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Title: Inventing the Truth : The Art and Craft of Memoir by William Zinsser ISBN: 0-395-90150-2 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 20 May, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: So you want to write a memoir?
Comment: Memoir writers Russell Baker, Annie Dillard, Alfred Kazin, Toni Morrison, and Lewis Thomas share their thoughts on writing memoir. The chapters are taken from a series of talks given on the subject.
The authors point out that memoir is not biography. The hardest thing about writing memoir, they agree, is not deciding what to put in, but what to leave out.
They point to Emerson, Thoreau, Twain, and each other as models of good memoir writers.
Annie Dillard says that she writes memoir to fashion a text. She advises that those who want to preserve memories will avoid writing memoir since the act of writing an event often takes more time than the event itself. She compares writing to taking care of a baby. "You don't take care of a baby out of will-power, you do it out of love," she says. It's the same, she says, with writing.
Rating: 4
Summary: Capturing Memories
Comment: Capturing Your Memories
In the book Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Writing a Memoir William Zinsser along with other well renown authors take the reader through the writing process of a memoir.
The book is divided into six sections individually composed by each author. In their own words they describe how to create a memoir that will be interesting, fluid, and accurate. A memoir is not just the facts as they are, but the facts as you experienced them. There are many other pieces of advice through out the book that add to the reader's knowledge of writing a memoir.
William Zinsser is a well renowned author and teacher. He has written and been editor for the New York Herald Tribune, and Life Magazine. Zinsser has also taught non-fiction writing at Yale University. In his book Inventing the Truth Zinsser gathers advice from many talented and experienced authors. They not only offer up advice but also describe their own trials and tribulations throughout the process. From Zinsser's boyhood in Long Island to Thomas's interpretation of evolution the book Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Writing a Memoir gives comfortable and informative lessons that a writer will find useful.
Rating: 3
Summary: On Writing a Memoir
Comment: According to Webster, the definition of memoir is "a biographical sketch, usually one written by someone who knows the subject well." It is from the Latin word memoria, meaning memory. But in Inventing the Truth, Annie Dillard says, "Don't hope in a memoir to preserve your memories. If you prize your memories as they are by all means avoid--eschew--writing a memoir" (70). Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir is a sort of instructional anthology composed of six chapters written by six authors. The purpose of this book, edited and introduced by William Zinsser, is to give writers different perspectives on how to write a memoir. If you are writing a memoir, or even just thinking about writing one, this book will be helpful to you. It contains examples of good memoir writing, advice on what to put in and what to leave out, and an overview of the process of writing a memoir. The advice given by William Zinsser and the other five contributors to Inventing the Truth pertains mostly to organizing memories. Annie Dillard's chapter entitled "To Fashion a Text" is very focused on memoir writing, and would not prove useful to the average Joe. However, Lewis Thomas' chapter called "A Long Line of Cells" would be interesting for anyone to read. Unless you are thinking about writing a memoir, this book probably will not entirely interest you.
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Title: Writing the Memoir by Judith Barrington ISBN: 0933377509 Publisher: Eighth Mountain Pr Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Your Life As Story: Discovering the "New Autobiography" and Writing Memoir As Literature by Tristine Rainer ISBN: 0874779227 Publisher: J. P. Tarcher Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Modern American Memoirs by Annie Dillard ISBN: 0060927631 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 09 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: How to Write a Memoir by William K. Zinsser, Zinsser William K. ISBN: 0694521663 Publisher: HarperAudio Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick ISBN: 0374528586 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 11 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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