The American Boy

June 20, 2023 11:19 PM

Letters exchanged with Mary Renault are the start of an essay looking back on Renault's writing and her 'American boy', Daniel Mendelsohn who traces thoughtfully and tenderly what the gay relationships in her books meant to him as a reader, writer and friend by correspondence.
posted by dorothyisunderwood (13 comments total)

I love Mary Renault. She admits herself that her depiction of Alexander is from a certain angle - she sort of glosses over or omits some of the more brutal, masculine side of his character - but it brings him alive in an extraordinary way. Renault every time.
posted by Phanx at 12:37 AM on June 21, 2023 [5 favorites]

My dad said, “I think you should give this a try,” averting his eyes slightly, in the way he had. Forty years later, I wonder how much he’d already guessed, and just what he was trying to accomplish.

yeahhh I think everybody in this story has clocked everybody else in this story maybe. In my headcanon the book was "just lying around" for some while before this.

(As a parent, as a person who got a lot from books lying around, I'm awfully glad I ended up with children who pick up physical books, which is really not universal these days. Because I have no idea how to run the logistics of this on ebooks!)

I read the whole linked article and I recommend it. I think it pulls out some features of parasocial relationships: they're structurally problematic, but sometimes and author and a reader who don't really know each other but make do can connect personally in a way that works on both parasocial sides.
posted by away for regrooving at 1:26 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

You know, I made quite a point of acquiring Mary Renault's contemporary novels, I have them, but I should probably reread her historical fiction now.
posted by away for regrooving at 1:28 AM on June 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

ungated article
posted by chavenet at 4:49 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

I remember when this article came out and I was completely and utterly shocked that anyone had shipped Laurie/Andrew.

I checked The Charioteer out of a college library when I was 13-14, and was so tempted to steal it because they only had the Alexander novels at Borders. Years later I adjuncted at that college and there on the discard table, The Charioteer.
posted by betweenthebars at 5:40 AM on June 21, 2023

This is an excellent & moving essay that flows from impetuous youth to wiser middle age with elegant subtlety. It's really quite sad that he never actually met Renault, but then stumbled onto a still-extant community of her friends & admirers in time. Thanks for posting!
posted by chavenet at 8:23 AM on June 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'm very glad I read it.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:58 AM on June 21, 2023

Beautifully written and evocative. Thanks for sharing. I note it was published 10 years ago, but better late than never :-)
posted by binturong at 10:41 AM on June 21, 2023

That was really interesting, thank you. I like the way he acknowledges his affectations about Plato when describing his 1983 letter - the awkward and pretentious parts of us that it's better if we can come to terms with, as we are stuck with them.

I read his book "The Lost" in 2011 and am still thinking about it. Same with Renault, whom I think I first read in about 1985.

Thanks for the ungated link, too.
posted by paduasoy at 2:05 PM on June 21, 2023

Just realised the dates indicate I could have written to her. I don't think I thought writers were real people at the time.
posted by paduasoy at 2:08 PM on June 21, 2023

Thanks for posting this! I'd never seen it, and I thought it was lovely--I passed it along to a good friend of mine who's a fellow Renault fan, and she loved it too.
posted by theatro at 5:05 PM on June 21, 2023

Good read, thank you. Been a fan of Renault's work since I was probably too young to be reading it.

I think I need to reread The Praise Singer. I've always liked its core of integrity, artistic and otherwise.
posted by humbug at 5:34 PM on June 21, 2023

This is beautifully poignant. Thank you for sharing it. I feel like I don't see many writers able to describe their youthful pretentions with both clarity and gentleness - it's hard to look back on that confusion and awkwardness with kindness.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:35 AM on June 22, 2023 [2 favorites]