My Memoir on “The Memoir” program
by Lucy Lockley
It was the last day of the conference and what I needed was one more bit of readers’ advisory to take with me to ponder on the plane home. To fill that bill I chose to attend “The Memoir: the Readers’ Advisory’s Dream or Nightmare” program which started at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. The presenters were Donna Seaman, Joyce Saricks, and Barry Trott – a line-up which would have made any program worth attending all by itself! But as you are reading the following, please keep in mind that these are my memories of what the presenters said. I did, of course, take notes but … 
Donna Seaman introduced her co-presenters as “the king and queen of readers’ advisory” and said she was proud to share the podium with Barry and Joyce. Ms. Seaman then spoke of memoir as a form of autobiography, which is an exterior account of an individual’s life, saying that such accounts usually begin with recollections about childhood and then come up to the present day. She said memoirs are an account of what it feels like to live a certain life and consist of the author’s memories.
Ms. Seaman talked of memoir as a mysterious dialogue between the unconscious and conscious mind, most often dealing with family — “Memoirs are akin to poetry … in their attention to language and use of metaphor.” She said that the author’s memories are valid to themselves, even though other family member’s memories of the same events may be totally different OR even non-existent. Ms. Seaman stated that readers need to be willing to accept this and take the author’s account as an attempt to articulate feelings they had toward family, parents, siblings, and other individuals encountered during their life.
She then talked about two specific types of memoirs: first, those by people of mixed heritage, saying these memoirs are personal accounts which “go to the heart of identity”. She said that’s it’s hard enough for any individual to become a person but it can be even more difficult for someone of a mixed racial background. A few of the examples she spoke about were: Barak Obama’s Dreams From My Father: a Story of Race and Inheritance, Bliss Broyard’s One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life — a Story of Race and Family Secrets, and The Color of Water: a Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James C. McBride. Ms. Seaman said that these memoirs are healing stories which have their own appeal to readers. But those interested in genealogy might enjoy them also — for the investigative efforts put forth by each author to find out about their past.
The second type she discussed was the environmental memoir, saying that these stories would be for those who have a strong interest in nature writing. Again she mentioned a number of titles, one of which was Unbowed: a Memoir by Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Ms. Seaman said that a memoir like this one can give the reader an insight into another country — in this case, the reader learns about Kenya. She also talked about a number of environmental titles which could be linked by the sub-topics of nuclear waste and/or whistle-blowers.
A few of those titles were:
Refuge: an Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams
Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land by Amy Irvine
Body Toxic: an Environmental Memoir by Susanne Antonetta
Welcome to Shirley: a Memoir from an Atomic Town by Kelly McMasters
Next up was Joyce Saricks, who said she doesn’t usually choose to read memoirs but that she does know good stories. So, smiling to the audience, she said she was providing a readers’ advisory non-fan’s opinion on memoirs. Ms. Saricks stated that in this day of tell-all memoirs and reality TV there is a huge audience for real life stories. Memoirs are the hottest type of Nonfiction being published today, accounting for 12.5% of the Nonfiction book deals in 2007. She also recommended listening to memoirs, as audio can make these stories even more personal.
Ms. Saricks said that the role of librarians is to keep an eye out for titles which have that “personal” element, especially those not catalogued in the Biography section. Librarians should be sure to include patrons in readers’ advisory as they are one of our best sources for information about books. She also said that librarians should familiarize themselves with the actual physical books — touch them, read portions of the text — don’t just rely on reading reviews.
Joyce said that staff should promote memoirs: with displays; on the web; keep lists of classic memoirs; create lists of new memoirs; and group memoirs by related topics. Employ any type of marketing that will get memoirs out to the patrons! For readers’ advisory interactions, collect your own list of sure bet memoirs and be prepared to assist your patrons, no matter what direction their reading takes them! Joyce has a handout which is available on the PLA Conference website at: http://www.placonference.org/handoutspage.cfm
Barry Trott talked about the appeal of memoirs, saying that the main appeal factor is CHARACTER, as all memoirs are about character. But many memoirs have other appeal factors which can also attract readers to them. Some titles are set in a specific place or time and that SETTING may be what a reader enjoys the most. Other books deal with specific aspects of the individuals life and that STORY may be most appealing to a reader. Mr. Trott also suggested taking a look at a readers’ advisory title from Libraries Unlimited called Remembered Childhoods: A Guide to Autobiography and Memoirs of Childhood and Youth by Jeffrey E. Long.
Barry then discussed how character is often expanded or fine-tuned in many memoirs. And that they can concentrate on many areas, for example they can deal with specific occupations or be about people with obsessions. He gave two opposing examples of obsession memoirs: Perri Knize’s Grand Obsession: a Piano Odyssey, about a woman looking for the perfect piano, and Noah Adams’ book, Piano Lessons: Music, Love & True Adventures, about his learning how to play the piano – as an adult.
Barry continued by talking about Travel and Cooking memoirs, citing many examples in both areas. He said that these types of memoirs can be very straight-forward, provide slices-of-life, can be humorous, or they can be examinations of a life. He mentioned that it can be the places or the food discussed in these memoirs which appeals most to a reader and NOT necessarily the individuals story.
A few of the Travel authors and titles he mentioned were:
Any of the titles by Bruce Chatwin or Paul Theroux
A Walk in the Woods and Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
Blue Latitudes by Tony Horowitz
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
Some of titles and authors that he listed for Cooking were:
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
Heat: an Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford
The Provence and Tuscany titles of Peter Mayle and Frances Mayes
The Tummy Trilogy by Calvin Trillin
And very possibly an upcoming title, to be released in July 2008:
Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip–Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by The Waiter
Barry mentioned that at some point (hopefully in the near future) a complete list of all the titles he and Donna spoke about during the program would be posted on the Booklist Online website: www.booklistonline.com.
The floor was then opened up to questions from the audience. One of the questions was:
What about those recent books that were sold and promoted as memoirs but turned out to be total fabrications? Should they be reclassified as fiction? The panelists replied by asking the audience what had been done with other titles, such as Alex Haley’s Roots or Night by Elie Wiesel? Joyce Saricks suggested that perhaps we should be making displays with these ‘fabrication’ titles and promoting them as what they are to the patrons. Then, let the readers decide if they are worth reading.
Another audience member mentioned that she had recently attended a NoveList program where Dr. David Carr was one of the speakers. She paraphrased him, saying he defined memoir as “a confabulation between the author, the reader, and the author’s memory of the past, and what actually happened,” thus reminding everyone again that a memoir is what the author remembers of their life and readers should accept that at face value.
And finally, an audience member suggested that we should think of memoirs as a great way to move throughout the Dewey system. She said that memoirs can provide readers access to any topic only in a more personal way. What a great ending thought to ponder (along with all of the other information discussed!) on my flight back home!!
–
Lucy Lockley, Collection Development Manager
St. Charles City-County Library District
The handouts for PLA conference presentations can be found here.
This is the last of our bloggers’ entries on readers’ advisory related programs they attended at the Public Library Association conference in Minneapolis. Our heartfelt thanks for a great job! And, if you are headed to the annual conference of the American Library Association this summer and would like to contribute, we’d love to continue this tradition.
Thank you again to Jenne Bergstrom, Sarah Statz Cords, Lucy Lockley, Jessica Moyer, Sarah Nagle, and Georgine Olson. Great job!
