New Memoir: Love ‘Ems and Leave ‘Ems
I’M SOMETIMES TOO NICE about all this. A great defender of memoir, I used to neglect to tell you just which books make me want to hurl just as much as they might make you want to hurl. No more. So let’s have at it, shall we?
Among the Love ‘Ems this month are:
- Despite the tepid review in the WSJ seen here, I’m looking forward to reading Paul Auster’s new Winter Journal. I’ve seen better reviews elsewhere.
- Everything about Leaving Home by the 85-year-old Anne Edwards’ book fascinates me, including the subtitle, A Hollywood Writer’s Blacklisted Years Abroad. Here’s a review.
- Sex and God at Yale, has not only a fabulous title, but an intriguing author in Nathan Harden, a 2009 graduate of the ivy league school. Read more.
- And speaking of fabulous titles, how can anything be better than New Ways to Kill Your Mother? The subtitle is Writers and their Families. A collection edited by Colm Toibin, here’s what the Washington Post has to say. This one is a must-read for all of us home typing all day.
- Another great title comes from a book that I just read about despite its publication earlier this year. It is Making Piece, A Memoir of Love, Loss and Pie, by Beth Howard, who lives in the American Gothic House made famous in Grant Wood’s painting. Nice.
- I also love the title (as well as the book), The Monkey Mind Chronicles, whose author, Daniel Smith, has a fine piece on this week on CNN’s online site. The topic, what else? Anxiety.
Now to my inclusion each month of at least one new book that I would not read if you sent it to me, brought me dinner and slipped me a Bulgari bracelet between the covers.
The Leave ‘Em for this month is:
- Despite being a huge fan of Gilmore Girls, I will not read the memoir from ex-Skid Row singer (and Gilmore Girls actor) Sebastian Bach. Why? When asked by Billboard magazine about why his life would make a good book, he replied that it is “insanely insane.” Don’t believe me? See here.
And you? What’s on your nightstand, and what books are making you back away from the display case?
Marion – Great to have you back. The two memoirs I’m devouring right now are “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed and “Seeking Peace: The World’s Worst Buddhist” by Mary Pipher. The book I couldn’t give a rat’s a** about is Rielle Hunter’s memoir “What Really Happened.” Does anyone really care?
Oooooh. Thanks for mentioning Hunter’s trashy book. Yup, I agree. It’s on the Leave ’ems side for me. Lovely to read you here. Please come back soon.
Hi, Marion! Thanks for popping in this morning and stopping me from cleaning my kitchen instead of writing a piece I’ve been marinating. (ooh, look at that. I didn’t even mean to connect the two.) It’s not a memoir, but I have been plodding through “Darwin’s Ghosts” this summer. It traces all the naturalists Darwin had to eventually thank for the contributions that led to his theories. It is both unending, which explains the plod, and mind blowing that the acceptance of evolution is so relatively new. Case in point, creationism is pretty important to certain political parties.
Hi, Mary Ann
I love Mr. Darwin. Here’s a secret to me: I keep a picture of him on my desk. Yup. And I have for years. I have visited his home, walked in his garden and include him in my thanks to the universe for one smart man who rocked the world. Thanks for stopping by. Please come back soon.
Marion, I have been reading East Hill Farm by Gordon Ball, which chronicles his life with Ginsberg on an old farm in the woods of New York. What I love most about this, which is Ball’s second memoir, is that he taught me at The Virginia Military Institute. So you have this incredible story coming from a non militant guy, yet he embodies this poetic world and still remains a professor of English at an institution that only was went co-ed in 1998 when the Supreme Court made them. His stories are at times heart-breaking, yet he includes plenty of humor. They had no plumbing nor electricity. There were car wrecks and misfits and an attempt at the Beatnik life… off the grid.
Hi, John:
Welcome to the blog. It’s lovely to read you here. East Hill Farm sounds fascinating. I’ve checked it out online, as well. There are few things I enjoy more than a recommendation of a good book, so many thanks to you for this. Please come back soon for more.
For my high school senior English elective: “Memoir Writing,” your book is one of my four texts. Fyi!
