The new issue of Entertainment Weekly has an article called So You Want to Write a Memoir?, very cleverly designed as a ''choose-your-own-adventure" list of what's been written before. In other words, Under Loved Ones, you could choose Fell in Love with a Pig (The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery) or Double-dating with his Recently Widowed Father (Assisted Loving by Bob Morris). Under Struggles, you have your choice of everything from Being a Virgin (Superstud by Paul Feig) to Life Under the Khmer Rouge (When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him).
It's a great article/list that shows exactly what sorts of crazy things have been written about, and it also made me realize exactly how few memiors I've read. I tend to read mostly fiction, though I have read a few great works of narrative non-fiction over the years. And yes, even a memoir here and there!
What about you? Do the books on your nightstand tend to lean toward fiction or non? Or do you read omnivorously?
(By the way: The title of this post is not meant to cast any aspersions on the truthiness of memoir writers. It's (I hope) a clever play on words describing my reading tastes!)
__________________________
The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery, Ballantine trade paperback, $13.95, 978-0-345-49609-6
Assisted Loving by Bob Morris, Harper hardcover, $24.95, 978-0-06-137412-8
Superstud by Paul Feig, Three Rivers Press trade paperback, $13.95, 978-1-4000-5175-5
When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him, W.W. Norton trade paperback, $14.95, 978-0-393-32210-1
|