As a novelist,
Alexander Chee has been described as “masterful” by Roxane Gay,
“incendiary” by the New York Times, and "brilliant" by
the Washington Post. With How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, his
first collection of nonfiction, he’s sure to secure his place as
one of the finest essayists of his generation as well.
How to Write an
Autobiographical Novel is the author’s manifesto on the entangling
of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a
life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these
essays, he grows from student to teacher, reader to writer, and
reckons with his identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean American,
an artist, an activist, a lover, and a friend. He examines some of
the most formative experiences of his life and the nation’s
history, including his father’s death, the AIDS crisis, 9/11, the
jobs that supported his writing—Tarot-reading, bookselling,
cater-waiting for William F. Buckley—the writing of his first
novel, Edinburgh, and the election of Donald Trump.
By turns commanding,
heartbreaking, and wry, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel asks
questions about how we create ourselves in life and in art, and how
to fight when our dearest truths are under attack.