A review by rileygboard
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
I liked some stories more than others. Stand outs, to me, include “The Rosary”, “Mr. and Mrs. B” and the one about Annie Dillard. Others fell flat, didn’t feel like their own stories, or just didn’t capture me.
If I were the editor of this book, I would omit multiple introductions of the same information across stories. I understand that these were written as separate essays at separate times, but for the sake of a collection bound together with intentionality, why not remove all the times Chee reexplains that he moved from San Fransisco to LA, or worked at a queer bookstore, or as an ACT UP activist?
Despite the story “The Inheritance” I don’t think Chee ever really appropriately reckons with the fact of his own wealth, because so much the the novel seems to be about the plight of his own “poverty” without acknowledging that it’s of his own making. He’s sympathetic to the systemically impoverished, and works their jobs, but only because he spent his inheritance on a sports car the second he could.
Chee writes like an only child, and I was always surprised when I came across a rare reminder that he is not.
If I were the editor of this book, I would omit multiple introductions of the same information across stories. I understand that these were written as separate essays at separate times, but for the sake of a collection bound together with intentionality, why not remove all the times Chee reexplains that he moved from San Fransisco to LA, or worked at a queer bookstore, or as an ACT UP activist?
Despite the story “The Inheritance” I don’t think Chee ever really appropriately reckons with the fact of his own wealth, because so much the the novel seems to be about the plight of his own “poverty” without acknowledging that it’s of his own making. He’s sympathetic to the systemically impoverished, and works their jobs, but only because he spent his inheritance on a sports car the second he could.
Chee writes like an only child, and I was always surprised when I came across a rare reminder that he is not.