Introduction to analysis – Alex Chee – How to write an autobiographical novel

We started reading Alex Chee’s “How to write an autobiographical novel” in April 2023. The book is a very personal account of Alex Chee’s life when he was coming to terms with many of his identities. Through these essays, Chee reveals his struggles as a gay person in the US of the 1980s, as a gay writer trying to make his mark and the AIDs crisis. He lays bare his vulnerabilities though his honest admissions, his struggles, his wins and his losses.

Each chapter can be read as an independent essay, however, continuity helps – we read this book from the beginning to the end, in order.

We made notes on every chapter but most of them were simply observations and at various junctures, they were just plain admiration for the author. Many chapters are broadly a narration of events so sometimes, there’s not much to analyse. But some of them have deeper connections within the events mentioned. Those chapters warranted a much deeper focus to read. As expected, such chapters provided ample material to analyse and we have collected our notes on such chapters, collated them together in a way that can be made sense and put them here.

These analysis aren’t a guide, nor were they ever intended to be that. However, we are hopeful that these notes would further supplement the understanding of anyone who has read this magnificent book.