This topic pulled me in because I have always shunned “memoirs” or autobiographies from celebrities. Why? Well for me it’s because when I read memoir it needs to be written by the average person that has faced adversity and I want to know how they got through it. The common folk are the people I relate to, not those with privilege which is out of reach for a vast majority of us. Your beef might be more with their lack of artful technicalities but mine is the idea that they’ve already had their moment in the sun, now move over and let someone else have theirs. I do love this quote, “The author Samantha Dunn who once told me that autobiography is the story of a life and memoir is a story from a life.”
I still distinctly remember the moment when a publishing house's assistant asked me what my memoir was about at a writers conference. When I gave my elevator pitch, she smirked at another member of the staff nearby and said,"Why would anybody care, are you a celebrity?" At the time I was insecure and felt a huge amount of imposter syndrome. It crushed me... but only for a moment. It still lives in my memory but not in my heart. Thanks for this, Brooke!
Great piece (as always), Brooke. I love Jeff Hiller (and Somebody Somewhere is the show I recommend since it's under a lot of people's radar) and so glad his memoir is an outlier to what most famous folk deliver. J.R. Moehringer is one of my favorite writers — whether writing memoir, ghosting, or journalism — in part because he seems to choose every word with intention and care.
"remembering things and narrating the past from the present rather than being or staying “in scene” and narrating the events from within the scene (which is essential for good scene-writing)." Thank you. An interesting factoid, essay in NY TImes about biography, how unlike other genres that are becoming briefer and briefer not so biography and here I'd add autobios like Streisand's.
great post, Brooke, smart and true. Thanks for advocating for non-celeb memoirs. I'd love to hear more about "fictive breaks" in memoir: is this the same as taking the reader "out of the story" in fiction? p.s. how have the years flown by since we saw each other at IBPA??
Breaking the fictive dream is when you break the fourth wall, so to speak, when you've wrapped the reader in a scene in a particular moment in time and the present-day narrator comes in to weigh in on the situation. Memoirists do this constantly, but it is disruptive and in an ideal world they'd do it sparingly or not at all. Of course, if the narration is from present-day then that's an exception, but few memoirs are written that way. Two notable ones are Inheritance and You Could Make This Place Beautiful....
What year did we see each other at Pub U do you think? I go every year. :)
I’m lucky: I don’t care about celebrities or their stories, so I won’t learn any bad habit from them. But I understand your beef and learned from this piece—thank you!
I admit to also resenting the success of many celebrity memoirs. . . their star status ensures sales, they don't even have to worry about the quality of writing, keeping readers "in the moment," overwriting, etc. All will be forgiven! And while many of their stories can be interesting, if you admire or like their work, they are no more interesting, and often perhaps less so, than those of us who have written with dedicated, relentless focus on craft and keeping our narratives moving, with hoped-for payoffs for our readers, whom we appreciate so much more because finding them may have been a hard-won job.
I really appreciated reading what you’ve said here, Brooke; you touch on so many important, and overlapping issues, about writing and publishing. And I appreciate your courage to put it down on paper. Thank you.
Love this. Memoirist here who is really struggling to write well. I am doing the work, taking classes from some of the best. Picked up a celebrity memoir at the library recently. Love the writer but reading this book was not going to improve my craft...and it was a bit boring. Put it down after a few pages.
Ok, since we're talking memoir... My first book, memoir. Maybe autobiography, but we published as memoir, and in fact there's a great deal more to my life than I wrote about in there, so, memoir. My second book, self-help/travel (memoir)/other memoir. Ok, the terrible three, cross-genre. Harder to sell. My third book, historical fiction based on family history scandals that happened 100 years ago. Why am I having a beef about this in memoir? Because a well-followed fiction author in Goodreads praised my meticulous research in the novel, and said my writing was pretty good, but slammed it with three stars because she insisted it was not fiction, but memoir, so don't bother reading it if you want fiction. In the epilogue, yes, I appear, to tell two short vignettes I recall from childhood about one of the characters, and one of them is when he dies, which is the best ending to the book, because you WANT him to die after reading his story. The rest was made up, but had a skeleton of truth. And boy did that piss me off, that she told 1300+ people it's a memoir, and not fiction, so don't read it if you like fiction. She's an author of many books, not famous, but has 1300 followers in the US on Goodreads, and called this a memoir. Even an author published many times over does not know the definition of memoir. Grrr...
Your post makes me want to re-read Matthew Perry’s “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” (which I read two years ago and liked a lot) to analyze why it seemed to work and whether it’s autobiography or a true addiction memoir. I just recall his sharp, funny voice—his ability to make me laugh during objectively dark, painful scenes, like David Sedaris. Comedians have a gift.
I love how you write on Sunday “fresh” about what the week has inspired in you! I have the same approach. And I really appreciate your insights into what keeps a memoir in scene, and what can potentially take us out of it. Always learning here! Thank you!
I skim or pass up most Substacks I subscribe to but I always read yours. You have something to say and you say it succinctly.
Thanks, Lora. This means a lot to me!
