Arctic Summer

I grabbed this book from the library in my usual, arbitrary way: I liked the spine and the binding, and the cover; then I saw it was a Europa Edition and decided to check it out. Then I never got around to reading it, and had forgotten about it until noticing it on my Overdrive wishlist.

Arctic Summer is biographical novel of English novelist E.M. Forster; it's mostly about Morgan's desperate search for love and companionship and sex, and how he basically didn't get those things. It's gorgeous and emotional and restrained, and I loved every word.

Overwhelmingly, this novel is just bittersweet. Morgan is so sweetly likeable (I know it's trendy these days to want unlikable characters, but there's something to be said for characters you also show more just want to squish) but his life so empty despite the people, jobs, and travel that fill it. He finds some intense emotional relationships, a few that translate into physical/sexual ones, but all seem lopsided and unequal -- some, because the other man is not as interested; some, because of racial and class inequalities.

Morgan's yearning for companionship just hit me so hard; despite all the changes legally and socially in some parts of the world, queer folks still can't live freely and openly. I'm lucky in my life that I haven't lost anything in being open with the person I love -- but it's easy to imagine a world in which I didn't have that luxury.

Galgut draws from a wealth of source material, and apparently includes real quotes -- slightly amended -- in the text, a technique I didn't notice, and the narrative reads beautifully. Every other line is quote-worthy; despite the slim size of this read, I kept pausing to meditate and chew over the story.

I'm genuinely sad having finished it; not just because I've ended a good read but because I ache for Morgan. I want a few more pages where he is not just fine -- because he is fine -- but where he is stupidly, insanely happy. show less

Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut was the fourth Forster related novel that I read, this one based on the years Foster wrote his novel A Passage to India.

Forster comes very believably alive in what at times feels more like a biography than a novel. Historically correct, Galgut doesn’t take much liberties as a novelist in making things up.

Where Galgut excels are the many scenes in which he writes about the inner life of Forster as a closeted gay man with sexual desires that causes him constant frustration.

When, during his second stay at India as assistant to the ruler of the Indian kingdom of Dewas, Forster is finally able to act on his desires and he discovers things in himself about the interaction between love and power, it is the show more catalyst that enables him to finally finish his great Indian novel A Passage to India.

A fine novel that can imo be appreciated best when you have a special interest in the life of E.M. Forster. show less

This is a fictionalised account of the lengthy creative process that eventually led to A Passage to India. EM Forster s not an easy character to write about - his personal repression mirrored in creative constipation; all frustration and wishfulness, playing out eventually into some of the greatest writing of the first half of the 20th century, followed by a creative desert in Forster's later life. This emptiness and inability to 'connect' feeds into this novel and, unsurprisingly can make it frustrating and difficult to engage with. But as with Forster's creative muse, perseverance pays off and the reading experience becomes more fruitful. I left with the intention to return to the novels...

I enjoyed this book but I can see how some might find it a little dry. It's a fictionalized account of how and why EM Forster wrote "A Passage to India," focusing on his friendship with two men, Mohammed and Masood. It's very heavy on exposition and description; it's like a fictionalized biography. Galgut tells us how these friendships and the time he spent in India prior to 1945 formed the basis of the novel, and how his sexuality influenced all of this as well. It's engaging but it won't be for every reader; Galgut's Forster is self-centered and misogynistic but those who like detailed character-driven stories will enjoy it.

In the end, everything comes down to love in all its infinite variety. The tortured and somewhat pathetic English Man, famous author EM Forster, is the subject. Forster struggled throughout his life to come to terms with who he was, and the story twists and turns around his often failed efforts to connect with another man.
Don't miss this book: its a detailed and poignant analysis of one of the great figures of early 20th century literature, written in accessible way which carries the reader on through more than 300 pages. I almost couldn't put it down. Why didn't this book win the Man Booker?

Writing a novel about the life of a man who hasn't really lived, as Forster thinks about himself,is a challenge. Galgut did not fully succeed. Especially in the first part the description of Forster's life remains superficial,cliché. It does get better as Forster travels abroad and succeeds in overcoming his inhibitions. The best part of the book is about the impossibility to construct a bridge between the English and Indian culture, as Forster comes to realise while he is in India and is also exemplified in his relation to Masood, a great love of his.

A fascinating portrait of E.M. Forster and his long struggle to produce "A passage to India". Galgut's prose is always well-judged and readable, and it left me wanting to read Forster.