Memoir / Autobiography
Idea: The book traverses a painful and difficult subject - the author's sexual abuse at age 14 at the hands of a trusted man more than three times her own age - with unsparing honesty and a fine ear for dialogue, and a notable absence of self-pity for this serious theme.
Prose/Style: With gripping prose and perfectly paced, this memoir reads like the kind of novel one doesn't want to put down. The author's ability to slip into the skin of her teenage self is uncanny. The dialogue is written excellently, in an authentic manner and pitch-perfect in tone.
Originality: The book is reminiscent of Kathryn Harrison's The Kiss in its exploration of the author's sexual and emotional exploitation by a pedophile skilled at spotting and manipulating a young girl's loneliness and her need for an adult who will pretend to care for her, but manages to be singular in its narration and tone. The author's wracking analysis of the emotional and psychological hold her abuser retained on her is devastating.
Character Development/Execution: The characters are vivid and life-like. It is impossible to read this book without yearning to find a way to go back in time and protect this child from the events that would turn her into the healing and powerful woman who wrote this searing memoir.
Idea: This Sweet Life: How We Lived After Kirby Died is an extremely well-written and hauntingly emotional, heartbreaking account of loss. The text expertly combines the memoir of the authors losing a woman who was their daughter and sister with the account of bringing the man who caused her death to justice.
Prose/Style: The authors balance the skills of composing flashbacks combined with present-day events to re-create the life of the subject and walk readers through her tragic death.
Originality: This poignant recount of love and tragedy hits all the right marks. The main suggestion would be that the use of italics for Jean make her sections a little bit harder to read, but that's a minor alteration to what is otherwise a very strong read.
Character Development/Execution: The execution of the book -- alternating written chapters by both mother and daughter – has the potential easily get lost in the timing of the events, but it doesn't. The weaving of both stories and past and present tense is done extremely well.
Idea: This fun, informative book moves quickly, but is still chock-full of humor and heart (and interesting facts). Brandt's organization of info and amusing anecdotes into various categories works well to keep the pace and the reader's interest. At times, some stories or observations included in certain sections don't mesh with the others and trip up the narrative's pacing.
Prose/Style: Brandt's conversational prose evokes a friendly tone of humor, heart, and optimism. The included pictures add to the prose and make the anecdotes even funnier.
Originality: Brandt takes his struggle with poor vision and spins it off into a memoir that's entertaining and informative. He candidly shares his life experiences, while also opening the reader's eyes to certain truths--profound and humorous--that people with poor vision experience. This "take" on his reality is unique, fun, and engaging.
Character Development/Execution: Brandt's strong personality, one of positivity and tongue-in-cheek humor, comes through loud and clear in his memoir. There aren't many strong supporting characters to speak of, which, based on the info about the author’s mother at the end, may be a missed opportunity.
Idea: Herrig's narrative of her personal and professional struggles is compelling and keeps the reader riveted from the memoir's start to its finish. Though the work at times veers into overly technical descriptions of judicial matters, readers will remain invested in her turbulent adolescence through the aftermath of her criminal case.
Prose: Herrig's prose is conversational, funny, direct, and engaging--perfect for a memoir. Her voice shines through the stories, making readers both sympathetic and critical of her experiences and actions. One quibble: a run-through by a copyeditor would help to fix grammatical errors and typos.
Originality: This memoir is a roller coaster ride of emotional, legal, and personal struggles openly and honestly portrayed. Elements of seemingly sincere contrition and emotional resonance elevate the narrative, creating a complex and complete personal story.
Character/Execution: Herrig writes about her legal issues and her path toward spiritual and emotional growth in an authentic manner. She confesses her shortcomings with refreshing candor, presenting a nuanced self-portrait. Her depictions of supporting characters--her father, friends, family, and legal associates--are sufficient, yet would benefit from further development.
The Will of Heaven: An Inspiring True Story About Elephants, Alcoholism, and Hope
by Debbie EthellRating: 8.75
Idea: The Will of Heaven is more than just the standard memoir. It is a double story, that of a woman's recovery from alcohol addiction and of her growing passion and interest in Kenyan elephants. The chapters fluctuate between these themes, and readers will wonder how the author has so seamlessly threaded the African stories together so well without being there --- presumably, newspaper articles, scientific journal articles, and other research methods.
Prose/Style: The prose is exemplary and one of the greatest strengths of this book. What shines through to readers and will stick with them is the passion behind the writing about the elephants.
Originality: This text is quite original, especially in the way it ties together the very diverse themes of alcoholism, trauma and grief, and orphaned elephants so well.
Character/Execution: Debbie's character is quite clear and memorable; she undergoes a huge transformation in her years-long attempts to reach her amazing goals. The elephant keepers and administrators in Africa are also quite clearly portrayed.
Plot: This polished and gently humored work of memoir contains two threads: Pietrusza’s personal history of his Polish family between the '50s and today, and the history and decline of the small town of Amsterdam, New York.
