This Is the Story of My Life. And This Is the Story of My Life.

Just a note about an irritating subtext in this article. 1) The personal relationship between the author and its subject - shouldn't that be frowned upon? "I said to Harrison recently, “they think of ..." 2) The general sliminess of writing as an industry not dissimilar to the production of hamburgers for mildly interested stomachs. "Though Harrison’s agent, Amanda “Binky” Urban, will sometimes try to coax her client into writing something for commercial reasons … “How about a little book about adultery?”

A memoir worth reading and re-reading - Jill Ker Conway's "The Road from Coorain". Also, William Maxwell. In an introduction to "The Outermost Dream" he speaks about what makes good writing, "One wants blowing through it at all times the breath, the pure astonishment of life." That breath is what keeps me coming back to well-written memoirs. Let Kathryn Harrison write anything she wants. She has a gift for capturing "the pure astonishment of life," and is a wonderful writer.

Here is a quote from one of Mr. Alford's OWN books: "My classmate, Carolyn, had just bought the groovetastic Earth, Wind & Fire Single 'Shining Star' and she and our mutual friend Dorothy had invited me over to listen to it. On arrival, I was surprised to learn that, while listening to the song, the girls had been practicing something I'd never heard of, a 'line dance.' Lion dance? Lyin' dance? My head teemed with possibilities . . ." And The NYTIMES has Alford reviewing serious writers' books?

The first memoir was better but I still love both of Candace Bergen’s.

I like memoirs. I'm fascinated that people can remember so many details of their past.

Everybody has a story to tell. A lifetimes worth. It's not for us to decide how someone else chooses to do so.

I think what really happens here is that these authors are pigeonholed into the "genre", all readers want of them is to be talking about themselves. Yes, the famous memoirist might try to get into fiction and write a few novels as some of these authors did, but the novels never have the same success as the memoirs. So the writers get sort of gently cornered into the "autobiography", even after she/he has told their bit. I feel sorry for writers who are being asked and pushed and encouraged (by fans, agents, editors, publishing houses) to write about themselves again and again, mining and mining every tweet-worthy thought into their little pads. It seems extremely --- depressing. It must not feel very rewarding. But the market wants true stories from familiar "personalities", so the writers Mine.

Some people are very good at writing lengthy books about themselves. It doesn't mean they are good, or equally good. I recently threw "Out on a Limb" in the trash because it is so horrible and stupid, no one should bother with it. I saw another copy on the "free cart" at the library yesterday, where I found the one I read.

Aren't many novels really memoirs?

Serial biography: Thomas Clayton Wolfe 1929 - Look Homeward Angel 1935 - Of Time and the River 1939 - The Wed and the Rock 1940 - You Can't Go Home Again

I love literature desperately. Memoirs...not so much. My personal guide is this-- One memoir: might be candid and interesting (who is a reliable narrator of their own catalog of behavior though? Incidental fiction?). More than one memoir: might be worth turning my attention to any human being who otherwise thinks there are topics beyond their own ego which are worth probing. 'Serial Memoirist' sounds like a sycophantic excuse for solipsism.

You left out David Sedaris. He sure never gets old, though!

Odd that of all the motives for serial memoirs, the author neglects narcissism. Apparently writers are only subject to some of the same vices as the rest of us.

Quick correction, Kathryn Harrison does not characterize the relationship with her father consensual.

Surprisingly Karl Ove Knausgård is not mentioned. 6 autobiographical novels, 3500 pages.

I love when a memoir is discovered from past ages that illuminate what life was like among people whose history is relatively unknown or unreported. But in an era when people are posting to the Internet more than half a million comments per minute and up to 2 billion photos per day, I think early 21st century life is already being well documented without the ongoing contributions of "serial memoirists."

Decades ago, a friend related how she was at a family gathering, when her three-year-old niece ran into the center of the room, spun around looking at all the grownups, and exclaimed, "Let's talk about me!" We have found this to be a useful reference ever since.

