Category: Memoir

Disappointment Who’s not intrigued by Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe? Their struggles in New York during the late sixties and early seventies, as portrayed in Just Kids, bring to life a critical era of American art. Name dropping –Andy Warhol, William Burroughs, Todd Rundgren, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix— threads throughout the book. History unfolds as I…

I must say, I like writing this blog on reading one hundred memoirs. When Paul sees me curled up on the couch, eating bon bons, reading a luscious book, and asks, “What are you doing?” I can honestly answer, “Working, dear. Working.”

Fun My mentor, Theo Nestor, author of How to Sleep Alone in a King Sized Bed, says memoirs of famous people should not be considered the same genre as pensive, reflective books of virtually unknown writers.  That may be true. Do we need call them “Memoirs F” (for famous people) and “Memoirs T” (for thoughtful…

Vivid writing. Poetic, flowing phrases.  And yet, when I read Meredith Hall’s 2007 memoir, Without a Map, my guts wrenched, tears formed, my breath stifled. The knot in my stomach remained days after reading.  If I am to call other works mediocre, this book I must label “excellent.”  How did the author grasp me, the…

The best memoirs are written by writers, unlike the hundreds of books authored by people who think it would be cool to write a book. The market is flooded with mediocre work. Yet, sometimes mediocre is good. Mediocre can be entertaining: perhaps eye-opening, perhaps educational, perhaps a sopher to help you sleep at night. It just isn’t good literature.…