The Art of Memoir

This is probably the best book on writing I’ve ever read. Mary Karr combines immensely satisfying criticism (including brilliant analyses on Vladamir Nabokov, Maya Angelou, and Michael Herr) with her own rules for memoir writing, focusing on themes of truth, carnality, and cultivating a voice, all delivered with her own mastery of language and charming Texas twang. I connected with her no-nonsense outlook on writing, and her ability to talk the reader through scribbling down the hard stuff with humor and authority. Through Karr, I found inspiration to resurrect my own tattered pages of memoir and start typing again. This is a keeper.

When I finished listening to The Art of Memoir, I felt sad it was over. I savored it during my morning walks & felt I was privy to a much needed university course taught by Mary Karr. This is more than a book about writing, it's about honesty and hard work - I'm inspired to do many things, including writing.
Thank you Mary Karr✌️💜📚

Mary Karr's voice and her ability to tell a good story.

No, but only because there is so much info, I wanted to take it all in.

Highly recommend this to anyone interested in writing memoir and the art of telling a story. Mary Karr is the perfect author for this book!

I'm going to listen to this book several times, there's so much meat in these words to savor.

None! There's nothing like this that I've ever read or listened to. And I've read dozens of memoir writing books in search of knowledge, inspiration...direction.

It's always good to hear the writer read her work. There's a realness to the words instead of a performance of the words.

loved the Narration and I learned that truth IA worth telling. I had ignored that which would make others look good but truth is truth. I have very bad vision on a phone so small..computer broken..so I apologize for bad spelling but my words were important to me even though probably in a pile but I have to accept that the same may happen to my book. thank you for giving me the ability to be me.

The most memorable part of this book was the author quoting from various memoirs. She did a good job with that - but the actual instructions on writing were confusing - would have been better with a planned outline instead of the meandering style that she adopted that includes stories from the students she's taught and passages from memoirs that she'd enjoyed.

Added some humor and insight into the writing process. Of all the books about writing, the best are: "Bird by Bird", which is laugh-out-loud funny - and Stephen King's humorous and insightful book, which is not only the closest thing he's even written to a memoir, but also gives sensible advice about adopting a direct, honest style.

Comparing the style and content from other memoirs was interesting.

I didn't finish this book.

Read Mary Karr for great family stories and Memoir that's tough to put down. Attend the MFA program at Syracuse for first hand teaching of the trade by Ms. Karr

Felt like she phoned it in.