If you are already a student or fan of memoir, you are likely familiar with Mary Karr who has written several memoirs about her tumultuous childhood in east Texas, her rebellious teenage years, and her later turbulent struggle with alcoholism.
Three bestselling memoirs and thirty years teaching the genre under her belt, Karr’s latest book, The Art of Memoir, gives expert advice about the mechanics and art of the form for those who seek to write memoir themselves. Karr utilizes excerpts from her favorite memoirs, personal anecdotes about her own struggles and successes with the genre, and useful insights into her own writing process. She explores the slippery nature of “truth-telling” in memoir and the difficulty inherent in presenting people from one’s past in a less-than-complimentary light.
I highly recommend this book to all of you. As #1 New York Times bestselling author, Cheryl Strayed, writes, “Mary Karr has written another astonishingly perceptive, wildly entertaining, and profoundly honest book–funny, fascinating, necessary. The Art of Memoir will be the definitive book on reading and writing memoir for years to come.”