Oh, how kind of you to tell me. Can you tell me where you are, please? Yipppeeeee. How lovely. Dancing now.
Marion – well, I made it happen and the Africa trip had 27 volunteers am 16 middle school students at their sister school on Tanzania this past month. I got back last week and I’m ok but recovering! The trip went beyond all expections – getting out of the wheelchair in April and learning to walk when doctors said I wouldn’t I could picture myself in August with all “my kids” 750!of them at Sinai school, and the reality was even better than my imagination which overcame the prognosis – cant wait to write about last Sunday – I was asked to tell my story to two churches, one a Masai tribal village and it was amazing. It will be my first assignment ok? I’m signed up for all
Ok – I am at beach for 2 days and picked up memoir The Bite of the Mango, it’s short enough I don’t think I will forget it while reading – i will let you know if it is good! one I’m not sure is leave it, but I read memoir “learning to breathe” about a woman who got hit by a bus in far away place, mediated her way to health, many surgeries and pain, etc… To be honest it made me stop writing for a bit. I’m not sure if if it was intimidating or patronizing but made me feel small, but that’s probably because it all was similar to my experience but not, and she meditates and I suck at that.
I will be on class
I have much to write an cant wait
Sorry for spelling stuff – am overdue for the neck surgery will make Hand work better and my dictation doesn’t work here
Karen
Hello, Karen:
I am delighted to read you here, and to read of your great success. I have such faith in you, as do all who know you. I look forward to seeing you in class.
I’m reading and loving “An Invisible thread” by Laura Schroff, fabulous book.
One I wish I hadn’t wasted time on is “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed. I think what she strayed from is the truth.
I read it for book club or I never would have gotten through it. I don’t believe 50 % of it. #1 early in the book she mentions they live in a shack without anything like electricity or plumbing but her mother freezes everything from their garden–kind of hard to freeze vegetables without electricity. then she mentions that her mother even “cards wool.” I am a spinner of wool into yarn, this statement just doesn’t make sense, she doesn’t know anything about it or she’d say her mother even spins wool, carding is just a small part of the process. If you mother cards wool – then what, is the house full of fluffy bats of wool? anyway, after these two glaring notations I’ve lost confidence in her story. Then she tells us she hiked over 1000 miles on her first overnight hike? Sorry, I’m not buying it. It’s a novel, not a memoir.
Hi, Bonnie:
Fluffy bats of wool, indeed. Nice line. I know that all-too-familiar feeling, when something starts to ring untrue and stays that way. I hope you continue to love An Invisible Thread.” I’ll look into it. So many books, so little time, yes? I’ve reached the age of reason where I put one down if I don’t like it. Please come back for more.
Finished the bite of a mango – I loved it, it was short and simply told about a girl who loses her hands to rebels in Sierra Leone, it wasn’t to long and not at all depressing and given my work in Africa with girls and poverty I liked that I could follow and finish the book.
Hi Marion, I just finished reading “Lit” by Mary Karr and now devouring “Cherry” by Mary as well. Love her work! Began writing my memoir about growing up on a small family farm in central Massachusetts thanks to you and the Memoirama workshop last March in Copake Falls. Keep on keepin’ on!
Hi, Dee: I am so glad to read you here. I loved that Memoirama session in Copake and plan to do more soon. Thanks for the reminders to all about Mary Karr. I am so glad you have begun your work. Please let me know how it goes, and please feel free to bring whatever issues arise here to the blog. There is probably a blog post on here somewhere for every problem any memoir writer might face. Just use the search box on the home page. See you soon.
Hi Marion,
Thanks for mentioning “Sex & God at Yale.” I’m glad it fell into your Love’ems pile!
Hi, Nathan:
Thanks for stopping by. Your book has started a fascinating discussion. Good for you. Go get ’em. And come back soon.
Hi, Marion – This particular blog post and the associated comments got me thinking about the memoir writer’s responsibility to the truth and to his/her reader, as well. The James Frey brouhaha aside, do factual inconsistencies invalidate a memoir completely, and since personal truths are different for everyone (just ask each member of my family about our father’s final days…), what should our expectations be as both readers and writers of memoir? Inquiring minds want to know!