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A review by writtenontheflyleaves
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee โ๐ป
๐๐๐๐๐
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I really donโt 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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๐น 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 didnโt 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, itโs perfect, and on the level of argument, or of exploring an idea, even more so. I will think about Cheeโs instruction to โgive your characters the situations of your life but not the events of itโ 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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๐น Read it if you are a writer, or are anyone really! Particularly if you donโt usually get along with books of essays - Iโm not usually a huge fan, but this was brilliant and so compelling to read.
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๐ซ Avoid it if you are avoiding scenes of police brutality or discussion of parental death or child sexual assault.
๐๐๐๐๐
-
I really donโt know what I did to deserve so many five star reads already this year but I am basking in this bountiful harvest!
-
๐น 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.
-
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 didnโt 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, itโs perfect, and on the level of argument, or of exploring an idea, even more so. I will think about Cheeโs instruction to โgive your characters the situations of your life but not the events of itโ 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.
-
๐น Read it if you are a writer, or are anyone really! Particularly if you donโt usually get along with books of essays - Iโm not usually a huge fan, but this was brilliant and so compelling to read.
-
๐ซ Avoid it if you are avoiding scenes of police brutality or discussion of parental death or child sexual assault.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Death of parent, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Death