What is the appeal of memoir?

I have been fascinated by the genre of memoir for quite some time. In fact, I teach a seminar on memoir for high school seniors. This summer, I read three new memoirs and took a course on memoir writing to help me move forward with the writing of my own memoir.

For the last several years, memoir has been the hot genre; I tell my students that it is the literary equivalent of reality tv. We have voyeuristic tendencies; we want to know what goes on behind closed doors. That desire is human but not always noble. It has lead to a climate in which paparazzi run rampant in search of unflattering portrayals of cultural icons, and certain teens living on the Jersey Shore have become famous for nothing other than loud mouths, unbridled partying and shameless promiscuity.

Have some writers jumped on the memoir bandwagon for the wrong reasons? Absolutely. Do some memoirs feel like unedited therapy sessions endlessly listing lurid disclosures? Some do, but not the good ones.
A good memoir, albeit a great one, tells a story of a life...or part of a life...and in the process of the telling creates a sense of meaning beyond the story itself. Like great fiction, memoir should feel that it adds up to more than the sum of its parts.

In William Zinsser's collection of essays by writers writing about their memoirs, Inventing the Truth,
he discusses the difference between good and bad memoirs. "A good memoir requires two elements--one of art, the other of craft. The first element is integrity of intention. Memoir is the best search mechanism that writers are given. Memoir is how we try to make sense of who we are, who we once were, and what values and heritage shaped us. If a writer seriously embarks on that quest, readers will be nourished by the journey, bringing along many associations with quests of their own."

We don't necessarily read memoirs to learn how to live, but we may gain insight into our own lives by reading a talented and insightful writer's story.

As far as the element that Zinsser calls "craft" is concerned, a memoir is never merely a cataloging of memories. Zinsser continues: "Memoir writers must manufacture a text, imposing narrative order on a jumble of half-remembered events. With that feat of manipulation they arrive at a truth that is theirs alone, not quite like that of anybody else who was present at the same events."

Ultimately, that is what makes memoir fascinating to read; it is a life, or part of a life, seen through one unique narrative lens. The element that most distinguishes great memoir for me, besides the ones that Zinsser has delineated, is the element of reflection. I am hungry for those moments in a memoir when the writer has allowed the raw experience to marinate a while and has arrived at some understanding of the meaning behind the mayhem.

Another element of memoir that distinguishes a great book from a lesser one, is the author's voice. When teaching teens to write memoir, I am always surprised that certain students have narrative voices that naturally work for the memoir genre. These students feel comfortable in their own literary skin; they own their own stories and share them honestly.

 There is not one right voice, but the voice must feel authentic and unique. The voice should not feel separate from the story, but rather it should feel like an organic part of the whole piece. In other words, the facts, the reflection and the voice that is sharing both of those with the reader should feel melded and married as if they are all integral  essential parts of the narrative structure.

The three memoirs I read this summer were:

*RUNNING WITH SCISSORS--Augusten Burroughs
*THE OTHER WES MOORE--Wes Moore
*SLOW MOTION--Dani Shapiro

I had seen the movie, "Running with Scissors," but I had never read the book (though it had lived on my bookshelf for many years).  I found the story engaging and wildly outrageous, and I felt that Augusten Burroughs was endearingly sympathetic as the narrator of his own crazy story. By the end of the memoir, we know Burroughs is a survivor, and we are relieved because we have been rooting for him all along.

The Wes Moore memoir is  a more contrived narrative. The author writes about himself and about another man, who shares the same name, whose life took a very different path. While I enjoyed this book, it did not have the narrative pull or power that many memoirs I've loved have had. Perhaps, the dual focus watered down the impact of each of the two lives that were discussed, making me less invested in either one.

The third memoir, given to me by my friend Beth, was Dani Shapiro's story of her youthful and ill-advised affair  and the tragedy that causes her to come to her senses and ultimately reclaim her life. This book had a smaller focus than the other two but was a compelling read because the reader was able to watch the writer emerge from the fog of self denial and uncover the truth. Her self-discovery feels authentic even if we have questioned how she could have fallen asleep at the wheel of her own life. While we may not always sanction or approve of her choices, we understand them.

If you are interested in discovering, or re-discovering, this exciting genre, here are a few interesting titles to get you started:

WITHOUT A MAP--Meredith Hall

THE COLOR OF WATER--James McBride

THE GLASS CASTLE--Jeanette Walls

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF  A FACE--Lucy Grealy

TRUTH AND BEAUTY--Ann Patchett

THE LIAR'S CLUB--Mary Karr

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS--Anne Lamott

ANGELA'S ASHES--Frank McCourt

BREAKING APART: A MEMOIR OF DIVORCE-Wendy Swallow

LUCKY--Alice Sebold

AN ITALIAN AFFAIR--Laura Fraser

A ROUND-HEELED WOMAN--Jane Juska

THE ONLY GIRL IN THE CAR--Kathy Dobie

A THOUSAND DAYS IN VENICE--Marlena De Blasi

LIMBO--A. Manette Ansay

FUN HOME--Alison Bechdel

THE KISS--Kathryn Harrison

THE WISHING YEAR--Noelle Oxenhandler

PERFECTION--Julie Metz

EAT,PRAY,LOVE--Elizabeth Gilbert

THE IMPOSTER'S DAUGHTER--Laurie Sandell

TENDER AT THE BONE--Ruth Reichl

HAPPY READING!!!