First: thank you to my new subscribers and welcome. For those of you new to this newsletter, as initially conceived, my Activity Report was really just my version of “this is what I’m up to and what I’ve been reading,” always free to any subscribers. Things I might share on social media about my work or the work of others.
A brief announcement about my upcoming (Tuesday June 18th) Fine Arts Work Center class on E. M. Forster’s novel Maurice—the talk will be recorded. For those who have inquired: Pre-registration means you can access a recording that will be sent to you after the event concludes.
Sprite, by Donatello, courtesy of The Met Open Access collection
Most of what I read that was not a book this week was essays:
Elena Dudum at the Atlantic wrote about how she is building an archive “to prove Palestine exists,” work that began for her with the work and stories of her father and grandfather.
Emily Wilson wrote an extraordinary review of Anne Carson’s body of work to date. A pleasure for really any of us who love this unclassifiable Canadian classicist.
Patricia Lockwood honors the late A. S. Byatt at the LRB with an extraordinary tribute.
Benjamin Anastas at The Yale Review wrote about working for the late Jean Stein, editor of the much missed magazine Grand Street, and her famous Rolodex. The whole issue though is fantastic, the entire issue is on my TBR, with essays by Christine Smallwood, Merve Emre, Teju Cole and an interview with Rachel Cusk.
Books
Surprising no one I am re-reading Maurice, as well as Wendy Moffatt’s A Great Unrecorded History, her biography of Forster that includes much of the archival material about his private life that was released only very recently. I am also reading the much older Furbank biography of Forster, the book Lionel Trilling wrote about Forster’s fictions, and Virginia Woolf’s overview of his career, minus Maurice, which it seems she may have known existed but like Trilling, had not read at the time of her death. The project of preparing for this talk has been incredibly calming somehow after the long struggle of the spring. It is lately somehow consoling to know Forster felt like giving up on all writing as World War I began and to see how he made his way through—the despair he felt is a distant cousin to the one I have known for much of my life and I feel much as I did reading Woolf last fall in London, and learning about how much the Blitz affected her.
In non-Forster related news, I am so close to done with the astonishing All Fours, by Miranda July. I had to put it aside so close to the end to turn to my talk but Garth Greenwell wrote a fantastic review of it at his newsletter. I highly recommend the audiobook, which she performs. I’ll say more when I finish it and the Nunez, which also remains near finished.
TV
I row while watching Kdramas and this was not a great strategy as I approached the end of Mr. Sunshine and kept getting choked up. Set during the beginning of the Japanese Occupation, the title does it no justice but the story has kept me company during exercise for some time, because each episode is quite long, about two rowing or running workouts a piece.
I have been absolutely hooked by the new Vampire Lestat season. I struggled to care about the novels as a young person (sorry) but this show has me in its thrall.
Until next time,
Alexander Chee
Thanks for pointing me to the Anne Carson review. She’s one of those artists (like David Lynch) who often produce too-damn-opaque work, but sometimes are astonishingly genius.
Mr Sunshine is too sad for me. I love a thriller but injustice in any way is only good if there's revenge involved. Have you watched The Red Sleeve? Rookie Historian? 100 days my Prince? Under the Queen's Umbrella? Mr Queen? Tunnel? Stranger? Signal? Reborn Rich? Taxi Driver? Crash? Through the Darkness? Beyond Evil? 🙏🏻gansanmidah