Here the sequel becomes a bit of a slog as di Canzio retreads the events of the original, as he must if he’s to appeal to those who haven’t read Forster’s novel or who haven’t seen the excellent 1987 Merchant-Ivory film adaptation.Ĭhafing at his fate of a lifetime in service, Alec agrees to join his brother’s business venture in Argentina. There is one thing, though, in which he has absolutely no interest: girls. Continuing his interest in the life of the mind, di Canzio’s Alec attends classes at the nearby Workingman’s College.

Alec resents being a servant, but is drawn to caring for the game stock and working outdoors. In di Canzio’s telling, when Alec is finally booted from school, he lands as an under-gamekeeper-first at the estate of Lady Wentworth, then at that of Lady Durham, Clive’s mother. He’s a smart, inquisitive youth, who takes so well to his studies that he’s allowed to continue them beyond what was customary for the working class at that time. In di Canzio’s sequel to Forster’s tale, Alec Scudder is far from the loosely sketched cipher of the original. To do this, he rather improbably pulls young Alec Scudder out of his hat to be Maurice’s love interest and the catalyst for his sexual awakening in the back third of his novel Fearing arrest and loss of social status, Clive forces a sexless purity onto his affair with Maurice, ultimately calling it off and entering into a marriage of convenience.įorster’s intent, though, was to write a story with a happy ending. Though Oscar Wilde’s tragic demise nearly two decades earlier is never mentioned in Forster’s work, it looms ominously over its events. It tells the story of the love affair of Maurice Hall and Clive Durham, who meet-cute at Cambridge during a time when homosexuality was an imprisonable offense in England.

Set in England right before World War I, Forster’s original work is a thoughtfully rendered mess. Forster’s posthumously published novel, Maurice-but it’s got that sweet centre I crave. William di Canzio’s Alec is not without problems-like its source material, E. They’re a sensuous, sugary hit of pure emotion. William di Canzio, Alec (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021), 352 pp., $27.00 US.

Alec william di canzio