I’ve been asked a number of times to share information about my favorite memoirs and why I cherish them. One post is too short to cover them all, so today I’ll just tell you about one: Three Dog Life.
This is a big favorite of mine. It was written by Abigail Thomas, whose work I admire a great deal. In an earlier post, I urged memoir writers to read her tiny but entertaining and inspiring book, Thinking About Memoir to see the many aspects of your life and your family you can write about.
Anyhow getting back to Three Dog Life, I love it because, for one thing, it’s a fantastic, gripping, and unusual story, but also because from it I learned how someone could survive a horrific crisis that reverberated for years. And tell that story without being maudlin. And also expose her own weaknesses, sometimes in a humorous way. Often in a way that made me scratch my head at the author’s unabashed, endearing eccentricity.
We can do those things in our memoir and life story writing too.
In an upcoming post, I’ll tell you about the innovative way the renown Dani Shapiro writes about an aspect of her life in Hourglass. Before that, though, I’ll publish a guest post about combining family history and travelogue.
Do you have a favorite memoir or family history? If you’re trying to write yours and running into trouble, get in touch with me. I’ll help you out. First, check out my Testimonials to see how much my students and clients like working with me. (Scroll down to see them all.)
I’ve read so many memoirs these past several years as I tried to get mine off the ground, it’s hard to say. For sure “Growing Up” by Russell Baker – sly humor, deep pathos, and great story-telling from one of NYT’s finest columnists, born 1924.
Of course, “Wild” is high on the list. I studied it to see how she seamlessly embedded multiple flashbacks in a few paragraphs.
“The Glass Castle” and “Angela’s Ashes” do a superb job of telling the author’s story in a child’s voice and POV. Incredible.
“The Road from Coorain,” by Jill Ker Conway. Gentle and absorbing prose.
“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” Wow! Again, humor and pathos blended – and a child’s voice too with brilliant writing. Those are just the first that come to mind, but I read so many other fabulous memoirs, and each helped me learn so I could craft my memoir, “Redlined.”