Daffodils in December
A yellow Christmas? No thanks.
Hello!
This is Xander Beattie (aka Alex Matthews) — swimmer, artist publisher and author of The President.
Before the latest, ongoing round of storms, there was a run of unsettlingly sunny and mild days and the garden's daffodils began flowering – like guests showing up to your party well before the time stated on the invite. Who says the slow-mo fossil-fuelled apocalypse can't at least occasionally be picturesque?!
DON'T LOOK UP
San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid is one of my favourite skyscrapers ever... a designation shared by Seattle's Space Needle, New York's Empire State and Hong Kong's Bank of China Tower (in case you were wondering 😅). As I walked by the building recently, it suddenly occurred to me it was like a gigantic concrete minimalist Christmas tree.
Wishing you and yours happy – or, if that's too ambitious, at the very least tolerable – holidays!
DOWN THERE ON A VISIT
In Los Angeles in early December, I got to meet (in person for the first time) my pen-pal and fellow Philhellene, the blisteringly talented writer Steven Tagle. We had a lovely fireside chat about my novel The President to celebrate the Pocket Hardback's arrival on the West Coast.
< BTW: For those in the US, there are still some hardbacks available in Pronk's seasonal online store; if you're tempted by this collectable edition, get your order in before 10 January when the store goes into indefinite hibernation. If you're UK based, you can order a copy from The Common Press (no haste required). >
Steven's latest poems will be appearing in the forthcoming issue of & Change, my favourite poetry journal. Subscribe or buy issue 11 to read.
Coincidentally, I've just published an interview with & Change's publisher, the poet Kevin Bertolero. I found his answers hugely inspiring (maybe you will too!).
Xander Beattie
Down in LA, it was even easier than in NorCal to forget it was mid-winter. While visiting, I was lapping up The Möbius Book, the part-novel, part memoir by Catherine Lacey. I savoured its unshowy intensities and risk-taking experimentalism, but I don't think I liked it quite as much as I love its cover.
Elsewhere on the reading front, I am now a third of the way through Mann's The Magic Mountain and chipping away at it with the same earnest dedication and leisurely pace as I read the Bible during my Christian Fundamentalist Tween era. (Mann is funnier.)
I am busy with philosopher and cultural theorist Kate Soper's Post-Growth Living, which is a little dry for a book advocating for an alternative hedonism, but still feels urgent and intellectually nourishing (and a good warm up, I suspect, for the deluge of academic lit I'll be facing next year). Robin Wall Kimmerer's latest book, The Serviceberry, about reciprocity in nature (and gift economies amongst humans) is going down a lot easier. It's also thankfully much pithier and punchier than the biologist's exquisite-but-tedious Braiding Sweetgrass.
"Short queer novels by Arab authors" is a somewhat niche category, but I have recently enjoyed two examples: Selamlik by Khaled Alesmael (a slippery romp through Syria's pre-civil war hammams and beyond) and Captain Ni’mat’s Last Battle, the last novel written by the late Moroccan novelist Mohamed Leftah (and his first translated into English). Lordy. Talk about going out with a bang! I hope more of Leftah's work gets translated. After the novelist Rebecca Makai praised Hoda Barakat's The Stone of Laughter – set in civil war-blighted Beirut – I got myself a copy (still unread). Let me know if there are any others that I should be adding to my to-read pile.
I was dazzled and a little bewildered (though that's possibly the point?) by Wong Kar Wai's 1997 movie Happy Together. Definitely one I plan on re-watching.
After stumbling across some of the snide online commentary about HBO Max's ice hockey romance Heated Rivalry, I had no intention to watch it but I'm glad I was persuaded to. Much fun. In a similar vein (execrably sloppy dialogue, formulaic plot, easy-on-the-eye cast of characters playing a violent sport) is rugby romance In From the Side. Criterion this ain't!
CIAO CALI (FOR NOW)
In less than a month, I'm leaving California; the plan is to be gone for most of 2026. As you can see from the above, I've been prioritising packing the essentials first. Not pictured: a stockpile of Daybreak Seaweed salt, Boonville Barn Collective chilli powder and All the Bitter NA bitters. Hopefully there'll be some room for at least one jug of maple syrup too!
Things I'll miss while I'm gone:
- A functioning postal service
- Ferry rides
- Browsing at Fabulosa Books
- Strolls around SF
- Biscuits with sausage gravy (which is basically what Heated Rivalry would be if it was a dish on a diner menu)
OVER TO YOU
As always, I would love to hear about what you've been reading, writing, bingeing, baking, avoiding etc. Recs – and replies in general – are greatly appreciated. And, if you have a favourite skyscraper, please do let me know what it is.
