Category: memoir

“So I decided to fashion a special kind of collage.”

How would a dissident playwright, who spent five years in prison before becoming the first president of Czechoslovakia, construct a memoir? If you imagine a creative architecture not seen before, you are right. It’s an engaging mix of observations, flashbacks, interviews, commentary, and memos to his staff at Prague Castle. … Read More

“Everything was pulled tight as a snare drum, so expertly smoothed that you could easily spot the century’s worth of patched holes and tears.”

Perhaps nobody is surprised that the British and the American reviewers of Spare by Prince Harry see things differently.  For example, the New Yorker describes Harry’s mended bedding in Balmoral Castle as “a metaphor for the constricting, and quite possibly threadbare, fabric of the institution of monarchy” while the British … Read More

“There was the teasing and impossible desire to imitate the petty pride of sparrows wallowing and flouncing in the red dust of country roads.”

Richard Wright, who was born in 1908, describes the “brace of mountainlike, spotted, black-and-white horses clopping down a dusty road through clouds of powdered clay” in his memoir Black Boy. He finds beauty in the “green leaves rustling with a rainlike sound” and in identifying with “the sight … Read More

“Observe, observe perpetually.”

More than 400 years ago, Michel de Montaigne of France invented a new literary tradition of close inward observation. “It is a thorny undertaking,” he writes, “to follow a movement so wandering as that of our mind.” Scholars, such as Sarah Bakewell, credit him with being the first to experiment … Read More

“I felt there was a lot more I could say about the subject of danger.”

In Half Broke Horses, Lily Smith faces many dangers, from flash floods in rural Texas, to bankruptcy during the Great Depression, to medical emergencies that didn’t always end well. This convincing, unprettified narration doesn’t glorify “grit” – rather, it shows the unintended consequences that can come with survival. For … Read More

“I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world. . .”

Henry David Thoreau continues, “for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.” This beautiful image of Thoreau watching the stars from the deck of a boat comes right after he says that he decided to leave his cabin at … Read More

“She gave me a piece of gingerbread which was so generously spread with salt butter that the richness was too much for me and I couldn’t eat it.”

Molly Weier, who was born in 1910 in Glasgow, had her own definition of what it meant to be rich. To her, it was having real butter instead of margarine and spreading it generously. This is how someone in her neighborhood lived, and it impressed her so much that … Read More

“We did not have clothes suitable for church.”

The New York Times uses “spare” and “charming” to describe this memoir about growing up on a Wisconsin farm during the Great Depression. I would add “remarkable” to this list. When she was six years old, the children at her school contributed their pennies to buy a doll for Carlson … Read More

“Writing is similar to psychotherapy in that emotional disclosure is part of the healing process.”

Some of the people who attend my memoir workshops come to write their family history, others want to write memorable stories, and yet others want to discover meaningful answers to their questions about “life.” This book, written by a psychotherapist, is for this third group of people.  It describes … Read More

“People writing about imaginary events were less depressed than people writing about actual trauma.”

In Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction, Jessica Lourey cites academic research that found that people who write fiction can experience more physical health benefits than people who write autobiography.  In my college classes, I’ve found that asking students to write about topics … Read More

“Embrace the crumbs with the cake.”

It’s been eight years since I last read this book, and this time around, I’m struck by Goldberg’s advice to pay attention to memorable, small pieces. In fact, one of the best ways to write about the “monumental” is to begin by describing one “crumb” of it. Other writers … Read More

“Turn procrastination into rehearsal.”

Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, describes writers like me when he says that when we’re not writing, we are often doubting ourselves. We feel bad.  Instead, we could think of this period of delay as something constructive. We could reframe it as rehearsal. Just … Read More

“But memoir is neither testament nor fable nor analytic transcription.”

So, then, what is memoir? A memoir should “lift from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver wisdom.”  In other words, the writer’s story needs to illustrate a point. Rather than simply telling us what happened, the writer should tell us why what … Read More

“Putting together a novel is essentially putting together the lives of stranger I’m coming to know.”

As it turns out, writing nonfiction stories is not very different from writing fiction for Ann Patchett.  The title essay for this collection describes how she puts together an understanding of the life of the stranger who comes to stay in her house during the first months of the COVID-19 … Read More

“And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage.”

When you are writing, do you think “This is great!” or do you think, “I shouldn’t have put this off. It’s a mess. I’ll never get it right.” Too often, I find it easy to be with the large number of people who are critical of themselves when they write. … Read More