Memoir: Ah, Yes, I Remember It Well
Memoir is a popular topic here in Philadelphia. In his book Memoir: A History, local critic Ben Yagoda traces the history of the genre, and Philly writer Beth Kephart has a new wonderfully-titled book about writing memoir called Handling the Truth. Publisher’s fall and winter lists are packed with this well-liked genre. There are, for example, three in the winter 2014 catalogue of W. W. Norton: a “memoir of resilience” by Eileen Cronin, who was born without legs, a story of growing up with an erratic and dangerous older brother by Blake Bailey and a story of a journey to motherhood and understanding through adoption by Susanne Antonetta. Little, Brown & Co. has A Thousand Hills To Heaven: Love, Hope, and a Restaurant in Rwanda by Josh Ruxin (November, 2013). (All of these, while fully original, echo earlier popular memoirists’ work—Burroughs, Winterson, Grealy and others—in touching upon the traumatic upbringing, the physical disadvantage, or the journey to a foreign land.) Random House has seven new memoirs forthcoming, including three with star power: My Brief History by Stephen Hawking (Bantam), the paperback of Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie, and Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart (due in January, 2014).
- People:
- Lynn Rosen