Alexander Chee

Chee’s collection is composed of personal essays, meaning he is the protagonist in each one and the central character throughout the book. This is true even of “After Peter,” Chee’s elegy for the artist and gay rights activist Peter Kelloran (the essay details more about their relationship than with Kelloran’s biography). Every essay is written in the first person, and they generally consist of a mix between Chee's contemporary self-as-writer, and reflection back on his younger experiences and beliefs.

While Chee is talented and insightful, it is also true that everything in his collection of essays is filtered through his worldview. This can yield certain myopic inaccuracies, as well as a few instances of excessive self-regard. In “Girl,” for instance, in which Chee revels in his successful transformation into a woman, he argues that the comfort he feels being dressed as a woman...