Like a battalion of acutely self-aware and catharsis-addicted paper
soldiers, memoirs are storming the literary market with no end in
sight. Once a specialized genre --- reserved for larger-than-life
personalities like Mary McCarthy, Ernest Hemingway, Sammy Davis
Jr., and Groucho Marx --- memoir writing has replaced Monopoly and
baseball as the great American pastime. Feeling bad? Write a memoir.
Feeling good? Write a memoir. Feeling indifferent to feeling either
good or bad? Write a memoir.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, either. There are exceptions,
of course (see Dave Eggers), but on the whole, this trend is producing
many intelligent, compelling, inspiring, helpful books. It does
seem, though, that most (note that I am not saying all…please do
not accuse me of vast, sweeping generalizations) memoirs tend to
fall into certain "categories" and "degrees of legitimacy" according
to the "sort" of person writing them.
People with an inalienable right to a memoir…
Not surprisingly, this is a highly elite category, under which
very few people fall. One recent book that best exemplifies what
constitutes a near perfect memoir is AN
HOUR BEFORE DAYLIGHT: Memories of My Rural Boyhood by Jimmy Carter.
How can your average layman earn entrance to this elevated class
of memoirist? Become a president, high-ranking government official,
celebrated social activist/agitator/reformer, military hero/prisoner,
religious leader, assassinator or serial killer.
People who have befallen and overcome personal tragedies and/or
extreme circumstances (i.e., abject poverty; being left for dead
on a glacier in the middle of the Arctic Sea)…
This is may be the most popular breed of memoir out there today.
And for good reason. Who, after all, is not drawn to intensely personal
stories about the indomitable human spirit? There is little wonder
why ANGELA'S
ASHES sat atop the best-seller list for months or why ICEBOUND:
A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole
promises to do the same. Absolute candor --- like that found in
BALD IN THE
LAND OF BIG HAIR and ANGELHEAD:
My Brother's Descent Into Madness --- really strikes a chord
with readers. These page-turning, nail-biting, tear-jerking, new-lease-on-lifing
stories have become virtually synonymous with the term "memoir."
People who have achieved great success and/or fame…
There comes a point in every famous person's life when he/she
must pat him/herself on the back for the frequent obstacles they
have surmounted in the achievement of --- and the numerous life
lessons they have taken away from --- their extraordinary success.
The product of this self-congratulation is often a memoir. I hold
up the following as evidence to this claim: WHO
WANTS TO BE ME? by Regis Philbin; HEART
TO HEART by Britney Spears; the soon to be released memoir of
David Boies, the attorney whose courtroom credits include the Microsoft
antitrust suit, Napster's fight against the recording industry,
and the George W. Bush election debacle; and yes, even ON
WRITING by Stephen King.
"No, that cannot be!!" you're saying. "ON WRITING is not only
thoughtful and legitimate literature, but it wasn't in the least
self-aggrandizing."
In retort: "Quite true, King's book was remarkably intelligent
and well written --- a welcome addition to the genre. That, however,
does not negate the fact that it was born from King's unparalleled
success and personal confidence as a writer."
People who are related to people who have achieved unparalleled
success and/or fame…
Someone more cynical and critical of the art of memoiring might
refer to this particular variety of storytelling as exploitation.
What, after all, did Margaret Salinger, author of DREAMCATCHER,
do to warrant a top-selling memoir other than be the daughter of
brilliant and eccentric J. D.? And while Rebecca Walker can boast
of a long list of smaller literary accomplishments, BLACK
WHITE AND JEWISH, sold well because she is Alice Walker's daughter.
I have a friend who is black, white and Jewish. He was born to Robert
and Linda Jones, an optometrist and an elementary school teacher,
respectively. He is a fantastic writer. Do you think his memoir
would get Rebecca Walker's level of media attention and readership?
Probably not.
At least Salinger and Walker make concerted efforts to plumb the
emotional and psychological depths of their relationships with J.
D. and Alice. The same cannot be said for Lorna Luft --- daughter
of Judy Garland and sister to Liza Minelli and author of the sleazy
tell-all ME
AND MY SHADOWS. With not an ounce of redeeming quality to be
found, ME AND MY SHADOWS is the best example of the absolute worst
kind of memoir.
Ordinary People who think they lead extraordinary lives…
I take back what I said above…the only thing worse than a memoir
written by a half-witted, famous-by-birth author like Lorna Luft
is one written by an altogether uninteresting person who, for some
completely inexplicable reason, is convinced they have lead an extraordinary
life and feels compelled to wax philosophical about it. Dave Eggers
stands as the prime example of this sort of megalomaniac memoirist.
A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING
GENIUS is entirely grounded in the premise that in becoming
a surrogate parent to his younger brother after their parents' deaths
Eggers has done something that warrants national recognition and
celebration. Even if you ignore the fact that, at 21, Mr. Eggers
was still older than many single parents and that he and his brother
always had a steady supply of money, the events of Eggers life still
do not justify a 400-plus page memoir --- especially considering
that the tragedy of his parents' deaths and the difficulties of
his new lifestyle last for all of about 150 pages, with the remaining
300 hundred or so being dedicated to endless pontifications on how
cool and hip and progressive he and his friends and his magazine
are while the rest of the world is so pedestrian and ignorant and
mainstream.
Now I know what you're going to say…if my categorical analysis
is to be trusted, how are we to reconcile the fact that AN HOUR
BEFORE DAYLIGHT and A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS are
both at number one on the bestseller list (Carter's for hardcover
nonfiction; Eggers for paperback nonfiction)? A very good question
for which I've come up with this answer: Dave Eggers has special
powers that he used to brainwash the world into believing his memoir
really isn't about an ordinary person with delusions of grandeur.
--- Sarah Brennan
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