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Alec: A Novel Kindle Edition
William di Canzio’s Alec, inspired by Maurice, E. M. Forster’s secret novel of a happy same-sex love affair, tells the story of Alec Scudder, the gamekeeper Maurice Hall falls in love with in Forster’s classic, published only after the author's death.
Di Canzio follows their story past the end of Maurice to the front lines of battle in World War I and beyond. Forster, who tried to write an epilogue about the future of his characters, was stymied by the radical change that the Great War brought to their world. With the hindsight of a century, di Canzio imagines a future for them and a past for Alec—a young villager possessed of remarkable passion and self-knowledge.
Alec continues Forster’s project of telling stories that are part of “a great unrecorded history.” Di Canzio’s debut novel is a love story of epic proportions, at once classic and boldly new.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication dateJuly 6, 2021
- File size2622 KB
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From the Publisher
Praise for Alec by William di Canzio
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"There’s a sweeping romantic vision here that’s as old-fashioned as it is refreshingly modern, with this war-torn couple pining away for each other as they hold their love in the highest esteem, in bold defiance of English laws and customs . . . Di Canzio’s novel reads like an attempt to make these forgotten men feel less alone, to proliferate their stories . . . Alec is fiction as queer archaeology, demonstrating that looking back doesn’t necessarily mean looking backward."―Manuel Betancourt, The New York Times Book Review
"Alec is the kind of novel Maurice could never be, full of sex and war, death and torture. Di Canzio’s descriptions of their experiences are harrowing, tender, brutal, and comic . . . The question Maurice raised―is there anywhere these men can truly be together?―is made the more real, not the less, by the war and this novel." ―Alexander Chee, The New Republic
"Just when it began to seem that I couldn’t read E. M. Forster’s Maurice one more time, as much as I love it, here’s Alec, William di Canzio’s brilliant reimagining of Forster’s classic. Alec extends Maurice, delivers it to us intact but refreshed and reconsidered. I, for one, am extremely grateful.” ―Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours
"The classic love story of upperclass Englishman Maurice Hill and gamekeeper Alec Scudder comes alive again in this inspired reimagining of E. M. Forster’s novel Maurice. Although told this time from Alec’s point of view, the new novel successfully captures the spirit of Forster’s original. . .the love story itself remains timeless, and its seamless reimagining is an altogether memorable accomplishment. One imagines Forster would be pleased." ―Booklist (starred review)
"Playwright Di Canzio’s canny debut retells E.M. Forster’s pioneering gay classic, Maurice, from the point of view of the gamekeeper who ends up with the title character. . . Di Canzio liberally quotes dialogue from Forster’s novel for dozens of pages, creating a satisfying blend of fan fiction and intertextuality. The romance and the wartime scenes are particularly well rendered, as is a postwar episode featuring Alec in Cassis." ―Publishers Weekly
"Heartfelt, sexy, and luminously written, DiCanzio’s novel conjures the Forsterian spirit to bring Alec and Maurice into the modern world. The deft interweaving of queer history, queer fiction, queer biography and sheer imagination kept me thinking and open to surprise. I loved it." ―Wendy Moffat, author of A Great Unrecorded History: a New Life of E.M. Forster
"Maurice and Alec are one of literature's iconic couples. It's been more than a century since Forster first let these lovers into the world, and what a treat to return to them now, in di Canzio's moving homage, where we find our boys still offering valuable lessons, still tender and troubled and courageous enough to love." ―Justin Torres, author of We the Animals
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B08FGV6LFX
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux (July 6, 2021)
- Publication date : July 6, 2021
- Language : English
- File size : 2622 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 354 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0374102600
- Best Sellers Rank: #475,791 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #389 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #1,835 in Romance Literary Fiction
- #2,840 in Gay & Lesbian (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
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William di Canzio’s beautiful “Alec,” inspired by “Maurice,” is really the story I and my generation yearned for, presented through Alec Scudder’s life, including the critical chapters when it intersects with Maurice Hall’s visit to Penge with his Cambridge chum Clive Durham.
