I’m personally excited about an upcoming plot consultation with a well-respected veteran writer and photographer of some 50 years for most of the top news agencies and magazines in the country and the world.
From the early info I require about the character (for a memoir writer that is the writer himself) and theme, I sense this writer is interested in using his action-packed background of intrigue and danger to illuminate his flaws and fears and thus give meaning and significance to his life.
Memoir writing at its best shares the writer’s past with the reader in order to entertain, enlighten, motivate, and/or make sense of life itself.Â
One of my personal favorites is Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton.
Have you read it? Did you like it? Any memoirs you recommend?Â
I bought the Daily Coyote as Christmas gifts for my husband, my mother, and my petsitter. (And it’ll be a birthday present for a friend.) Finally I realized the reason I was sending to everyone was that *I* wanted to read it myself.
I don’t usually read memoirs. Autobiographies occasionally… but someone’s interpretation of their own life — eh, that doesn’t usually appeal. The last one I read was Augusten Burrough’s Running With Scissors.
And now that I think about it, it wasn’t Shreve I was interested in learning about, it was her coyote. She was just a necessary part of the package. (Charlie’s smart, but not smart enough to write a book himself.)
So, I snatched my husband’s copy away right after he unwrapped it, and read it before he got a chance. Conclusion: I liked it, will recommend it, will continue to send it as a gift, and will definitely buy a sequel if one comes out.
But it’s likely to be years before another memoir catches my eye the way The Daily Coyote did.
Oops — in my previous post I meant to say “biographies,” not “autobiographies.”
Although that brings up the question: What’s the difference between a memoir and an autobiography? Is it just a difference in scope?
dana p, thanks for your comments. As to your pondering, yes, the difference between autobiography and memoir is scope and also, the difference is in the attempt to make sense of the portion of life shown in the memoir — provide some sort of thematic significance about what was learned by the author’s experiences.
Martha,
I loved Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals. She was one of the Little Rock Nine and that book tells the hell she and her fellow students went through.
It’s a tough read, but important as well.
Linda