Memoir Week

It is memoir week at Slate.com (er, it was -- I guess not anymore since it's Fri afternoon).

I love memoir. Love it. It's so raw. And messy. And nothing ever ties together in the end. It's so life.

I have to go back and read Slate.com's articles because I just found out about memoir week this morning (thanks Jen!), but I saw this quote in an article by Mary Karr:

"I'm certain that I've forgotten, blurred, or misremembered a zillion events, characters and details large and small . . . it's understood that memoir is not an act of history but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt."

Karr goes on to talk about the importance of telling the truth and sticking to the stuff that's stuck the hardest, but I love her honesty about memory. I've read too many statements by writers who claim they remember everything perfectly. And I always think, What a lie! Not to mention that what one person honestly thinks is true may very well not be, because people assign motivations to others' actions that may not really be there (oh, the countless times I've done that to my husband!). Anyway, I'm glad memoir has become more popular and that readers (and writers) are gaining a better understanding of what it's about and grappling with the complex issues it raises.