What di Canzio does so well is capture the tone of Forster’s writing, and the period in which the original book was set—the early 20th century, through the aftermath of World War I (which Forster didn’t have to deal with at all). He borrows crucial passages from Forster, thereby fusing the two stories together. Di Canzio does something else in his book: he inverts the social perspective of E.M. Forster’s voice, letting it all unfold through the eyes of a young, beautiful, smart working-class man from small-town England. The assumption of the charm of the upper classes in Forster’s book is subverted in favor of the pragmatic honesty of Alec’s social stratum. The Scudders have no love of aristocracy, and Alex himself rebels against being “in service” to anyone—even as he is forced to take a job in order to make money and survive. Social class in England is presented as it was, unromantic and surprisingly ugly in its ramifications.
Conversely, Maurice Hall’s world is presented as frustrating (his unsuccessful efforts to woo the class-bound Clive, for whom the crumbling country house and public status matter more than any kind of real love or happiness). Maurice’s upper-middle-class world of gentility and striving affluence is revealed to be steeped in compassionless class-consciousness and racism. The finale of the book zeroes in on this in a way that left me in tears.
The other inversion of expectations is that, in the end, it is Alex who saves Maurice’s life, initially. I love the way both men have to let go of their prejudices and limitations in order to make their own happiness possible. I love the way we see how both Alex and Maurice arrive at the conclusion that their right to feel love means that the rest of the world is wrong. This is what my generation had to do, and not everyone succeeded. I also love the way di Canzio introduces the characters of Ted and George (the historical figures of Edward Carpenter and George Merrill) as role models during an idyllic moment. I love the way di Canzio resists inserting 21st-century notions into the story. This is two men fighting desperately against a world entirely barricaded against them. Ironically, this is also two men willing to fight in a bloody, pointless, idiotic war for a nation that devalues and demonizes people like them. After all, Black men fought in World War II for a country that gave them almost nothing in return.
“Alec” is a lovely, brilliant book. If you haven’t read “Maurice,” read this first, and then read Forster’s book.
If and how the two lovers meet again at the war’s end…well, that is to read yourself.
A lovely book!
Maurice has always been one of my very favorite novels; it was the book (along with the film version) that made me come out to myself as a young man in the early '90s, and as such, it is very close to my heart. Alec resonated with me in an equally profound way.
Even though I am intimately familiar with the events of Maurice, my heart was still racing while reading Alec's point of view, and Mr. di Canzio continues the story of these two special men in such a beautiful, realistic, resonant, and profound way. Alec has now joined Maurice as an essential part of my library, and I wanted to express my deep gratitude for this book and Mr. di Canzio's vision from the bottom of my heart. Forster would be proud.
Top reviews from other countries
William di Cazio captures the essence of “Maurice” and not only adds to it but takes you on their journey after “Maurice” and beyond!
A must read for fans of E.M. Foster’s “Maurice”
O livro funciona bem como uma espécie de “parte 2” de “Maurice”. Conheceremos mais da juventude do gamekeeper, veremos cenas que já conhecíamos em “Maurice” sob uma nova perspectiva, e finalmente descobriremos o que aconteceu ao casal principal.
A escrita de di Canzio é leve e fluída, os capítulos são devorados facilmente. Não a vejo no mesmo nível da de Forster, o que não significa que seja ruim. Di Canzio traz a questão sexual muito mais abertamente também, ainda que respeitando a época em que os personagens vivem, de modo a não criar cenas anacrônicas.
O livro em si é extremamente leve, creio que devido à qualidade do papel. É amareladinho, o que facilita na leitura.
Reviewed in Brazil on March 11, 2022
O livro funciona bem como uma espécie de “parte 2” de “Maurice”. Conheceremos mais da juventude do gamekeeper, veremos cenas que já conhecíamos em “Maurice” sob uma nova perspectiva, e finalmente descobriremos o que aconteceu ao casal principal.
A escrita de di Canzio é leve e fluída, os capítulos são devorados facilmente. Não a vejo no mesmo nível da de Forster, o que não significa que seja ruim. Di Canzio traz a questão sexual muito mais abertamente também, ainda que respeitando a época em que os personagens vivem, de modo a não criar cenas anacrônicas.
O livro em si é extremamente leve, creio que devido à qualidade do papel. É amareladinho, o que facilita na leitura.