Alf (Gay Modern Classics)

Rating:
Summary: More Than Just a Gay Novel
Review: On the one hand, it is correct to class ALF as gay literature. Its story turns on the coming of age of the hero, Alf, and his friendship with Felix. The book is clearly aimed at the legal and social oppression of same sex love and relationships in Germany in the early part of the century. Interestingly, the author, Bruno Vogel, was not gay as far as I know and lived most of his life with a woman as long-time companion. He was, rather, a general activist and agitator.

On the other hand, it is equally important to recognize the book at part of the anti-war literature that came out of the pointless horror of World War I. In German one thinks of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by E.M. Remarque and in English of JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo. Slightly less well known are two other books that, like ALF, combine the issue of gay sexual orientation with pacifism, DESPISED AND REJECTED by A.J. Fitzroy and, perhaps the best work of the genre and to my knowledge her only work in a modern setting, Mary Renault's THE CHARIOTEER.

The book is certainly not one of the ten great works of literature of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, it is a well told tale with three dimensional characters whom one can understand and whose feelings one understands and shares. The voice of frustrated protest is powerful. At the very least, the book has an historical importance, not so much because we live in the age of Lawrence v. Texas but more because we live in the age of "proactive" war against Iraq and war against the phenomenon of terrorism.

The motto printed at the front of the book is: "To Understand Everything is Not to Forgive Everything." Perhaps a more apt, modern motto might be the T-shirt slogan: "The Problem is Not Gay Soldiers; the Problem is Dead Soldiers. Ban the Military."

Samuel Johnson
(the translator)

Rating:
Summary: More Than Just a Gay Novel
Review: On the one hand, it is correct to class ALF as gay literature. Its story turns on the coming of age of the hero, Alf, and his friendship with Felix. The book is clearly aimed at the legal and social oppression of same sex love and relationships in Germany in the early part of the century. Interestingly, the author, Bruno Vogel, was not gay as far as I know and lived most of his life with a woman as long-time companion. He was, rather, a general activist and agitator.

On the other hand, it is equally important to recognize the book at part of the anti-war literature that came out of the pointless horror of World War I. In German one thinks of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by E.M. Remarque and in English of JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo. Slightly less well known are two other books that, like ALF, combine the issue of gay sexual orientation with pacifism, DESPISED AND REJECTED by A.J. Fitzroy and, perhaps the best work of the genre and to my knowledge her only work in a modern setting, Mary Renault's THE CHARIOTEER.

The book is certainly not one of the ten great works of literature of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, it is a well told tale with three dimensional characters whom one can understand and whose feelings one understands and shares. The voice of frustrated protest is powerful. At the very least, the book has an historical importance, not so much because we live in the age of Lawrence v. Texas but more because we live in the age of "proactive" war against Iraq and war against the phenomenon of terrorism.

The motto printed at the front of the book is: "To Understand Everything is Not to Forgive Everything." Perhaps a more apt, modern motto might be the T-shirt slogan: "The Problem is Not Gay Soldiers; the Problem is Dead Soldiers. Ban the Military."

Samuel Johnson
(the translator)