I want to start by saying

Samuel Ace’s I want to start by saying is a constellation of memory, personal and place—based histories, dailiness, repetition, art—making, and desire. Ace’s insistent titular phrase acts as drone and anchor—invocation and prayer—propelling the peripatetic narrator from Cleveland to New York to Tucson, western Massachusetts to Atlanta and back again, line by line. Part essay, part memoir, and part collage, Ace explores the difficulties of romance, childhood, betrayal, and writing, establish...