Fantasies of the Body

A literature scholar and novelist reflects on the loves of his life in the elegant latest from Plante (the Francoeur Trilogy). As a young man in 1960s Boston, the unnamed narrator meets William, a “beautiful” blue-eyed man who has just returned home from an English university where he studied the classics. The pair embark on a torrid affair, which they keep secret due to the upper-crust William’s apprehension. As their dalliances grow infrequent, William introduces the narrator to an English poet named Cecil, with whom the narrator falls in love and follows to London. There, Cecil introduces the narrator to the Bloomsbury circle, including an elderly E.M. Forster. The group dazzles the narrator, but their engagements occupy too much of Cecil’s attention for the narrator’s relationship with him to go any further. The narrator carries memories of his love for William and Cecil as the decades pass. He finds stability in his professional life as don at Kings College, even as he weathers passionate heights and crestfallen disappointments with subsequent lovers. In his account, he manages to suffuse immense heart and soul into every simmering encounter. Plante’s novel beautifully explores unquenchable and bittersweet queer desire, and a uniquely felt “passion for a world that was a world of men.” It’s a gem. (Nov.)