The memoir is the most popular and expressive literary form of our time. Writers embrace the memoir and readers devour it, propelling many memoirs by relative unknowns to the top of the best-seller list. Writing programs challenge authors to disclose themselves in personal narrative. Memoir and personal narrative urge writers to face the intimacies of the self and ask what is true. In The Memoir and the Memoirist, critic and memoirist Thomas Larson explores the craft and purpose of writing this new form. Larson guides the reader from the autobiography and the personal essay to the memoir--a genre focused on a particularly emotional relationship in the author's past, an intimate story concerned more with who is remembering, and why, than with what is remembered. The Memoir and the Memoirist touches on the nuances of memory, of finding and telling the truth, and of disclosing one's deepest self. It explores the craft and purpose of personal narrative by looking in detail at more than a dozen examples by writers such as Mary Karr, Frank McCourt, Dave Eggers, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Mark Doty, Nuala O'Faolain, Rick Bragg, and Joseph Lelyveld to show what they reveal about themselves. Larson also opens up his own writing and that of his students to demonstrate the hidden mechanics of the writing process. For both the interested reader of memoir and the writer wrestling with the craft, The Memoir and the Memoirist provides guidance and insight into the many facets of this provocative and popular art form.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Excellent memoir resource and reading:
Thomas Larson is an erudite, yet friendly author. His book is a must read for budding memoirists, as well as an insightful resource for choosing memoirs to study. This book inspired me to get going and keep going on my own memoir, and helped me choose a direction and identify my theme. He asks questions that I had never thought to ask myself and which yielded rich material for my work.
Brilliantly Original:
Partway through composing my own three-part memoir (the first of which has been published), I began alternately cursing and blessing Tom Larson. Blessings on Larson's brilliant syntheses of the cores of many notable "autobiographies" and his incisive analyses of critical distinctions between them and true "memoirs." Curses on him for convincing me the published part of my memoirs was inadequate in the realm of progressive self-discovery. In the end, however, I celebrate Larson's logical, persuasive, and... more info
A reminder that truth is elusive; memory and assumptions will trip us up:
When I reached the end of this book, without pausing I turned back to page one and began it again. That's because the author put far more thought and insight into this ambitious undertaking than I was able to absorb in one pass. The modern-day memoir--life stories written by ordinary folks--has vocal detractors. Some dismiss it as facile self-absorption. Others recoil from the lurid sensationalism found in certain examples and extrapolate from that to the whole genre. Thomas Larson, perhaps for the... more info
A Gem:
Tom Larson's writing in The Memoir and the Memoirist is so fluid, so natural, he talks to his readers and invites us in. Early on, he begins providing us with important information about writing a memoir and he shares much of his personal life and influence with us. I was moved by his openness. His acknowledgement of his partner is one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever read and it reveals his goodness and tenderness. The way Larson presents the material demands the reader's attention,... more info
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