Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee

18 reviews

internationalreads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness

questingnotcoasting's review

challenging reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Death, Terminal illness, and Police brutality

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Racism, and Homophobia

sofievg's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

4.0

While I have no plans to start writing, I really enjoyed reading these essays. While the two which were formatted as lists were more difficult for me to connect with, all others were interesting, and I enjoyed the mix of writing anecdotes with all these big events which impacted his life.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Police brutality

writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

 How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee ✍🏻
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
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I really don’t know what I did to deserve so many five star reads already this year but I am basking in this bountiful harvest!
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🌹 The concept: In this book of essays Chee explores the porous seam between fiction and reality: the stories he has told of and to himself about his place in the world. He looks at his passage from boy to man to writer to artist, reckoning with identities inherited and evolved, and asks not just what roots fiction has in reality but what roots reality - the self, family, craft - has in fiction.
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This book had been bumping against the shores of my TBR for years before I finally picked it up. It was one of those books I knew before I read it that I would love, though as sometimes happens, I didn’t anticipate how, or how much. I folded down the corners of so many pages my hand hurt by the time I finished copying my favourite parts into my journal. On a sentence level, it’s perfect, and on the level of argument, or of exploring an idea, even more so. I will think about Chee’s instruction to “give your characters the situations of your life but not the events of it” every time I sit down to write from now until forever. For me, the greatest triumph of this book was getting some kind of answer to the question of how something can be a truth but not a fact, how a fiction or fabrication can communicate something deeply from one person to another without the errors of translation that can happen in a direct history. I loved this book.
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🌹 Read it if you are a writer, or are anyone really! Particularly if you don’t usually get along with books of essays - I’m not usually a huge fan, but this was brilliant and so compelling to read.
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🚫 Avoid it if you are avoiding scenes of police brutality or discussion of parental death or child sexual assault. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Death

zarap's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

nibs's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This book is so intimate and powerful. Such personal essays about his own experiences - identity being a central part, as well as writing - made me feel connected to the author and all other readers. EVery essay stands alone, but ordered like this forms a cohesive unit. I expected to connect most to his queerness, learning about history and seeing parallels with my present life as a queer young person, but all of his exploration of identity hit me so hard. 
What is your sense of self? What are you constructing as a self? How does your present shape your present self? 
I am recommending this to so many people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Pedophilia, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Racism, Terminal illness, and Mental illness

racheljane96's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Death of parent

manarnia's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book is phenomenal. I enjoyed reading it so much. Chee is a brilliant essayist, and while each essay stands alone just fine, this collection builds narratively in a way that I have never seen in another essay collection. This book is smart, sincere, and painfully honest. It's very intense at times, but it is very good all the way through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia