An Exclusive Slice Of Life: A Memoir

What is a Memoir? 

One of the most fascinating aspects of reading has been how it can inspire the human mind with the life story or a particular event from the life of another person. When a writer pens down one of his own life changing moments it is termed as a memoir. But do not confuse a memoir with an autobiography. They both are different. So, what is a memoir? It can be defined as a nonfictional, first personal written account of events and memories from the author’s real life. It is just a version of events as the author remembers them. 

The word “Memoir” is derived from the French word “mémoire” which means “memory” or “reminisce”. As the term says that it’s about a memory so a memory at times is too strong or at times the author remembers it in pieces. Due to this reason, there are no strict restrictions on the author’s narrative style to represent the factual data. Well, that doesnt mean an author doesn’t need to put certain important factors to make his memoir worth reading. A worth reading memoir should be able to convey the message in the most heartwarming way and that can be achieved if the author can convey the message if the experience or the incident is felt by the readers too and help in solving the issue for the readers who are passing a similar situation too in their lives. 

Most people are not able to differentiate between a memoir and an autobiography. So what is a memoir ?? is the question and how is it different from an autobiography? Well a memoir is about an incident or an event or a struggle against a particular issue, related to the author’s life. It’s not about the whole life of the author. Many of the aspects of the author’s life are not revealed in a memoir. Whereas in an autobiography the author’s life journey is shown. So, basically we can say that a memoir is an exclusive slice of life of the author.  

Popular Memoir 

• Wild by Cheryl Strayed – Wild: From Lost to Found On The Pacific Crest Trail, is a memoir by the American writer, author and podcaster Cheryl Strayed. This memoir is about strayed’s 1100 mile hike on the Pacific Crest trail in 1995 as a journey of self discovery. This memoir talks about strayed’s physical challenges, emotional and spiritual; realizations during the trail. 
• Becoming by Michelle Obama – is the memoir written by the first lady of the USA Michelle Obama in 2018. The book is summarized by the author as “Becoming Me, Becoming Us and Becoming More”. It talks about the values and culture (Origin) of the author and how she discovered herself and her time in the White House.
  Educated by Tara Weatover – this is one of the best memoirs written ever as it not only proves how someone’s experience can inoculate a thought process which needs to reach millions of people around us. This memoir talks about the author’s struggle to get educated. Her journey to break the social mold and achieve education. 
• Know My Name by Chanel Miller – is a heart wrenching memoir which talks about the author’s battle against her rapist, Brock Turner, in court. It shows the pain and agony of the dreadful incident that took place in her life.    
• I M Malala by Malala Yousafzai – is another perfect example of how personal experiences of one can help others in overcoming the fear and to stand up for the right. It is about the girl Malala who faces the effect of global terrorism and how her family especially her father, stood up with her to help her to attain education.  

Well, writing down personal experiences is not an easy job as it takes you down the memory lane and a person goes through multiple emotions while recalling the incident or the event which happened with them. Imagine a writer decides to pen down his struggle with childhood sexual abuse. First of all, the sensitivity of the subject is so profound that it is an emotionally draining process to recollect those haunting and painful memories to pen down on paper. Still the writer goes forward to tell the readers the fears, shocks, emotions he/she suffered so that it can help others to understand the problem a little better and can guide a reader towards the solution. 

While writing down a memoir an author must be aware of many aspects, as at the end of the day it’s a book and it needs to bring in sales. So, the first thing for a writer is to understand the market. This means that the publishers which excel in memoirs always look for such a memoir that can cater to a wider audience. If the theme and topic of a memoir is not that exciting then publishers usually don’t go forward in spite of a well written story.

If a writer is not very sure of the theme and subject of the memoir then writing a book proposal would be helpful as it can tell the author in advance whether he should keep continuing his work or should scrap the subject. If your book proposal gets a nod then start digging up more and more to collect the information which is precise and also facts that are proven about the subject. Then comes the message the author wants to give away with the book and to do that it is recommended that the author should start writing with the most important part of the subject in the beginning. So that it can hold on the reader at the first go.

