Does it seem to you like there are more memoirs out there than ever? It does to me, and while this month I really enjoyed a brand new one, I also found myself thrilled and delighted by a few that have been around for a while. Want to hear what’s on my nightstand?
The new one is The Orchard, by Theresa Weir, and published by Grand Central. It’s breathtaking in its observation of life and change, marriage, family and, well, what more is there? Throw in an apple orchard that has been owned by a family for generations, the threat of pesticides, and one fine writer and you have yourself a book that everyone should be reading. Better yet, it’s a book that can teach a great deal about writing memoir. Though for that, you might need a second read, so compelling is the story that, like me, you’ll probably simply just get caught up in it and forget to watch the skillfull construction and terrific structure she employs. Buy it. Read it. Watch the trailer.
Despite not ever having watched Dancing With the Stars, (I know, I know), I do know that Chaz Bono is doing a marvelous job of bringing to a popular culture medium the topic of being transgendered. And good for him, since it’s something we know too little about. For a memoir on the topic, however, you can do no better than She’s Not There by Jennifer Finney Boyle. So rich and well-written is this book that you cannot help but imagine that she is your best friend, and that you were right there, listening to her tell you her story. I feel informed about my own heterosexuality because of this book, and about sexuality in its largest sense. The book benefits from the fact that Boyle’s best friend is Richard Russo, who makes a great foil here, and who adds an afterword that is as skillfully and beautifully written as anything he’s done. Don’t let this one get by you.
Then there is Green Fields, whose subtitle is Crime, Punishment & a Boyhood in Between, by the ever-marvelous Bob Cowser. I know Bob, and even tried to talk him out of writing this book some years ago, so sure was I that pursuing this story of a crime committed in one’s childhood might be a trip down a rabbit hole with no exit. I was wrong. An examination of the 1979 murder of the author’s classmate, and the trial and subsequent execution of the murderer twenty years later, this book is beautifully wrought, and within it are many great choices made by the writer. Published by UNO Press. Have a look.
Which leaves me with Fun Home, a book I’ve now had next to the bed for eight months or so. Subtitled A Family Tragicomic, this is a graphic memoir (as in illustrated, no, not as in explicit. Calm down, right wing, though if you are right-winged you might disagree) by the cult comic artist Alison Bechdel, and there is no getting over this book. Months after finishing it, it still sits on my bedside table so I can pick it up, open it at random, and marvel just a little bit longer at the skill of the marvelous Bechdel to tell her tale while drawing her tale, while informing us. It seems that Bechdel has kept a journal since she was ten. It shows. You might know Bechdel either from her Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip, or from how I got to know her, which is through her Bechdel movie test.
Don’t know about that? The Bechdel test asks three questions – Does a movie contain two or more female characters who have names? Do those characters talk to each other? And if they do, do they discuss something other than men? — and was developed by Alison Bechdel and her friend, Liz Wallace, and has become something we use all the time. And guess what? Very few movies pass it. For a list of them see here.
So that’s what’s on my nightstand. What’s on yours?
Virginia says
Marion, thank you for these wide-ranging suggestions. I especially appreciate your inclusion of a comic-memoir (graphic memoir is a problematic term, especially for graphic novelists). Beneath my wobbly nightstand, which is crowded by a lamp, a clock and a box of tissues, is a handspan of half-read magazines plus Mark Doty’s “Dog Years”. I’ve just finished Gail Caldwell’s beautiful “Let’s Take the Long Way Home,” a story about friendship and love that also involves our relationships with our pets. I look forward to more recommendations from you.
Marcia Moston says
Have just finished (at least for this moment) The Memoir Project. Love every second of it, all marked up–both content and delivery have me hooked–the story of your friend’s dead dog and lines like “we walked our dogs around the perimeters of each other’s lives” beautiful. So glad to have discovered you.