I’m kind of a memoir nut. It just sort of happened one day – I woke up to realize how many I’d read in the past few months and it bordered on ridiculous. And even then, I didn’t tone it down. I’ve been thinking a bit about how I characterize them and what makes me enjoy one and I have a few thoughts to put into the sphere of discussion.
First, some book club friends have expressed their distaste for memoirs because they think authors are not held to as high a literature standard. If the author is in not so many words expressing: “How can you hate a memoir? It’s part of me! It can’t be bad or wrong if that’s what actually happened!” then the reader can be left feeling confused about how to process their thoughts. How can you be justified in your irritation with the pacing of the story if it is in chronological order?
Also, without the creative license fiction allows, are memoirs inherently more boring? For those that review, do you feel an inkling to be nicer with a memoir review? How can you hate on Jeannette Walls after seeing how loopy her parents were in The Glass Castle? Only so many have fantastical characters or events to build a book around, so it’s often the style of the writing that makes one stand out over another. However, that comes at a price.
My suspension of disbelief radar is inherently more sensitive with a memoir than a work of fiction, which brings me to what I’ll affectionately call the James Frey problem. Remember his Oprah’s book club selection that was ripped to shreds for drawing a fuzzy line between truth and fiction? The autobiography police are not going to come and get you if you change a description of your childhood bus stop. But at what point do you draw the line? In a similar realm, the opening page of Epileptic was written by David B.’s sister who explicitly states she does not remember some of the events outlined; her memory is understandably different. And who is to say your feelings and recall of a past event are wrong? It’s all a very touchy topic which makes memoir an interesting medium for review and comment.
So, what do you think? What makes you love or hate a memoir? What do you pay attention to and what are you annoyed by?