One another important detail which a memoir consists of is the dialogue (use direct speech as much as possible). The dialogue should bring the essence of the emotion which the writer felt, rather than spending your thoughts on the settings to decorate the words. After learning these few tips, the best tip is to read memoirs to understand them as there are different types of memoir present around us. 

Also Read: Types Of Book Genre

Memoir Examples:

Let’s go through some of the memoirs type/example to learn more about them : 

1. The Autobiographical Memoir: is an example of the author’s life from the beginning to present times. The strength of this kind of memoir lies in the story and narration by the author.

Examples of Autobiographical memoir are : 

• I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. 
• A Two Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby.

2. The Experience Memoir: these are one of the most sought after memoirs which are present in most of the readers choice list or best books lists. Such a memoir talks about the specific experience which the author has gone through. These experiences are usually related to emotional and mental sufferings (at times physical suffering in case of a life threatening disease ) and how the author overcame the sufferings is the highlight of such memoirs. Like struggle involving substance abuse (drugs), sexual abuse, depression, stress, anxiety due to bad marriage, relationship, diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, etc are a few common topics. There are usually three things which are observed in an experience memoir: Firstly how the author went through that trauma and suffering. Secondly what kept them going to overcome the issues and lastly what was the lesson they learnt from the experience. 

Examples of experience memoir are: 

• A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.  
• Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. 

3. The Event Memoir: in such a memoir the author talks about a very specific time period or an event which changed their life and perspective. It may sound similar to an experience memoir but the difference between the two is that, in an experience memoir the event and struggle is prolonged one whereas in the event memoir, it’s about a very specific short period of time.

Examples of event memoir are : 

• The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. 
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account Of The Mount Everest Disaster. 

4. The Themed Memoir: well such memoirs are difficult to thread because it shows how all the events, decisions, struggles of life all are interconnected with one main theme. To pen down this the author really needs to dig deep into his own life and have to see how that one theme binds his life at different points of time. This theme is the center point of the author’s life.

Examples of theme memoir are : 

• Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth 
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain 
• Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby ( theme is football, Arsenal FC), 
• Educated by Tara Westover (theme education) 

5. The Childhood Memoir: this is a subcategory of autobiographical memoir and focuses on the childhood years of the author aged between 5-18.

Examples are : 

• Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. 
• Angela Ashes by Frank McCourt 

6. The Travel Memoir: these are surely present around us for a long time. Well in this piece of writing the focus is on the place rather than on the author therefore the writing style is a bit different in such a memoir as it includes the description of the place, people, food, culture, habits, etc along with the author’s experience and difficulties faced (if any) during the journey.

Examples at : 

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert 
• The Sex Lives Of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost’s

7. The Celebrity Memoir: Well there are no prizes for guessing that these are the most talked and popular memoirs as they are about the famous people around us. The celebrity may belong to politics, movies, theater, sports, or it could be about a leading star, social activist, doctor, actor or writers too. Usually people in general are very curious to discover about the celebrities personal life moments. So it’s a great way to connect to your fanbase as well as to readers while sharing some of the most exclusive experiences in the form of a memoir. 

Examples of celebrity memoir are : 

• Troublemaker by Leah remini.  
• Open by Andre Agassi. 
• Bossypants by Tina Fey.
• It’s Not About The Bike By Lance Armstrong.

8. The Family Memoir: This category of memoir speaks about the dynamics of the author and his family. It usually connects to readers because of the emotion, drama and reactions between the family members. Such a memoir also represents the strength of family in togetherness and how love, care, feelings can change a painful, difficult situation outlook into a life changing event. 

Examples of the Family memoir are :

• Brother, I’m dying by Edwidge Danticat. 
• Ntaive Country Of The Heart by Cherrie Moraga.  
• Fun Homeby Alison Bechdel 

In the end, we have learnt that a memoir is just a book in layman terms but it does more than that. A memoir can help us to understand the sensitive issues like right to educate, right to freedom of expression and living, sexual abuse, substance abuse, etc. It also teaches the importance of sharing and communication. How human emotions and struggles are so similar yet different for each one of us. So, hopefully you are able to understand What is a memoir? So, next time when you are reading a memoir do look out for the above mentioned points to correlate.