Prose/Style: Pietrusza's experience as an author is clear throughout the well-developed text, which offers a graceful blending of personal insights with historical content.
Originality: This history focuses on a small, unique town in New York, and of the personal story of the author's family. The details of Polish community and Polish food (such as stuffed cabbage rolls, pierogi, and many beers) are especially engaging. Pietrusza also discusses at length, and with great nostalgia, TV shows and movies.
Character Development/Execution: The characters, including the author, are warmly and quite fully detailed. The author’s voice as a professional historian is memorable and accessible. Much of the book concerns family background, but the story becomes more universally appealing when discussing the history of Polish settlement, the upstate New York region, and baseball.
Idea: In Clarity, Estill recounts her harrowing journey as the daughter of a narcissistic, sexually exploitative father and a passive-aggressive, enabling mother. In the tradition of The Liar's Club and Running with Scissors, the book is a testament to the slow, painful process of reclaiming oneself from the wreckage of the past after a lifetime spent suffering under the despotism of a mentally ill parent.
Prose/Style: Estill writes with the wit and grit of Mary Karr and Jeanette Walls. Although, like theirs, her subject matter is anything but funny, the author manages to find humor in relating the absurd and often brutal situations her feckless father imposes on her and the rest of the family his madness holds in thrall.
Originality: While the precocious plunge into premature adult responsibilities forced upon the children of mentally unstable parents will be a familiar on to readers of The Liar's Club and The Glass Castle, Estill's voice is both fresh and vigorous. Her narrative captures the terror, pain and yes, even the hilarious aspects of a life lived in a home governed by the whims of a dictatorial, emotionally underdeveloped egomaniac, and the poignancy of growing into an adult unable to fully disengage from the responsibilities of loving a parent who demonstrates only unending demands and relentless abuse in return.
Character Development/Execution: Told with sardonic wit and unflinching candor, the narrative hums with tension between the smart, savvy survivor of a daughter and the monstrous, Santini-like, sexually exploitative father. While this is not a comfortable book to read, it is a memorable one.
Idea: Spencer’s coming-of-age piece is a memoir that flows well and holds the reader's interest because of precise, colorful details of the people, places, manners, and food he encounters on his travels.
Prose/Style: Spencer is a very clear, effective, and fluid writer, with a prodigious vocabulary and great descriptive powers that will make his readers feel like they have truly accompanied him on his journey.
Originality: While other authors have written about these kinds of quests, what is unusual and unique here is the individual man, his routes, and the time during which he undertook this huge, strenuous journey: the 1970s.
Character Development/Execution: Spencer appears to be impeccably honest, even growing angry and frustrated when he remains sick for quite a long time and when various locals treat him poorly. He feels "pushed beyond the bounds of his sanity”; however, he always strives to understand the cultures and habits of the people he encounters and is open to learning a great deal about their customs and religion.
Idea: Gray delivers a fast-paced, enlightening journey, finding time for playful anecdotes and historical exposition that compliments the story's main focus.
Prose: Gray weaves her story with a soft, human elegance that colors the whole affair with the hues of a coffee-table conversation, while affecting a scholarly vernacular that elucidates and entertains in equal measure.
Originality: By framing Gidon's story via the context of his long and storied life, rather than isolating it to his time as a Holocaust survivor, and playing it against her own experiences as his chronicler, Gray constructs an unorthodox, surprising form of memoir.
Character/Execution: Gidon and Gray inform each other's character throughout the memoir, in a way that initially makes the former feel like background compared to Gray's own foreground observations, but unfurls to create an interesting ebb and flow between the two.
Idea: Frontin's And She Called It Worship is a deeply intriguing memoir of coming-of-age, spiritual searching, and self-actualization. Frontin's personal narrative is as compelling as the journey toward healing and wholeness she lays out for readers to take themselves.
Prose: Frontin's excellent writing allows what might otherwise be insignificant moments of personal growth, to hold meaning. The author's self-awareness, doubt, and intellectual curiosity, more than sustains the narrative.
Originality: This work is highly unique both in concept and in structure. With elements of memoir as well as self-help, the book defies easy categorization.
Character/Execution: The author emerges as a complex, ambitious, and deeply curious individual, whose reflections on religion, God, and faith, are especially insightful. Other figures within the narrative don't always rise off the page, instead serving more as points of reference for the author's formative experiences.
Idea: Tobin’s memoir is about an adventure of grand proportions, as well as of two individuals working to determine whether their relationship will persevere.
Prose/Style: Tobin is a very engaging writer with clear prose. Especially delightful are his passages on landscape, landmarks, and various regional cuisines. The chapters on Paris and Corfu are fascinating and memorable.
Originality: Although this memoir initially reads like a straight travel narrative, it is much more. The book’s emotional substance stems from Michael and Deborah’s work to resolve issues within their close relationship and to ultimately determine the course of their future.
Character/Execution: Both Michael and Deborah are quite thoroughly depicted as loving, intrepid, and curious, while several engaging, eccentric people they meet on their travels provide additional texture.
