| ecent flap about James Frey’s A Million | | | | In order to reach out to the reading public and go |
| Little Pieces has hit the media with a big bang, | | | | beyond private journaling, a memoir writer must |
| bringing the age-old debate about what is | | | | create a story that has a shape, drama, and |
| acceptable when writing memoir--a real | | | | story arc. This may mean constructing a scene |
| story. Every time a memoir is released that gains | | | | that conflates time, or adds costumes to our |
| media attention this debate is raised. Mary Karr, | | | | characters that they may or may not have worn, |
| The Liar’s Club, Jennifer Lauck, Blackbird, | | | | but our job is to be as accurate and as honest as |
| and Vivian Gornick, Fierce Attachments, all | | | | we can be. If we change the plot of our lives |
| defended their memoirs in various medias, and all | | | | because another plot would be more interesting |
| said that some recreations of actual reality had to | | | | to the publisher, we are in the realm of fiction. If |
| occur in order to write the story and make it | | | | we say we had relationships we didn't have |
| interesting. | | | | because it would make a better story, we need |
| As a memoir teacher, I find that people are very | | | | to call it fiction. |
| worried about the ethical issues involved in | | | | A memoir writer needs to write a first draft that |
| memoir writing. For example, the writers ask such | | | | sifts through the happenings, feelings, and |
| questions as, what if I don’t remember | | | | challenges and get them down on the page--a |
| the exact conversation when my mother died, | | | | draft that is healing and purging--and important |
| or I don’t know what clothes I was | | | | work. |
| wearing the day my father went away | | | | Publishing is another stage. The writer must ask |
| forever. I am always moved by these | | | | many questions of the work--how much to |
| innocent, caring questions, because the writer is | | | | include, what is the shape of the book, and how |
| trying very hard to be truthful and accurate, and | | | | to write it so others can identify and understand. |
| not leave any room to be accused of dishonesty. | | | | What to say about James Frey? None of us can |
| In my memoir Don't Call Me Mother I researched | | | | know for sure what went on for him as he |
| the time the train arrived in Perry, Oklahoma to | | | | constructed his book, and what he remembered. |
| make sure the scene I was painting and the | | | | On January 15, Mary Karr wrote a piece in the |
| conflict with my grandmother about how long | | | | New York Times about memoir writing and she |
| she'd kept my father waiting at the train | | | | had this to say, |
| station--three hours! was accurate. My memory | | | | "Call me outdated, but I want to stay hamstrung |
| told me it was a long time, but finding the time of | | | | by objective truth, when the very notion has |
| scheduled arrival made me feel great--memory | | | | been eroding for at least a century. When Mary |
| was not all I was drawing upon to create a story | | | | McCarthy wrote 'Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood' in |
| that would be taken seriously as "real." In fact, | | | | 1957, she felt obliged to clarify how she recreated |
| when I began writing the stories that eventually | | | | dialogue. In her preface, she wrote: 'This record |
| turned into my memoir, I was calling it "fiction," | | | | lays a claim to being historical - that is, much of it |
| but the writing group challenged me about how | | | | can be checked. If there is more fiction in it than I |
| unrealistic it was that a mother would act the | | | | know, I should like to be set right.'" |
| way my mother acted, and that my grandmother | | | | Mary went on to talk about how much she |
| was portrayed as "too over the top," thus | | | | learned, and how healing it was when she didn't |
| unbelievable. My answer was, "but it was all true." | | | | make passages in her book more "interesting" or |
| Their response: "It doesn't matter what is true in | | | | shape them into a slightly different story. "If I'd |
| fiction, but it does for memoir." | | | | hung on to my assumptions, believing my drama |
| I realized that the power of the story I was going | | | | came from obstacles I'd never had to overcome |
| to tell was that it was true, and I did my best to | | | | - a portrait of myself as scrappy survivor of |
| recreate scenes that delivered the truth. Naturally, | | | | unearned cruelties - I wouldn't have learned what |
| childhood memory is subjective, any memory is | | | | really happened. Which is what I mean when I say |
| subjective, but over the years, as I talked with | | | | God is in the truth." |
| people who knew parts of the story and visited | | | | What a great ideaas we write memoir we are |
| locations where the story took place, I discovered | | | | reaching for something beyond our conscious |
| that indeed I had remembered very well, and I | | | | selves. In the river of creativity and the search |
| had not made things up in my mind. However, I | | | | for truth, there are forces beyond us moving us |
| am sure that if my grandmother and mother | | | | along to a place we didn't even know about, a |
| were alive to challenge what I wrote, they would | | | | place of healing and resolution. |
| have another point of view. | | | | |