These comments are fairly harsh. I think if someone feels their memoir is important for others to read, by all means they should write it. I think it is in the writing that the real impact occurs though on the writer not the reader. I am embarrassed to say it given this thread's negative comments but, I too have begun a memoir-A memoir broken up into 7 short books with the first titled "You". Memoirs are not necessarily about ourselves even though we might be in them. I see it more as a history of life at that time and place and with those people. Everyone experiences life in their own way. I think because I feel so strongly about things-love, joy, adventure, accomplishment, tragedy, breakup, failure, I review and analyze and process these things differently. Ultimately we are all left with a sentence as representative of our understanding of each of the major events in our lives. It is in creating these sentences that interesting and meaningful insight occurs. The shaping of the millions of thoughts, places, people and events in our lives into a reasonable, acceptable, embraceable form, that is where the memoir lives.

In Walden, Thoreau shows his understanding of autobiographical navel-gazing when he says, “I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.” However, multiple memoirs by the same person make me suspicious the author has made a character out of him/herself. When that happens, this reader, who knows himself well, starts to yawn.

Henry Miller told us memoirists were The future Remember to Remember Let us burst with the palpitations the unheard ness of nameless things Others have seen They will begin at the horizons when We expire

I'm out of the loop here. Are memoirs suddenly a thing? Do people even read them these days? I've heard everyone has one great story in them. I'm not a professional writer, but last week I started work on my own memoir. Always Losing You, about a jaw dropping slice of an otherwise unremarkable life. I've stewed on this story privately for half a century and now feel compelled to just get it all down. As soon as I started working, memories sharpened. Words and ideas mysteriously bubbled up into consciousness and poured out. I feel I've found my voice and the right way to structure a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tale I believe only because it happened to me. Perhaps this urge to write is just some fleeting obsession, and I'll soon be on to something else. I know it's going to take a lot of time and effort. But maybe if I stick with it and proceed in an orderly, workmanlike way, I'll bring forth a story other people will enjoy.

The first memoir I ever read was Elie Wiesel's "Night" trilogy some forty years ago. It impressed me because it chronicled an episode in human history worth remembering and telling, an indictment and warning against racism, tyranny, and apathy in the face of such. Since that time I have seen the memoir become an ego driven garbage industry. One volume on ones life is more than enough. To think otherwise is to reveal oneself as a consummate egoist if not an outright sociopath. Unfortunately we have a supremely voyeuristic society to create a market for such unseemly self aggrandizement.

I, for one, am tired of the self-expression known as memoir. I think the urge to write oneself began in the 60s, when, suddenly, everyone's every thought was deemed necessary (read, "I'm ok, you're ok, we're all geniuses."). Then, what with the advent of self-publishing, so many felt the need to tell the whole story. It's not just memorists, either; it's everyone with an intense feeling who writes it down and calls it a poem. I wish they would quit it; too many of these memoirs and poems are badly written, too replete with told secrets. They're a kind of scrapbooking, a macrame, a Facebooking of the soul. I would sooner read an accomplished novel or history or philosophy, a well-written poem any day. (Disclaimer: I am a nature poet.)

The Jones and Nisbett study is fascinating; I had never heard of it before, but the idea that we see our own personalities and behavior as fluid and others' as fixed rings true and bears contemplating. It is more interesting than the series of diminishing-returns memoirs discussed in this article. I read Dani Shapiro's memoir about her marriage, and the theme of needing to write another memoir in order to continue making a living as an author was highlighted throughout (the same theme shows up in Claire Dederer's memoir about her marriage).

One memoir is more than enough for even the most distinguished individual. If more happens after writing the memoir, add a few chapters. No one’s life is so incredibly fascinating or essential that it requires multiple tones to tell about. Authors with that much time to kill should produce some worthwhile fiction instead.

We are all enamored with ourselves, and social media has made it easy, even imperative, to report on our every activity and to live our lives in public. So, why not write book after book dedicated to examining ourselves? Nothing is more interesting than we are.