The Art of Memoir

by Mary Karr

Overview

Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well.

For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse.  (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre.

Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.

Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062223074
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	30,829
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mary Karr is the author of three award-winning, bestselling memoirs: The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit, as well as The Art of Memoir, also a New York Times bestseller. She received Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships for poetry and is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.

Table of Contents

Caveat Emptor xi

Preface: Welcome to My Chew Toy xiii

1 The Past's Vigor 1

2 The Truth Contract Twixt Writer and Reader 9

3 Why Not to Write a Memoir: Plus a Pop Quiz to Protect the Bleeding & Box Out the Rigid 27

4 A Voice Conjures the Human Who Utters It 35

5 Don't Try This at Home: The Seductive, Narcissistic Count 55

6 Sacred Carnality 71

7 How to Choose a Detail 79

8 Hucksters, the Deluded, and Big Fat Liars 81

9 Interiority and Inner Enemy-Private Agonies Read Deeper Than External Whammies 91

10 On Finding the Nature of Your Talent 101

11 The Visionary Maxine Hong Kingston 103

12 Dealing with Beloveds (On and Off the Page) 111

13 On Information, Facts, and Data 123

14 Personal Run-ins with Fake Voices 129

15 On Book Structure and the Order of Information 147

16 The Road to Hell Is Paved with Exaggeration 149

17 Blind Spots and False Selves 151

18 Truth Hunger: The Public and Private Burning of Kathryn Harrison 163

19 Old-School Technologies for the Stalled Novice 171

20 Major Reversals in Cherry and Lit 173

21 Why Memoirs Fail 181

22 An Incomplete Checklist to Stave Off Dread 189

23 Michael Herr: Start in Kansas, End in Oz 193

24 Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision 211

Acknowledgments 219

Appendix Required Reading-Mostly Memoirs and Some Hybrids 221

Permissions 227

Editorial Reviews

Snappy and witty, humorous just when it needs to be, yet plainspoken in the best way.

Shelf Awareness

A celebration of the creative life.

Austin American-Statesman

Karr’s own voice is consistent and authentic, as vivid, down-home, smart, profane and self-deprecating as it is in her own memoirs.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lots of practical advice, a great reading list, examples you can bite into.

Houston Chronicle

A master class on memoir, from a memoirist who pulls no punches.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

As useful for those of us who want to be better friends and lovers as it is for those of us who want to pen our life story.

More

Whip-smart.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Karr really is an artist. The Art of Memoir attests to how hard she works at getting her words just right and how deeply she understands the way great writing works.

Slate

With a trio of notable memoirs (”The Liars’ Club,” “Cherry,” and “Lit”), Mary Karr is exquisitely qualified to write this book, a kind of compendium of advice, warning, and deep insight into what makes a personal history stick in a reader’s mind.

Boston Globe

A veritable blueprint for the genre…. Lovers of the form and aspiring scribblers alike will relish this comprehensive appreciation of and guide to ‘writing the real self.’

O: The Oprah Magazine

Engaging.

Chicago Tribune

Karr is such fun to read-who else would combine the name Nabokov and the phrase “out the wazoo” on her very first page?

New Yorker

Mary Karr strikes a vein in The Art of Memoir.

Vanity Fair

The Art of Memoir is passionate and irreverent-and reminds us why we love a good memoir.

Elle

From a contemporary luminary of the form, Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir examines our enduring drive to make memory speak and to ‘wring some truth from this godawful mess of a single life.’

Vogue

Full of Karr’s usual wit, compassion and, perhaps most reassuringly, self-doubt. Her fans should be delighted—and they can’t go wrong reading the books she discusses, including her own.

Washington Post

Terrific and deliciously readable guide.

Entertainment Weekly

Should be required reading for anyone attempting to write a memoir, but anyone who loves literature will enjoy it too.

Wall Street Journal

Mary Karr has written another astonishingly perceptive, wildly entertaining, and profoundly honest book-funny, fascinating, necessary. The Art of Memoir will be the definitive book on reading and writing memoir for years to come.

