Reading and Writing Memoir

"If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you."

-Natalie Goldberg

This is my year of memoir. Not only getting serious about writing it, but also reading it. When I look over my reading journal, it tells me that so far, I've read ten books from the genre.

I tend to read memoir over breakfast. My husband drives my daughter to school and it is one of the only times during these pandemic days that I am home alone. I set a place at my large, wooden farm table; a cup of tea (almost always English Breakfast with milk and sugar) and cinnamon toast (almost always with homemade bread and creamy, salty Irish butter).

I keep a stack of memoirs on the far corner of the table, they are easy to reach for in the morning. I know, if I have to go searching for the book, I won't read it.

As I have become more and more interested in writing memoir, my book choices widen. I find myself looking for different writing styles and book structures. Some I have hated, some I have loved. I make mental notes for my own future book structure.

In the Dream House by Carmen Machado made me rethink structure. The book is an ode to fragmentation and the techniques of the Oulipo. In her disturbing memoir, Machado tells us, "telling stories in just one way misses the point of stories". I found the reading experience unfamiliar and uncomfortable, yet it perfectly illustrated Machado's story of an abusive relationship.

As much as In the Dream House's structure, made me uneasy, Textbook by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, delighted me. Her literal connection with the reader, through requests for you to actually text her, made me feel as though she was a friend, someone who I wanted in my life. She so successfully mastered that connection that, when I discovered that she had died in 2017 at the tender age of 51 (the same age I am as I write this), I cried.

And speaking of crying...Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, taught me the importance of telling your story around a tight theme. Her memoir is a grief memoir, centered around the illness and death of her mother and how Zauner healed by connecting with Korean-American heritage through food. Her style of storytelling was the embodiment of Marion Roach's memoir writing advice telling us that a memoir writer must always remember that "every page must drive one single story forward". In the case of this book, Zauner's single story is about grief and healing and it inspired me to find my one single story to tell.

What have you been reading lately that inspires you? I'd love to hear about a book (memoir or not) that inspired you to explore your creative practice differently.

Comments

C. Jane ReidOctober 6, 2021 at 8:35 AM
I admire so much your dedication to reading and writing memoir. I am always impressed by memoir writers. It feels like such a delicate form of expression, both in how exposed it makes the writer to their true self and how it impresses upon the reader to expose their true self.

As for me I've been reading a great deal of history based on Britain's War of the Roses. I just finished a book on the Woodvilles, a prominent family during that time period who are usually vilified. This author, however, wrote a very solid and well researched history that takes them out of the realm of villain and puts them in perspective to what is happening around them.

This of course has gotten me reading my Shakespeare again. I hadn't realized how much I enjoyed the Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, but has also made me realize how very much I dislike Henry V.

One day I might try to write a story set during that time period, but I hardly feel capable of doing so currently.
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FaithNovember 4, 2021 at 11:53 AM
I listen to audiobooks while I sew. I feel a little of the book's energy, as well as mine, goes into the project. So I tend to listen to sassy, lighthearted books when stitching for a great niece (Janet Evanovich). Or, a murder mystery for a computer programmer nephew (M.C. Beaton). I used to enjoy Russian novels & still have many paperbacks (all I could afford) on my shelves . They haven't been opened in years. Maybe it's time to see what they inspire!
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