Writing the Memoir: Part Two
I've mentioned the new book I'm working on, a memoir about growing up as a hunter. A killer, some will say. I accept that, and it's fair game (so to speak) for a discussion of what hunting really is all about. There are some complicated male issues involved--don't get me started on those sick, hunting "shows" on cable TV, which are as to hunting as pornography is to love. And certainly any analysis of hunting has to be about one's relationship to the natural world. . . .
But the whole memoir process is fascinating. John Irving called it "memory dredging", which has negative connotations ( mud, "bottom layers", yucky things, hidden stuff, etc.). But I'm finding, not surprisingly, the more I write the more i remember. I'm lucky to have a bright, active 90 year old mother who can confirm matters of family history--such as the year I got my first "real" gun, a .22 rifle.
This is my first nonfiction book, and I am being rigorous in separating myself from fiction writing (certainly), but also from the more "creative" memoir approaches, including 'creative nonfiction'. That latter seems to me a problematic genre, neither wolf nor dog. The key to a memoir, I think, is finding a "through-line" of meaning. That requires us to address not our whole life but an edited version of it. Not cinema verite' wherein we let the camera run, but a shortened version of selected episodes that, strung together, create an arc of meaning. A direction forward through the totality of our experiences. A theme.
Which is to say that we could write several memoirs. Each could examine an important part of our life: mothers, as in MOMMY DEAREST; a father, as in THE FLORIST'S DAUGHTER (a book mentioned earlier); or addictions and bad behavior of various kinds; or our spiritual or our sexual journey. Mine just happens to be about hunting, which is important part of my life. And one that bears examination.
And now back to work....
Comments