Idea: This gripping true story, of a young animal activist on a quest to free captive bears, will appeal to environmentalists, animal lovers, and casual readers alike.
Prose: The story is clear, direct, and easy to follow, without feeling simple or boring. There is a well-maintained level of suspense throughout.
Originality: Barker ignored the societal limits of his youth, fighting for animal rights from the time he was in seventh grade. The story’s originality stems from its inspiring unlikelihood and its message to children everywhere: that they can make a difference.
Character/Execution: Barker’s personal journey sometimes feels separate from his work with the bears, but his relationship with his parents, and their fluctuating approval of his activism, is one of the most intriguing parts of the memoir.
Idea: In Alabama Blue, Toni Pacini recollects her abusive childhood and the violence she endured and survived, as well as the psychological and emotional scarring that led her to make sometimes catastrophic choices as an adult. It also depicts one of the most touching stories of a human being rescued from the depths of an emotional abyss by the pure, uncomplicated adoration of a canine soulmate in recent memory.
Prose/Style: The events in Pacini's story are often horrifying and deeply sad; however, her gaze is unflinching, and she has a knack for crafting idiosyncratic dialogue and the unexpected turn of phrase that can inject a note of wry humor at any moment. She has a story worth telling, and she tells it well.
Originality: Like Mary Karr and several other recent memoirists, Pacini survived a childhood blasted by parental alcoholism and mental illness, as well as horrific sexual abuse by a predatory acquaintance. Her book shows her journey from wounded child to becoming an adult who is able to reflect on her life and take pride in having become a woman who can love, live and forgive.
Character Development/Execution: It took courage to write a book this graphic in its depiction of the ugliness of life under the reign of a desperately sick, mentally ill alcoholic parent. It took still more to depict the missteps a child raised in such a home inevitably makes as an adult, and to take responsibility for them and for her own healing. That the child Pacini describes grew up desperate to be loved is not surprising; that she became a woman able to give love deeply and wholeheartedly is miraculous.
Idea: Gee delivers a sparely written micro-memoir that explores Chinese American identity, family, and coming-of-age. With an overarching theme of existing between two worlds, Allegiance offers a striking collection of memories and reflections.
Prose: Gee is a polished and precise writer, whose poetic vignettes capture the haunting intensity of memories as filtered through time.
Originality: Though works about cultural identity and its conflicts are familiar, with its visceral language, poetic sensibility, and visual presentation, Allegiance takes a unique approach to memoir.
Character/Execution: While readers may not gain a complete sense of the author's experiences, Allegiance provides a lovely and impressionistic look into the small, formative moments that help to create a sense of self.
Idea: A story within a story within a story, The Other Mrs. Samson reconstructs the lives of Ralph Webster’s friend Katie, a postwar German émigré, her husband Josef Samson, a Jewish doctor forced to flee his affluent Berlin home due to Hitler’s rise to power, and Josef’s first wife Hilda, who was raised in an atmosphere of wealth and privilege in turn-of-the-century San Francisco until love made her cross an ocean to start married life with the man she adored. Part history and part mystery, the tale unfolds in a series of different voices as Ralph, Hilda, Josef and Katie tell the tale.
Prose/Style: The book is historically very well-researched and is artfully crafted to withhold crucial plot points from the reader until the moment of revelation is right. The story reads like a mystery, and there are enough plot twists and turns to surprise the reader, who is never entirely able to anticipate where the action will go.
Originality: The Other Mrs. Samson is not a Holocaust memoir of the type that the reader may expect. Some of the mysteries the book sets up – for example, the fate of the painting that disappears en route to New York - are never cleared up, but this, if anything, only serves to enhance the narrative’s realism.
Character Development/Execution: If there is criticism to be made here, it is that the author does not make it sufficiently clear which portions of the text are taken verbatim from the writings of its principal characters – Katie, Hilda, and Josef – and which are his own fictive reconstructions based on such writings. The techniques of the “nonfiction novel” are very much in evidence, but it is left up to the reader to decide how much of this smoothly-unspooling yarn is based on first-person source material.
Hits, Heathens, and Hippos: Stories from an Agent, Activist, and Adventurer
by Marty EssenRating: 8.00
Idea: This book highlights pivotal events in the author's life, inspiring and entertaining readers with tales of his diverse sets of careers and the range of characters – human and animal – that he encounters along the way.
Prose/Style: Essen is a clear and effective writer. He is self-assured. He has a friendly, natural style with plenty of detail when necessary, especially concerning the animals – wolves, orangutans, octopus – he has encountered in his travels. One of the most eloquent moments in the book occurs when the author and his companions are taken to meet an octopus in a small lodge in Mexico.
Originality: This book is quite original, but at times, the memoir also feels like the author is covering too much ground.
Character Development/Execution: The author is forthcoming and honest. Two of his strongest lifelong interests include music and animals, particularly dogs and snakes, and this book encompasses many moments of his fascinating, varied life.
