The Querent

The Querent

American Letters 5: Swim To Shore

An old lesson from his father returns.

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Alexander Chee
Mar 24, 2025
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This series is an exercise in notes towards a third person diary or memoir of these times. The first letter, from the London series, is here and the first in the American Letters series is here.

Two Swimmers, undated, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale Center For British Art

The first pool he tries to return to isn’t like a pool he knows at all: a tiled trench, sh…

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