Memory and desire, stirring...

APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

—T. S. Eliot, from The Waste Land

Speak Memory, with love

Love, not the “misery-factor,” should be the driving force behind memoir writing, says recent Happy Booker guest, Alan Cheuse.

In his essay for the Chicago Tribune, Cheuse— who wrote “memoir before memoir was cool”— contends that a misery loves company motto rules the memoir marketplace. (Registration required. Thanks to Sam Jones, New York Time notable blogger, for sending this link)

Comments

[Andrew Riddles]

Yes, one hates to use the term bandwagon...
Some people do have a tale to tell which is important and that can get lost when we go to the bookstore and EVERYthing on the shelf is called "A Boy Called It's Ashes Rememebred by My Left Foot." Some tales, like Blake Morrison's "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" tell not only a great story with tact and poignancy, they can help people who have somehow lost, or have a strained relationship.

Some authors need to write about themselves, as a memoir, or in fiction. I wrote terribly for years because whatever my fiction was about, it was essentially about myself. Self-indulgent. When I stopped writing about myself I felt like I improved, or at least enjoyed writng more, and felt less self-indulgent.

One thing i would say about fiction writers writing about themselves is that they are skilled in writing fiction, and thus their life story can read in a very entertaining manner. Biography is a different skillset to soem extent and I wonder what fiction writers, writing in a more academic or non-literary style would produce. I think it would be terrible. Let us be grateful for literary non-fiction memoirs for this sake, if nothing else.

(BTW The article seems not to require registration to view it now.)

[jkirlin]

Short of another way to reach you...

Yes. Absolutely. I'd be honored.