Cheryl Strayed

Could have been called ‘The Art of Living.’

San Francisco Chronicle

Karr is a national treasure—that rare genius who’s also a brilliant teacher. This joyful celebration of memoir packs transcendent insights with trademark hilarity. Anyone yearning to write will be inspired, and anyone passionate to live an examined life will fall in love with language and literature all over again.

George Saunders

★ 07/06/2015
Karr (The Liars’ Club), the author of three lauded memoirs, teaches a selective memoir writing graduate class at Syracuse University, and offers her wisdom in this instructive guide to the genre. Not only does Karr write exquisitely herself (and without pretense, often with raw authenticity—“One can’t mount a stripper pole wearing a metal diving suit”), she clearly adores memoirs; the appendix of nearly 200 suggested (“required”) memoirs is a delightful and useful bonus. The text is a must-read for memoirists, but will also appeal to memoir lovers and all who are curious about how books evolve. For writers in particular, Karr covers such essential topics as the quest for truth (probing its elusive nature), finding one’s own “true” voice or “you-ness,” (“Most memoirs fail because of voice,” she asserts), the crucial process of revision, evoking the five senses, and how to deal with family and others who play major parts in the memoir (she sends her polished manuscripts out in advance for inspection and lets friends pick their own pseudonyms). As if auditing her class, readers learn from her commentary on the memoirs of Vladimir Nabokov, Michael Herr, Frank McCourt, Hilary Mantel, and others. Karr lends her characteristic trueness and “you-ness” to the subject of writing memoirs, wisely (and quite often humorously) guiding readers in their understanding and experience of the art. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

I was stunned by....The Liar’s Club. Not just by its ferocity, its beauty, and by her delightful grasp of the vernacular, but by its totality—she is a woman who remembers everything about her early years....Mary Karr presents her childhood in an almost unbroken panorama.

Stephen King on Lit

One of the best memoirists of her generation. . . . A radiant, rueful, rip-roaring book.

Entertainment Weekly on Lit

Karr could tell you what’s on her grocery list, and its humor would make you bust a gut, its unexpected insights would make you think and her pitch-perfect command of our American vernacular might even take your breath away.

Los Angeles Times on Lit

More than a recovery memoir. Karr writes unflinchingly about marriage, class, guilt, and the struggle to make peace with her raw, melodramatic, yet wildly interesting past.

NPR on Lit

Affecting…. Karr’s lurch toward faith is narrated with her familiar irreverence and humor, but this tone does not preclude a more heartfelt expression of the value of faith.

The New Yorker on Lit

Believers and nonbelievers have long been drawn to confessions, like Saint Augustine’s, that read like dispatches from the knock-down drag-out encounter between God and the stubborn sinner. Lit . . . is one of those.

New York Review of Books on Lit

In a gravelly, ground-glass-under-your-heel voice that can take you from laughter to awe in a few sentences, Karr has written the best book about being a woman in America I have read in years.

New York Times Book Review on Lit

Irresistible. . . . [Written] with trademark wit, precision, and unfailing courage.

O: the Oprah Magazine on Lit

Reminds us not only how compelling personal stories can be, but how, in the hands of a master, they can transmute into the highest art.

Boston Globe on Lit

Howlingly funny…. In some ways, Lit is her most intimate book…. The overall impression is of a sorrowful narrative poem as humble and funny as it is beautiful.

Time on Lit

Searing. . . . [Karr] has written a book that lassos you, hogties your emotions and won’t let you go.

New York Times on Lit

A master class on the art of the memoir.

New York Times Book Review

Irresistible. . . . [Written] with trademark wit, precision, and unfailing courage.

the Oprah Magazine on Lit O

I was stunned by....The Liar’s Club. Not just by its ferocity, its beauty, and by her delightful grasp of the vernacular, but by its totality—she is a woman who remembers everything about her early years....Mary Karr presents her childhood in an almost unbroken panorama.

