I feel almost indebted to Alexander Chee. I read all three of his major works this year and his writing, particularly in this group of essays, is so generous. Some people talk about writing as a gift, but um, Chee's writing is a gift... to me? To readers everywhere? To EVERYONE? I'm not exaggerating. It may sound hyperbolic, but have you read Chee?!

The longer essays invited me to linger with Chee and his journey; the shorter ones would devastate me (read "1989"). And I want to hear more stories about being Chloe Sevigny's neighbor. I read his novel THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT 🎭 in January and loved the sweeping novel, and thought it was probably not so autobiographical. But I still gained some insight. And having read this before EDINBURGH (I read the books chronologically backwards), I wonder about that context that I brought to my reading of it, and how personal perspective has bearing on how we take in art.

As someone who grew up as the perpetual new girl, and was asked 'what are you' inevitably, and dealt with one guy in middle school on the first day of a new school telling me "go hang out with those kids, they're mixed, too," the section called "My Country" in the essay "Girl" is heavily, heavily underlined. There are swaths of this book that I've underlined. I'd share all the quotes, but there's not enough room and you'd do well to discover them on your own, within your own context. I guarantee he'll speak to you, too.