soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2013-04-02 08:54 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-04-02 08:54 pm
Maurice, by E.M. Forster
I picked this book up because I heard it belongs to the regrettably-rare BOOKS WRITTEN IN THE PAST ABOUT QUEER PEOPLE WHO GET HAPPY ENDINGS!!!!! category. Which is a pretty excellent category which I am ALWAYS happy to learn of further books to add to!
...I'm not quite sure what to think of this book, though. I mean, it does more or less deliver on what was promised! It is written in 1913/1914 and set in that era, it features a queer dude as the main character, and that queer dude leaves the last page of the book in the happy company of the man he loves at the time. But I somehow couldn't quite get into it.
I think my biggest problem was that I never quite got convinced of anyone's feelings towards each other, or in fact what they might see in each other. Clive and Maurice both more or less feel like real people, albeit people I wouldn't like, but I am utterly baffled as to why they like(d) each other and the text doesn't put much effort into convincing the reader of it. And then Alec is even MORE of a mystery...! And gosh the Maurice/Alec relationship just feels very much out of nowhere and very likely to fizzle out quickly. I was just full of lots of wtfs because sure it might be a happy ending to the book but it is NOT A HAPPY ENDING I AM AT ALL CONVINCED OF so it wasn't nearly as satisfying to me as I wanted it to be. I would not object to being convinced of Maurice and Alec's love at all! I wanted to be sold on it! But the book did not succeed in that regard. Sigh.
It's a very good book though -- at least, I think it is? idk. It's very convincing as a picture of an average british guy of his era trying to figure out how to live his life when he doesn't fit the mould of "normal". The book is very, mmm, subdued in tone, which isn't what I'm used to but which worked for the book -- it really succeeded in getting at the stifling mindset Maurice had grown up in.
But overall I didn't enjoy the process of reading this book much at all.
Oh well, I'm glad to have read it, since it is one of those important texts that is always being referred to!
(when we first get introduced to Alec's name my reaction was "WAIT WHAT THIS IS THAT BOOK????" Because I was vaaaaaguely familiar with there being a book in existence with a romance between two dudes, one of whom was named Alec, and the boathouse being important, and them running off to the woods together at the end. But I didn't realize that that book was "Maurice"! NOW I KNOW.)
...I'm not quite sure what to think of this book, though. I mean, it does more or less deliver on what was promised! It is written in 1913/1914 and set in that era, it features a queer dude as the main character, and that queer dude leaves the last page of the book in the happy company of the man he loves at the time. But I somehow couldn't quite get into it.
I think my biggest problem was that I never quite got convinced of anyone's feelings towards each other, or in fact what they might see in each other. Clive and Maurice both more or less feel like real people, albeit people I wouldn't like, but I am utterly baffled as to why they like(d) each other and the text doesn't put much effort into convincing the reader of it. And then Alec is even MORE of a mystery...! And gosh the Maurice/Alec relationship just feels very much out of nowhere and very likely to fizzle out quickly. I was just full of lots of wtfs because sure it might be a happy ending to the book but it is NOT A HAPPY ENDING I AM AT ALL CONVINCED OF so it wasn't nearly as satisfying to me as I wanted it to be. I would not object to being convinced of Maurice and Alec's love at all! I wanted to be sold on it! But the book did not succeed in that regard. Sigh.
It's a very good book though -- at least, I think it is? idk. It's very convincing as a picture of an average british guy of his era trying to figure out how to live his life when he doesn't fit the mould of "normal". The book is very, mmm, subdued in tone, which isn't what I'm used to but which worked for the book -- it really succeeded in getting at the stifling mindset Maurice had grown up in.
But overall I didn't enjoy the process of reading this book much at all.
Oh well, I'm glad to have read it, since it is one of those important texts that is always being referred to!
(when we first get introduced to Alec's name my reaction was "WAIT WHAT THIS IS THAT BOOK????" Because I was vaaaaaguely familiar with there being a book in existence with a romance between two dudes, one of whom was named Alec, and the boathouse being important, and them running off to the woods together at the end. But I didn't realize that that book was "Maurice"! NOW I KNOW.)
no subject
Aw, I'm sad to hear Well of Loneliness ends unhappily, but not exactly surprised :oP You make it sound delicious I have to say *g* I think that old-school butch/femme divide is really interesting (I recced a fem!lock AU to that tune a few months ago). It's definitely still high on my list of stuff to get to!
I'm glad to know someone liked EM Forster (well, I know Stepen Fry loves him, so), and I'm definitely still curious enough to want to check it out.
no subject
It is SO delicious, and is the only book that ever managed to make me cry about a horse.
no subject