Everyone this year, everywhere I go, is talking about James Baldwin.
Some Things You May Like If You Like This Blog
Me on James Salter at The Paris Review Daily. Me on studying with Annie Dillard, learning to use an e-reader, and the racial unconscious of the United States as seen in our superhero comics.
A a copy of my first novel at your favorite retailer of choice.
Edinburgh is in print from the good people at Picador. Here are some reactions to it:
…Alexander Chee’s Edinburgh, fucking incredible son of a bitch...
— Junot Diaz, over at Austinist
Alexander Chee is the best new novelist I’ve seen in some time. Edinburgh is moody, dramatic—and pure.
— Edmund White
Edinburgh has the force of a dream and the heft of a life. And Alexander Chee is a brilliant new writer.
— Annie Dillard
Haunting… complex… sophisticated. [Chee] says volumes with just a few incendiary words.
— The New York Times Book Review
A coming-of-age novel in the grand Romantic tradition, where passions run high, Cupid stalks Psyche, and love shares the dance floor with death . . . A lovely, nuanced, never predictable portrait of a creative soul in the throes of becoming.
— The Washington Post Book World
Chee is a gifted, poetic writer who takes big risks…This novel marks the debut of a major talent whose career will bear watching.
— Publishers Weekly
A striking debut…A complex story told with skill and intensity, but also filled with moments when agony and extraordinary beauty somehow coexist.
— Kirkus Reviews
A complex, sophisticated, elegant investigation of trauma and desire - like a white hot flame.— Joyce Hackett, in the Guardian UK
A second novel will be out soon, but not really soon, as it is still being edited. When it appears, it will be called "The Queen of the Night" and say "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt" on the spine, plus my name. Details will appear here and also on alexanderchee.net.
I haven’t mentioned him in months!
I’d say start bucking the trend and bring up Langston Hughes.
xo.
This isn’t skinny jeans, Lance. It’s a spontaneous cultural moment.
Or another way of putting it might be, I think it’s interesting that so many different kinds of writers are looking to Baldwin’s work for courage in these times.
certainly.
but, I’m sitting here wondering…
why the wait.
and even; what next.
and, even skinny jeans can speak of something else… a society in search of a moment to break from what they all know in their hearts needs to be broken from.
no disrespect meant in the lighthearted…
xo.
I actually read Baldwin for the first time this year–such is the life of a teenager who read Lord of the Rings nine times: you catch up on stuff. I wrote a poem about it, actually….interesting that you bring up courage. Hmm….
Any recommendations on what to read of Baldwin’s after Giovanni’s Room?
Lance: I was also being light-hearted!
Lee: Ha! Also nine times here.
Chris: Oi. I think after Giovanni’s Room, a good place to go is the essays: The Fire Next Time, for example.