William Zinsser is famous for being an excellent coach for writers. He has mastered the art of communicating through words. He has followed an alternative career path that has brought him success and fulfillment. He shares his insights in this memoir of his life while coaching the reader how to write about her/his own life.

Zinsser’s style is humble and consistently strikes the right tone for sharing the memory. That skill – sharing memories – is the essence of a memoir and is exactly what this work comports to the reader. Instead of merely preaching rules at us, Zinsser illustrates his principles by showing us from his life what he remembers about the past.

He demonstrates that good memoirs do not have axes to grind and are not overtly polemical. Instead, he nimbly and gently brings us into his own past. His writing is always respectful and stays far away from a judgmental tone. He invites the reader to explore the world with curiosity much as Zinsser models a curiously exploration of his own world.

I’m left curious to explore some of the writers that Zinsser cites as interesting authors of memoirs. I’m also left wanting to read his other work on writing a memoir entitled Inventing the Truth. His writing is so easy-going – deceptively so as he makes communicating complex ideas seem so easy. One can see why Yale undergraduates loved his writing classes and his serving as headmaster of a college.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves writing and wants to learn how to master this craft with her/his entire life.

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