Book #18: The Life to Come and Other Stories by E.M. Forster
The Life to Come and Other Stories by E.M. Forster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a collection of short stories by E.M. Forster, most of which were not published until after his death in 1970.
Something I hadn't realised until I read this book was that Forster was gay, and had written several homoerotic stories. Unfortunately attitudes at the time he wrote them meant that publishers wouldn't touch them.
A couple of the stories had some very shocking themes, including rape, and one of the moments that surprised me most was a character who apparently "wanted to be raped". I also noticed that one story ("The Other Boat") had not aged well, with its referring to a mixed race character as a "half caste".
I enjoyed reading these stories, many of which came with a plot twist at the end, although some of them seemed very dense in the way the narrative was written, and I really had to pay attention, and occasionally read between the lines.
The biggest curiosity for me was the final story, "Four Courses and a Dessert", a murder mystery in four parts, each by a different author; Forster wrote the second part, and the other writers were ones I'd not heard of.
I doubt this is a book that can be found easily in shops, but if you do come across a copy, it is well worth reading.
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