Stephen King

Karr could tell you what’s on her grocery list, and its humor would make you bust a gut, its unexpected insights would make you think and her pitch-perfect command of our American vernacular might even take your breath away.

Los Angeles Times

More than a recovery memoir. Karr writes unflinchingly about marriage, class, guilt, and the struggle to make peace with her raw, melodramatic, yet wildly interesting past.

NPR

Affecting…. Karr’s lurch toward faith is narrated with her familiar irreverence and humor, but this tone does not preclude a more heartfelt expression of the value of faith.

The New Yorker

Believers and nonbelievers have long been drawn to confessions, like Saint Augustine’s, that read like dispatches from the knock-down drag-out encounter between God and the stubborn sinner. Lit . . . is one of those.

New York Review of Books

Irresistible. . . . [Written] with trademark wit, precision, and unfailing courage.

the Oprah Magazine O

Howlingly funny…. In some ways, Lit is her most intimate book…. The overall impression is of a sorrowful narrative poem as humble and funny as it is beautiful.

Time

Searing. . . . [Karr] has written a book that lassos you, hogties your emotions and won’t let you go.

New York Times

Irresistible. . . . [Written] with trademark wit, precision, and unfailing courage.

O: the Oprah Magazine

Irresistible. . . . [Written] with trademark wit, precision, and unfailing courage.

O Magazine

★ 07/01/2015
Drawing on her knowledge as a memoirist and writing instructor, Karr (The Liars' Club; Lit) presents an enlightening review of the memoir as a medium for communicating "carnal," lived experiences. Fresh and heartfelt, Karr's analysis of the form illustrates its variety and depth, the significance of voice, and the perception of "truth." Examining her own work, and that of some of the most influential memoirists to date, Karr delivers a thorough look at the writing process and the challenges inherent in telling one's story and accepting the subjective nature of memory. Drawing on the work of writers as varied as Harry Crews, Vladimir Nabokov, and Hilary Mantel, the author delves into the range of narrative styles found in memoir, while inspiring the next generation of writers. VERDICT As a writing guide, this book is a success. Never is Karr dull or didactic (not a single lesson or method is touted as "the one"); rather, the author instructs and inspires through example and a love for the art of memoir. The detailed list of suggested readings also makes for an excellent challenge for readers and writers alike. [See Prepub Alert, 3/16/15.]—Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib.

Library Journal

2015-05-06
A bestselling nonfiction writer offers spirited commentary about memoir, the literary form that has become synonymous with her name. Personal narrative has exploded in popularity over the last 20 years. Yet, as Karr (Lit: A Memoir, 2009, etc.) points out, memoir still struggles to attain literary respectability. "There is a lingering snobbery in the literary world," she writes, "that wants to disqualify what is broadly called nonfiction from the category of ‘literature.' " In this book, Karr offers both an apology for and a sharp-eyed exploration of this form born from her years as a practitioner as well as a distinguished English professor at Syracuse University. She begins by considering classroom "experiments" she has conducted to show the slipperiness of memory and arguing the need to give latitude to writers tackling memoir. Writing with the intent to record what rings true rather than exact is one thing; writing with the intent to lie is another. Voice is another critical aspect of any memoir that manages to endure through time. By examining works by writers as diverse as Frank McCourt and Vladimir Nabokov, Karr demonstrates that it is in fact the very thing by which a great memoir "lives or dies." Rather than focus on the narrative truism of "show-don't-tell," Karr thoughtfully elaborates on what she calls "carnality"—the ability to transform memory into a multisensory experience—for the reader. When wed to a desire to move beyond the traps of ego and render personal "psychic struggle" honestly and without fear, carnality can lead to writing that not only "wring[s] some truth from the godawful mess of a single life," but also connects deeply with readers. Karr's sassy Texas wit and her down-to-earth observations about both the memoir form and how to approach it combine to make for lively and inspiring reading. A generous and singularly insightful examination of memoir.

Kirkus Reviews