Biography of X

by Catherine Lacey

As I read through the letters now, they seem innocuous, even dull—love letters tend to expire—but at the time it was rapturous to read them. I

You have to know what you’re leaving out in order for it not to be there. Otherwise, it’s not an absence, it’s just nothing.’

could she both disdain the state of this country’s culture as a whole and still reasonably desire or accept its approval?