Status Updates From Maurice

Picking a century old British novel as my first book since highschool was not the right choice 🥲

“I’ve been like this ever since I can remember without knowing why…” :(

“Was it conceivable that on Sunday last he had nearly assaulted a boy?” Edward Morgan you are KILLING ME

Part 4 excellent. Forster wraps sexuality up in other conformities of the time (class) as broad critique. Earlier scenes (Clive in Greece) clicked for me. 2 approaches to the conformity problem; the security of hiding vs the freedom of living truth, issues still grappled over today. Suspense as book examines how fraught it was for gay men. Maurice at times hard to like, at times admirable. Slow middle but very solid.

The wrong words on his lips, the wrong desires in his heart, and his arms full of air.

He was an average man, and could have won an average fight, but Nature had pitted him against the extraordinary, which only saints can subdue unaided, and he began to lose ground.