Mary Karr

Memoir has become a popular field in recent decades. The novitiate often thinks that anyone can write about their own life. The experienced one knows that this task is actually incredibly hard, both in penning the work and in emotionally admitting truth to yourself. Bestselling memoir author and writing professor Mary Karr writes about values and practices she finds helpful. Importantly, she cites other authors alongside her own experience to ground her work not just in personal ingenuity but in universal human knowledge.

Augustine of Hippo wrote the first known autobiography in his Confessions in the fourth century CE. Since then, some humans – whose sanity could be questioned! – have found revealing their inner lives in literature a part and parcel of their writing craft. It seems that Karr has read many of the best of these reflections and shares an exhaustive list in an appendix. She hand picks a favored few to study in depth in many of the 24 chapters. Then she spends some time reflecting on the topic of choice via her own experience in penning three memoirs.

As my only criticism, she spends too much time for me harping on the theme of telling the truth. Now, I am a big fan of the truth – reality is always the best and most steadfast motivator. Indeed, I agree most memoir writers could probably benefit from not straying too far from relating reality as best they can. However, I also work as a scientist, so obsessing about getting it right earns my paycheck and consumes my days. My personal foible in writing is having an entertaining voice. Fortunately, Karr does talk about voice in several chapters, but truth-telling from emotional memories still takes the most eminent, dogmatic place in this book.

Frankly, few people anywhere would be able to write this book. Few have read as widely as Karr has. Further, few have written three successful memoirs. Fewer still teach students how to write memoirs for a living, as Karr does in Syracuse’s MFA program. That’s why this book will remain for some time as a standard that every aspiring author of the genre needs to consult. For those with deeper curiosities, she also lists a handful of other recommended works in the aforementioned appendix. This challenging book is not for the faint of heart, but to those readers who persist, it can lead to stories that last longer and that reach a broader audience. Not bad for any ambitious author…… (mais)