In the chapter about voice, what she is really forcing readers to ask is: am I being my truest self? Or am I pretending to be someone else? In “The Past’s Vigor,” she acknowledges how slippery memory can be, and how difficult it can be to find absolute truth. Timeline? Chronology? Who gives a crap? For Karr, every aspect of memoir-building comes back to a single question: is this the best way to reveal the truth? Her chapter titles include “The Truth Contract Twixt Writer and Reader,” “Hucksters, the Deluded, and Big Fat Liars,” and “The Road To Hell Is Paved with Exaggeration.” Even in chapters that seem to be about something else, Karr turns the focus to veracity. Truth is the through line of Karr’s book, the thing that preoccupies her most. She makes her readers fall in love with memoir all over again and feel excited to tackle the form for themselves. She highlights memoir’s ability to shine truth upon events obscured by memory’s shadows. While she does offer insight on structure, voice, research, and other aspects of the writing process, where Karr excels is in revealing the artistry of the form, those things that cannot be bound by hard-and-fast rules. Where were the clearly delineated sections on structure and scene-building and story arc? Where were the outlines? The unbreakable rules?Įventually I had to concede that Karr did not title her book The Highly Detailed Topographical Map of Memoir. So I felt momentarily disoriented when I finally began to read The Art of Writing.
After all, as the author of The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit, Karr is the mother of modern-day memoir.
I marked it down as a Book That Must Be Read. When I saw that Mary Karr was coming out with her own book on memoir, my heart stalled and then started again, creating a butterfly flurry of excitement in my chest. From Lerner, I learned what might be in store for me should I ever pass into the realm of writer-with-a-book-contract. From Lara, I learned how to focus and construct a memoir. From Lamott, I learned about character development, scene-setting, and plot. From King, I learned to eradicate superfluous adjectives and adverbs (or at least try to). Like any other writer worth her salt who has overshared about her life as a means of paying the bills, I have read the usual how-tos: Stephen King’s On Writing.
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