emilykathleenwrites's review against another edition
5.0
"Write one true sentence." More than anything else this book makes me want to study memoir in a meaningful way.
mrswelborn's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Excellent primer on crafting a memoir. I listened to this on a road trip and loved the author’s voice. She reminded me of Anne Lamott, but a bit more academic. I’ll be buying a copy for my shelf at home. So many gems of writing tucked away in these pages!
jschmidt10's review against another edition
4.0
I liked Mary Karr’s discussion of memoir and how she uses examples from some of the better memoirs out there. I’ve always been fascinated by memoir as a genre because it’s usually ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances or doing extraordinary things - I’m not referring to typical celebrity memoirs that provide ear candy/gossip but Lucy Grealy, Jeannette Walls, Ann Patchett. I started this book to feel inspired as I write more personal essays and it met the mark.
jenmkin's review against another edition
3.0
There's a lot of good advice that Karr gives in this book, and a lot of absolutes given along with it. While it was a helpful read that made me consider how I approach writing memoir/creative nonfiction, there were also quite a few places where the book felt like it ceased to be a conversation in the art of crafting such writing and leaned toward being a how-to guide which, inevitably, will not work for everyone.
pbobrit's review against another edition
4.0
This is is a book worth reading, whether you are a writer (or aspiring writer) or just enjoy reading memoir. This is not a how-to book, you will not find writing exercises in this book. What you will find is a lot of thoughtful and insightful analysis into the process of writing anything biographical. She draws on her own experience and her writing, but also draws on the work of many other writers, picking apart what makes their work so good (and in some cases not so good). Like any good memoir, she does all this using her own unique voice which makes the reading of this book highly enjoyable.
booksaremysuperpower's review against another edition
2.0
Disappointing! I was expecting more of a writer's insight on writing an actual memoir, but instead Mary Karr's book reads as a messy half-tutorial, half-literature class book on the genre itself. She even admits in the introduction that she's not quite sure what this book is supposed to be about. Aside from a few gems on what constitutes a better memoir over a mediocre one, and how to confront the whole sticky memory issue in memoir, the book is a confusing compilation of anecdote and literary commentary. The chapter on Nabokov's memoir "Speak. Memory" was so hard to follow that I ending up skipping most of it. Karr is unnecessarily verbose and hops around themes and analysis to the point where I wondered how much her own students ('some of them Ivy educated', as she frequently mentions) can follow this work.
This is definitely NOT a book for beginner writers in the genre. I am curious about Karr's own memoirs, but I do not recommend The Art of Memoir as an addition to anyone's collection.
This is definitely NOT a book for beginner writers in the genre. I am curious about Karr's own memoirs, but I do not recommend The Art of Memoir as an addition to anyone's collection.
jking236's review against another edition
3.0
There's a lot of good advice that Karr gives in this book, and a lot of absolutes given along with it. While it was a helpful read that made me consider how I approach writing memoir/creative nonfiction, there were also quite a few places where the book felt like it ceased to be a conversation in the art of crafting such writing and leaned toward being a how-to guide which, inevitably, will not work for everyone.
plannedandplanted's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Here’s the thing. This book actually does have a lot of good information about how the author writes memoirs, and her analysis of why other memoirists’ works are so compelling.
But so much of the book just felt like… posturing? “Look how many authors and titles I know, and look how good my analysis of their work is!” Like it legit felt like certain sections were straight out of an essay I would have written in college for one of my Lit courses.
I needed less “here’s why this work is so good and why I think the author wrote it this way” and more “here’s how they likely got to that point.” The parts where Karr explains her own process and then uses examples from other memoirs to back that up were super engaging, helpful, and practical. The rest was like slogging through a literary sandpit
But so much of the book just felt like… posturing? “Look how many authors and titles I know, and look how good my analysis of their work is!” Like it legit felt like certain sections were straight out of an essay I would have written in college for one of my Lit courses.
I needed less “here’s why this work is so good and why I think the author wrote it this way” and more “here’s how they likely got to that point.” The parts where Karr explains her own process and then uses examples from other memoirs to back that up were super engaging, helpful, and practical. The rest was like slogging through a literary sandpit