WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 25. Alec by William di Canzio

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54785525-alec

As a fan of E.M. Forster’s gay fiction classic Maurice, I was intrigued to learn that someone would want to write a follow-up novel. This book is essentially fan-fiction, but it has its own unique voice that both holds the classic, but probably goes deeper with modern sensibilities. Based on the narration and the lurid gay scenes describing young Alec Scudder’s first gay experiences, I knew this was a modern interpretation from another fan, most likely one who was enchanted by the notion of a happily ever after. Is it worth a read though?

As a 340-pages long novel or 9 hours and 49-minute audible audiobook, it is by nature not a quick read as Maurice was. I suggest interested readers to give themselves 2 days of reading time at least to complete this book.

Plot: The story is told from the perspective of Alec Scudder, the young man who vowed he and Maurice would never be separated again at the end of E.M. Forster’s classic novel Maurice. The plot unfolds into the background of David Alexander Scudder, who is the titular Alec. He is born a lower-class village boy with limited access to education, but a genuinely keen modern mind. Unlike many other contemporaries of his time, he learned he was a homosexual at a young age, but never allowed prejudice to cloud his choices. The first 10 chapters of the book recounts the events of Maurice through Alec’s perspective, including the rationale of why he tried to scare Maurice with the fake blackmailing scheme. Alec wanted to punish Maurice, but he also wanted to push him into truly seeing him. The revelation of love led Alec toward his own journey of self-realization and reflection to give up on his old life to be with Maurice as his secret lover. In addition to what was in the original book, new characters are introduced, such as Cornellia Wentworth, also known as the Baroness, who fancies gay males in her retinue. These new characters would impact Alec’s worldview and be friends to him and Maurice throughout the book. After almost a year of a pleasant same sex relationship, Alec and Maurice enlisted in the British army. Maurice being from a higher rank in society as a college educated man becomes an officer and is sent on horrific historic Gallipoli campaign. Alec in contrast as a common soldier fight on the bloody western front in France. Through personal tragedies and war, they must survive the horrors of battle and the psychological trauma afterward. The latter part of the book deals with post-World War I era.

Review: I like this book as a fan-fiction or interpretation of a classic story. E.M. Forster lived for decades after World War I, but he never published any other major book after the war, except post humorously with Maurice in 1971, which he wrote between 1912-13. Passage to India, A Room with a View, and Howard’s End were all done pre-World War I under an Edwardian English setting. William di Canzio attempted to emulate his style and imagined how he would have written a continuation to Maurice and the horrors of World War I. I think the author succeeded in most part, trying to capture the spirit of Alec.

I think William Di Canzio is a true fan of Maurice with all the little details he added into the book. There was a nice symbolic cameo of a roaming college professor, named Morgan, who taught Alec about the classics and became his first true openly gay friend before Maurice. For those, who do not know or have read up on Edward Morgan Forster, many of his friends and lovers called him “Morgan”. Additionally, Di Canzio also used Morgan to introduce Alec and Maurice to their real-life historical counterparts Fred and George, who were the real-life couple Morgan based Maurice on. It adds a little meta-fictional layer to the story. Those may not be grand details, but to people like me who read novels and read their background references for context, it shows a great devotion to the subject. Even if you dislike fan-fiction writers for using another author’s work as a reader, things like that should dispel preconceptions about lack of care.

World War I as a subject is something gay fiction writers rarely touches on heavily. In truth, it’s an old conflict with a lackluster conclusion that precipitated World War II merely 2 decades later. However, I think that’s the point of World War I, it’s a war fought for false ideals of national honor and prestige, national glory and pride that were essentially meaningless. Whereas Maurice described the gilded age of Edwardian English society, we are treated to a shell-shocked and societal shift during and after World War I, notions of nationalism, freedom, and idealism are front and center. I think William Di Canzio captured that concept very well in this story, he’s channeling Hemingway and other writers from the Lost Generation, the inter-war years writers who felt lost after the romanticism of valor and conflicts were shattered on the battlefields of Somme and failures of Gallipoli. The outrage and hatred of the common soldier for war were neat little details, the tragic deaths of minor characters made the war affecting for the story. The journey of Alec and Maurice during the war to survive for each other left me feeling like I had re-watched The Notebook.

Other little things: There's even mentions of the coming Socialist "Red Scares" that influenced generations of Western views. There's a balance between socialism and progressive ideals that Alec portrays being from a blue-collar background as a servant versus his lover Maurice's more conformist and conservative notions; it brings out the best in both of them. I also like the small note on how gay relationships worked in France historically, where gay partners were seen as "Father and adopted Son", in order for them have shared custody rights to property. The practice may be mistaken as pederasty by purists, but in fact, it was more a matter of legal convenience between gay men so their life partner can legally hold joint property.

Still, I have to note the flaws in this story for anyone who does not care about all the above. I thought the additional drama involving Kittie Hall at the end of the novel was unnecessary. Yes, the subject matter of race should be brought up and I do appreciate the idea of bringing in topics raised by Forster himself from Passage to India, but it felt tacked on. Maurice and Alec have to figure their post-war lives together to regain a semblance of sanity, adding Kittie's issues makes it feel wrong. Race issues in post world War I English settings prior to World War II are not well establish in gay fiction world. People don't use the "N" word in our world, so I can appreciate William Di Canzio for being honest and highlighting English racist tendencies during the era, when the British Imperialism was nearing its end and racial epithets were the norm. However, I think he should have gradually introduced racist elements into the book rather than waiting until the last few chapters to spring it on readers.

One other point: William Di Canzio, as a gay man like myself, took a different personal interpretation of Alec’s character from Maurice; Alec in this book is purely gay, not slightly bisexual, which is what most readers believed from Maurice. For bisexual male audiences, I know the argument, it’s an example of “Bi-erasure”. For those who do not know what that means in gay male romance, it’s a concept in which seemingly bisexual characters are made completely homosexual in order to conform with gay vs. straight expectations of audiences. I’ve read a lot of gay romances and written a few of my own, there’s merit to that argument. However, Maurice is a seminal work on homosexual love, we each have our own interpretations on what the characters mean to us and their love with each other. Also, if E.M. Forster can write Clive as a sexually fluid seemingly gay male who repress his homosexuality to the point of being portrayed as an dispassionate "faux" heterosexual, I do not see an issue with the obviously passionate Alec being portrayed as a gay man, who out of a defense mechanism hid his identity to Maurice at first as a bisexual. If you look at from that angle, you will appreciate William Di Canzio's interpretation and novel a lot more.

My Review: 4.25 out of 5, not as perfect as the original novel, but it’s worth a read for fans of the original. There's a lot of neat little details concerning E.M. Forster, World War I, and even a few English folk songs.

Next up, I will finish off Leta Blake's Will and Patrick series as it stands currently in quick succession, then switch to a normal schedule of 2 reviews per week