there so much detail in the book, and much more story. I felt so strongly for each of the characters, and this was a good, solid book that tugged at my heartstrings quite a bit. :-)