This topic pulled me in because I have always shunned “memoirs” or autobiographies from celebrities. Why? Well for me it’s because when I read memoir it needs to be written by the average person that has faced adversity and I want to know how they got through it. The common folk are the people I relate to, not those with privilege which is out of reach for a vast majority of us. Your beef might be more with their lack of artful technicalities but mine is the idea that they’ve already had their moment in the sun, now move over and let someone else have theirs. I do love this quote, “The author Samantha Dunn who once told me that autobiography is the story of a life and memoir is a story from a life.”
There can be more than one beef! 😂
Yes, there can. Would that be a herd? Lol
😂
“…it’s because when I read memoir it needs to be written by the average person that has faced adversity and I want to know how they got through it.”
YES!! 🔥🔥
I still distinctly remember the moment when a publishing house's assistant asked me what my memoir was about at a writers conference. When I gave my elevator pitch, she smirked at another member of the staff nearby and said,"Why would anybody care, are you a celebrity?" At the time I was insecure and felt a huge amount of imposter syndrome. It crushed me... but only for a moment. It still lives in my memory but not in my heart. Thanks for this, Brooke!
Great piece (as always), Brooke. I love Jeff Hiller (and Somebody Somewhere is the show I recommend since it's under a lot of people's radar) and so glad his memoir is an outlier to what most famous folk deliver. J.R. Moehringer is one of my favorite writers — whether writing memoir, ghosting, or journalism — in part because he seems to choose every word with intention and care.
Loved this, Brooke! Spot on in all regards!
"remembering things and narrating the past from the present rather than being or staying “in scene” and narrating the events from within the scene (which is essential for good scene-writing)." Thank you. An interesting factoid, essay in NY TImes about biography, how unlike other genres that are becoming briefer and briefer not so biography and here I'd add autobios like Streisand's.
great post, Brooke, smart and true. Thanks for advocating for non-celeb memoirs. I'd love to hear more about "fictive breaks" in memoir: is this the same as taking the reader "out of the story" in fiction? p.s. how have the years flown by since we saw each other at IBPA??
Breaking the fictive dream is when you break the fourth wall, so to speak, when you've wrapped the reader in a scene in a particular moment in time and the present-day narrator comes in to weigh in on the situation. Memoirists do this constantly, but it is disruptive and in an ideal world they'd do it sparingly or not at all. Of course, if the narration is from present-day then that's an exception, but few memoirs are written that way. Two notable ones are Inheritance and You Could Make This Place Beautiful....
What year did we see each other at Pub U do you think? I go every year. :)
I’m lucky: I don’t care about celebrities or their stories, so I won’t learn any bad habit from them. But I understand your beef and learned from this piece—thank you!
I admit to also resenting the success of many celebrity memoirs. . . their star status ensures sales, they don't even have to worry about the quality of writing, keeping readers "in the moment," overwriting, etc. All will be forgiven! And while many of their stories can be interesting, if you admire or like their work, they are no more interesting, and often perhaps less so, than those of us who have written with dedicated, relentless focus on craft and keeping our narratives moving, with hoped-for payoffs for our readers, whom we appreciate so much more because finding them may have been a hard-won job.
I really appreciated reading what you’ve said here, Brooke; you touch on so many important, and overlapping issues, about writing and publishing. And I appreciate your courage to put it down on paper. Thank you.
Love this. Memoirist here who is really struggling to write well. I am doing the work, taking classes from some of the best. Picked up a celebrity memoir at the library recently. Love the writer but reading this book was not going to improve my craft...and it was a bit boring. Put it down after a few pages.
I feel you, Kresha. I am in a similar situation.
Ok, since we're talking memoir... My first book, memoir. Maybe autobiography, but we published as memoir, and in fact there's a great deal more to my life than I wrote about in there, so, memoir. My second book, self-help/travel (memoir)/other memoir. Ok, the terrible three, cross-genre. Harder to sell. My third book, historical fiction based on family history scandals that happened 100 years ago. Why am I having a beef about this in memoir? Because a well-followed fiction author in Goodreads praised my meticulous research in the novel, and said my writing was pretty good, but slammed it with three stars because she insisted it was not fiction, but memoir, so don't bother reading it if you want fiction. In the epilogue, yes, I appear, to tell two short vignettes I recall from childhood about one of the characters, and one of them is when he dies, which is the best ending to the book, because you WANT him to die after reading his story. The rest was made up, but had a skeleton of truth. And boy did that piss me off, that she told 1300+ people it's a memoir, and not fiction, so don't read it if you like fiction. She's an author of many books, not famous, but has 1300 followers in the US on Goodreads, and called this a memoir. Even an author published many times over does not know the definition of memoir. Grrr...
Your post makes me want to re-read Matthew Perry’s “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” (which I read two years ago and liked a lot) to analyze why it seemed to work and whether it’s autobiography or a true addiction memoir. I just recall his sharp, funny voice—his ability to make me laugh during objectively dark, painful scenes, like David Sedaris. Comedians have a gift.
I love how you write on Sunday “fresh” about what the week has inspired in you! I have the same approach. And I really appreciate your insights into what keeps a memoir in scene, and what can potentially take us out of it. Always learning here! Thank you!
Loved this. I have SO many grievances with celebrity memoirs, and you put your finger on pretty much all of them.
It's interesting: editors are risk-averse, but to be a book publicist means you need to take risks. I think that's why book publicists get frustrated.
One of the many reasons!!