LIT REVIEW: The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith

Marion Roach Smith's guide to memoir writing made me want to do two things: learn more about Smith and write a memoir. I'd say that makes it a roaring success.

options

LIT REVIEW: The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith

POSTED: Monday, June 27, 2011, 12:00 PM

Marion Roach Smith’s guide to memoir writing made me want to do two things: learn more about Smith and write a memoir. I’d say that makes it a roaring success.

The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing and Life (Grand Central Publishing, June 9) lives up to its subtitle. Teeming with personality, it’s definitely out of the ordinary. Smith has no patience for writing exercises. Memoir writing, she says, “is serious work” that “cannot be reduced to generic writing exercises and prefabricated prompts.”

Her main points are simple and appear effective. One key guideline: Remember that “you are not the story.” You’re just the “illustration” of a theme that’s far bigger than yourself. Smith proposes an algorithm for memoir: “This is an (x) and the illustration is (y).” The x tells what the story is about at its heart, while the y is the incident you plan to describe. One example Smith offers: “This is about how anger withers the soul, and the illustration is my uncle Henry’s struggle for revenge.”

“Struggle for revenge” is one of the biggest topics Smith suggests. Generally, she encourages readers to keep things small, focusing on a moment or a day. Smith, who has written for a wealth of leading publications, teaches a class on memoir writing. Her students often come to the class planning to write on topics like “gender” or “revenge.” Way too big, she says. While your theme can and should be widely applicable, you the illustration should be concrete—perhaps a strange wedding you attended or “a day at the proctologist.”

The Memoir Project also offers small, practical tips. Have “a clean desk.” Keep a thesaurus nearby. Get a writing buddy and share your work. Carry a notebook and actually write in it.

All the book’s guidance is provided in flowing prose. Smith intersperses her advice with examples from her own work, woven seamlessly into the text. It’s these pieces that left me wanting to know more about the author, proof that she herself is a capable memoirist. The major trouble with the book, however, is that it’s almost too readable. Smith calls on readers to provide “arrows” in their writing, sentences that make clear where the text is going. But she doesn’t follow her own advice. Flipping through the text after reading, it’s difficult to track down key points. What’s more, subject headings tend to be metaphorical and imaginative rather than directly informative. In short, it’s a pleasure to read through, but it’s not well-structured for later reference.

But the flaws are easy to forgive, because Smith writes with a firm and encouraging conviction that her readers can succeed as writers. She calls on them to write “with a goal”—anything from writing for the New York Times to penning a letter to your kids. It’s this implicit faith in her audience that made me want to sit down and start writing.

(matt.cantor@citypaper.net)

See Also:

Posted by Matt Cantor @ 12:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Comments (0)

Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
What we're trying to do this weekend
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
NOW SEE THIS: Transit cop arrests marijuana activist for alleged disorderly conduct.
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
SWIMMING HOLES: Some of our favorite places to get wet

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: