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Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir
An indispensable book by writers who have experienced firsthand the rewards and challenges of crafting a memoir
Anyone undertaking the project of writing a memoir knows that the events, memories, and emotions of the past often resist the orderly structure of a book. Inventing the Truth offers wisdom from nine notable memoirists about their process (Ian Frazier searched through generations of family papers to understand his parents' lives), the hurdles they faced (Annie Dillard tackles the central dilemma of memoir: what to put in and what to leave out), and the unexpected joys of bringing their pasts to the page. Featured authors include Russell Baker on Growing Up; Jill Ker Conway on The Road from Coorain; Annie Dillard on An American Childhood; Ian Frazier on Family; Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Colored People; Alfred Kazin on A Walker in the City; Frank McCourt on Angela's Ashes; Toni Morrison on Beloved; and Eileen Simpson on Poets in Their Youth.
Anyone undertaking the project of writing a memoir knows that the events, memories, and emotions of the past often resist the orderly structure of a book. Inventing the Truth offers wisdom from nine notable memoirists about their process (Ian Frazier searched through generations of family papers to understand his parents' lives), the hurdles they faced (Annie Dillard tackles the central dilemma of memoir: what to put in and what to leave out), and the unexpected joys of bringing their pasts to the page. Featured authors include Russell Baker on Growing Up; Jill Ker Conway on The Road from Coorain; Annie Dillard on An American Childhood; Ian Frazier on Family; Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Colored People; Alfred Kazin on A Walker in the City; Frank McCourt on Angela's Ashes; Toni Morrison on Beloved; and Eileen Simpson on Poets in Their Youth.
221 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
189 people are currently reading
1,458 people want to read
About the author
William Zinsser
49 books502 followersWilliam Knowlton Zinsser is an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic, and editorial writer. He has been a longtime contributor to leading magazines.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
May 12, 2008
There are a few gems here -- the latter part of Annie Dillard's "To Fashion a Text" and Toni Morrison's excellent guide to the history of African American memoir: "The Site of Memory." The bibliography is also fascinating, to see what writers were reading as they wrote their memoirs. Otherwise, this book hasn't quite made the transition from spoken presentations to published essays, and the product is neither solid craft advice nor strong personal essay.
November 1, 2018
If you're looking for tips on writing a memoir, or just enjoy memoirs in general and want to read what may be behind some, this is the book! I really enjoyed all of the essays here included, I am always reading about memoir writing, its really one of my pastimes, and this will be included in my recommendations if anyone asks me over dinner for a good book on memoirs.
August 9, 2017
In this anthology of writers' memoirs, we meet many different sort of writers, journalists, novelists, professors at universities who teach all sorts of things not necessarily related to writing but have all written a memoir of some type or other.
Each writer discusses why they wrote from the angle they chose. Russell Bake decided to narrow his memoir to his relationship with his mother and her impact on his life. This meant leaving out most of his life, but allowed a straight line to take the reader from A to B without getting side tracked.
Some writers had interesting childhoods. Jill Ker Conway, a professor, wrote about growing up in Australia. She shares what motivated her to write about her complicated, personal relationships and the challenges of rising through the echelons of a University as a woman.
Alfred Kazin writes of growing up inside the Jewish culture in Brooklyn. His objective is to get the reader to see every stoop, traffic sign and the smells coming from the restaurants and see the people brushing by on the crowded streets.
Toni Morrison believes everyone should look at their historical self, the actual history and the perceptual as a minority. She believes black writers have two objectives: to say this is my personal history, but also the history of my race.
Annie Dillard doesn't believe in memoirs but rather that we should use our personal experiences to write our stories, so, according to her, it follows that every story a writer pens is really a memoir on some level.
Each writer offers their own perspective and insight in how to write about one's life or at least aspects of it.
Ironically, when I read samples of some of these writers' books on commercial sites, I didn't find their writing very interesting. Which goes to show that one can write well about a topic without necessarily living up to another person's expectations of that topic.
This book however will be of interest to anyone interested in writing and receiving the ideas and thoughts of successful, published writers.
Each writer discusses why they wrote from the angle they chose. Russell Bake decided to narrow his memoir to his relationship with his mother and her impact on his life. This meant leaving out most of his life, but allowed a straight line to take the reader from A to B without getting side tracked.
Some writers had interesting childhoods. Jill Ker Conway, a professor, wrote about growing up in Australia. She shares what motivated her to write about her complicated, personal relationships and the challenges of rising through the echelons of a University as a woman.
Alfred Kazin writes of growing up inside the Jewish culture in Brooklyn. His objective is to get the reader to see every stoop, traffic sign and the smells coming from the restaurants and see the people brushing by on the crowded streets.
Toni Morrison believes everyone should look at their historical self, the actual history and the perceptual as a minority. She believes black writers have two objectives: to say this is my personal history, but also the history of my race.
Annie Dillard doesn't believe in memoirs but rather that we should use our personal experiences to write our stories, so, according to her, it follows that every story a writer pens is really a memoir on some level.
Each writer offers their own perspective and insight in how to write about one's life or at least aspects of it.
Ironically, when I read samples of some of these writers' books on commercial sites, I didn't find their writing very interesting. Which goes to show that one can write well about a topic without necessarily living up to another person's expectations of that topic.
This book however will be of interest to anyone interested in writing and receiving the ideas and thoughts of successful, published writers.
September 17, 2014
The sensationalism of TV talk show in the late 1980's brought a shift in autobiography that would create a new "memoir genre". The national fascination for featured topics relating to alcohol/drug dependency, depression/emotional disorders, attempted suicide, abuse/co-dependency, obesity/eating disorders, etc. Many authors of these memoirs bashed their parents, and/or centered on themes of further negativity, shame, victimhood, self-indulgence. Many of these memoirs would become international bestsellers. "Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir" (1998), William Zinsser takes a close look at the positive art of memoir expression by bestselling authors of that time: Russell Baker, Mary Karr, Jill Ker Conway, Frank McCourt, Eileen Simpson, Alfred Kazin, Anne Dillard, Ian Frazer, Henry Lois Gates Jr., and Toni Morrison.
The authors discuss what makes the genre particularly successful. Readers feel a connection, find inspiration and even nourishment. The writers reflect on the past, sometimes in pain, but offer compassion/forgiveness. There is no self-pity, whining, judgment, or hunger for revenge. A good memoir is carefully crafted and constructed, it simply doesn't fall into place. The writer of any form must determine what to add and what to leave out, and has absolute control over the writing. There are both good memoirs and bad ones, they must be above all interesting, revelatory, and truthful.
Russell Baker stated: "Talking too much for a writer is death". Jill Ker Conway avoided the re-creation of the "male myth", and stressed the impossibility of getting the unspoken truth from brief edited TV version of memoir. Frank McCourt stressed the value and redeeming quality of writing to educate while using entertainment/humor. Anne Dillard emphasized that memoir is not the place to air grievance, or for real/imagined attacks. Dillard doesn't believe in authors "kicking people around", or writing about those unable to defend themselves. As a writing teacher her input was strong and on task. Ian Frazer discussed the first person narrative of family history, and "fake boring books" often associated with this theme, and how to make it more interesting for the reader. Toni Morrison wrote about the biographical slave narratives important in African American (Black) History. Also, the differences of self-reflection and the craft of fiction where the two genre's "embrace".
The authors provide additional insights on the titled books/memoirs they wrote, also an excellent resource that reviews books written in this time period. Memoir remains a popular best selling genre, this book is a highly recommended must read classic for all authors/readers. This title was available in e-book format at our public library.
The authors discuss what makes the genre particularly successful. Readers feel a connection, find inspiration and even nourishment. The writers reflect on the past, sometimes in pain, but offer compassion/forgiveness. There is no self-pity, whining, judgment, or hunger for revenge. A good memoir is carefully crafted and constructed, it simply doesn't fall into place. The writer of any form must determine what to add and what to leave out, and has absolute control over the writing. There are both good memoirs and bad ones, they must be above all interesting, revelatory, and truthful.
Russell Baker stated: "Talking too much for a writer is death". Jill Ker Conway avoided the re-creation of the "male myth", and stressed the impossibility of getting the unspoken truth from brief edited TV version of memoir. Frank McCourt stressed the value and redeeming quality of writing to educate while using entertainment/humor. Anne Dillard emphasized that memoir is not the place to air grievance, or for real/imagined attacks. Dillard doesn't believe in authors "kicking people around", or writing about those unable to defend themselves. As a writing teacher her input was strong and on task. Ian Frazer discussed the first person narrative of family history, and "fake boring books" often associated with this theme, and how to make it more interesting for the reader. Toni Morrison wrote about the biographical slave narratives important in African American (Black) History. Also, the differences of self-reflection and the craft of fiction where the two genre's "embrace".
The authors provide additional insights on the titled books/memoirs they wrote, also an excellent resource that reviews books written in this time period. Memoir remains a popular best selling genre, this book is a highly recommended must read classic for all authors/readers. This title was available in e-book format at our public library.
July 7, 2020
Henry David Thoreau wrote 7 different drafts of Walden in 8 years. He finally pieced together what Margaret Fuller called the "mosaic" method, a book that strikes as casual and chatty.
Annie Dillard's essay "To Fashion a Text" is the best. She says not to write a memoir. Rather write about what you are left with after years of thinking about it. Her advice is "to fashion a text. Don't hope in a memoir to preserve your memories. . . . The work battens on your memories. And it replaces them."
Dillard: "After you've written, you can no longer remember anything but the writing. However true you make that writing, you've created a monster. . . . After I've written about any experience, my memories--those elusive, fragmentary patches of color and feeling--are gone; they've been replaced by the work. The work is a sort of changeling on the doorstep--not your baby but someone else's baby rather like it, different in some way you can't pinpoint, and yours has vanished."
Dillard: "Memory is insubstantial. Things keep replacing it. Your batch of snapshots will both fix and ruin your memory of your travels, or your childhood, or your children's childhood. You can't remember anything from your trip except this wretched collection of snapshots."
E. B. White once said about his move from Manhattan to Maine that he was "homesick for loneliness."
Annie Dillard's essay "To Fashion a Text" is the best. She says not to write a memoir. Rather write about what you are left with after years of thinking about it. Her advice is "to fashion a text. Don't hope in a memoir to preserve your memories. . . . The work battens on your memories. And it replaces them."
Dillard: "After you've written, you can no longer remember anything but the writing. However true you make that writing, you've created a monster. . . . After I've written about any experience, my memories--those elusive, fragmentary patches of color and feeling--are gone; they've been replaced by the work. The work is a sort of changeling on the doorstep--not your baby but someone else's baby rather like it, different in some way you can't pinpoint, and yours has vanished."
Dillard: "Memory is insubstantial. Things keep replacing it. Your batch of snapshots will both fix and ruin your memory of your travels, or your childhood, or your children's childhood. You can't remember anything from your trip except this wretched collection of snapshots."
E. B. White once said about his move from Manhattan to Maine that he was "homesick for loneliness."
May 7, 2012
Lots of wonderful insight on the process of writing memoirs. My favourite excerpt below from Toni Morrison:
"You know, they straightened out the Mississippi in places, to make room for houses and liveable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. "Floods" is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding, but remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory - what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of our imagination is our "flooding."
"You know, they straightened out the Mississippi in places, to make room for houses and liveable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. "Floods" is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding, but remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory - what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of our imagination is our "flooding."
November 10, 2023
An excellent anthology for writers or those interested in the creative process. Of course, some essays resonate more than others. I particularly enjoyed the piece by Henry Louis Gates. Worth reading and re-reading.
This is not (directly) a "how to write memoir" book, but in a way it is: because through their stories the writers demonstrate that there are many paths towards inventing the truth, and inventing your own path may be necessary to your own true story.
This is not (directly) a "how to write memoir" book, but in a way it is: because through their stories the writers demonstrate that there are many paths towards inventing the truth, and inventing your own path may be necessary to your own true story.
January 27, 2013
More inspiring than actually helpful, INVENTING THE TRUTH is a collection of memoirs on writing memoirs. This INCEPTION-like premise works, not because it's a particularly interesting concept, but because the book's editor, William Zinsser, chose a group of extremely articulate and engaging writers for this compilation, writers who could discuss the gradual dehydration of paint and still make it sound compelling. The book is a collection of interviews, essays and speeches; most of the material is biographical or historical in nature, with just a small portion dedicated to giving tips as to HOW the writing of a great memoir is actually done. I can't really say I learned much from reading this, but it certainly imbues one with an overall infectious enthusiasm for the subject material--as well as for that of writing in general. Considering how little interest I usually have in reading memoirs as compared to other kinds of writing, it's impressive how well this book held my attention.
June 4, 2012
I was enticed by the title, Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, because I have been skeptical about the veracity of many of the memoirs I have read and felt that they contained considerable “invention”. As I read Zinsser on the unreliability of memory and Baker on the possibility that accuracy does not equal truth and even Dillard on the danger of using memories in a memoir, I have come to accept and embrace the proposition that memoir has to do with truth which is not synonymous with fact. I even found support in Morrison's intimation that it might take fiction to get at truth. So, this fine, slim volume has given me a way to appreciate memoir, while still preferring to find truth in novels.
May 27, 2012
I like to write down quotes from books I like, and with this book, I wrote down so many quotes, I just about copied the whole book. One of my favorite essays was from Toni Morrison, and she wrote: "If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic."
January 24, 2020
Read sometime between 2008 and 2010. Owned a copy, reread some parts before donating in 2020.
I was really interested in how Angela’s Ashes came to be, and in Henry Louis Gates’ process writing Colored People (which I have since read). Reading Toni Morrison makes me want to revisit her work.
These were originally talks - I would’ve enjoyed going to them and hearing the authors.
I was really interested in how Angela’s Ashes came to be, and in Henry Louis Gates’ process writing Colored People (which I have since read). Reading Toni Morrison makes me want to revisit her work.
These were originally talks - I would’ve enjoyed going to them and hearing the authors.
September 7, 2008
I love Zinsser. I love his writing, his thought process and his mind. His writing (included in this anthology) is planted on earth, graspable. He's an awesome editor as shown in this work. The collected essays deal with the many considerations inherent in memoir. This anthology includes the work of Dillard, Baker, Kazin, Morrison and Thomas. Dillard suggests that the re-writing of a memory will implant the edited version in the mind of its maker (71). Zinsser says, "Memoir is a window into a life" (21). Morrison equates memory to a flood, “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir by William Knowlton Zinsser
My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love Zinsser. I love his writing, his thought process and his mind. His writing (included in this anthology) is planted on earth, graspable. He's an awesome editor as shown in this work. The collected essays deal with the many considerations inherent in memoir. This anthology includes the work of Dillard, Baker, Kazin, Morrison and Thomas. Dillard suggests that the re-writing of a memory will implant the edited version in the mind of its maker (71). Zinsser says, "Memoir is a window into a life" (21). Morrison equates memory to a flood, “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
Writers are like that: remembering where we were…the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It's an emotional memory…" (119).
View all my reviews.
Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir by William Knowlton ZinsserMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love Zinsser. I love his writing, his thought process and his mind. His writing (included in this anthology) is planted on earth, graspable. He's an awesome editor as shown in this work. The collected essays deal with the many considerations inherent in memoir. This anthology includes the work of Dillard, Baker, Kazin, Morrison and Thomas. Dillard suggests that the re-writing of a memory will implant the edited version in the mind of its maker (71). Zinsser says, "Memoir is a window into a life" (21). Morrison equates memory to a flood, “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
Writers are like that: remembering where we were…the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It's an emotional memory…" (119).
View all my reviews.
February 18, 2018
William Zinsser declares in his introduction 'this is the age of the memoir'. He reports on a project begun in 1986 that produced this fascinting compilation from nine famous memoir writers describing their craft in their own words. I couldn't put the book down. The following short paragraphs summarise what I took away.
When the life history in your mind has not been critically analysed, and when the painful parts tend to grow and overwhelm the good bits, then the plot that guides your life is not the one you really want, and you might need to do something about it.
Writing your own memoir is doing something about it, shining a light on a particularly vivid or important period of your life, often the childhood. Unless this past is confronted, the good bits may be fading into obscurity along with the rest. Serious work to piece together what we find also lets us recover all kinds of other lost resources: humour and compassion and values and heritage. Done thoroughly and well, this work softens the heart of the writer, and also the hearts of the readers. That is the art.
But memoirs will come across badly if the craft is not properly developed possibly producing a random and callous confession of toxic feelings, a bashing of parents or former friends, or a sordid trotting out of something for the masses to marvel at. If you can learn the craft of creating a narrative shape to the writing that brings a kind of resonance for others, then others may make their own associations; and become nourished as a result.
In the midst of this endeavour, shame and guilt, will rear their ugly heads and endanger the project. This includes your own shame and guilt, and that of the family and friends surrounding you. Your intended outcomes, and the likely impact of publication have to be worked through, without losing your distinct truth in the equally valid truths of your siblings and parents and uncles and aunties and friends, who have their own different story that they may or may not wish to expose.
Until we can declare our truth authentically and kindly, thousands of others in our worlds may be reluctant to declare their truths, and collectively we will continue limping along in the semi-darkness.
When the life history in your mind has not been critically analysed, and when the painful parts tend to grow and overwhelm the good bits, then the plot that guides your life is not the one you really want, and you might need to do something about it.
Writing your own memoir is doing something about it, shining a light on a particularly vivid or important period of your life, often the childhood. Unless this past is confronted, the good bits may be fading into obscurity along with the rest. Serious work to piece together what we find also lets us recover all kinds of other lost resources: humour and compassion and values and heritage. Done thoroughly and well, this work softens the heart of the writer, and also the hearts of the readers. That is the art.
But memoirs will come across badly if the craft is not properly developed possibly producing a random and callous confession of toxic feelings, a bashing of parents or former friends, or a sordid trotting out of something for the masses to marvel at. If you can learn the craft of creating a narrative shape to the writing that brings a kind of resonance for others, then others may make their own associations; and become nourished as a result.
In the midst of this endeavour, shame and guilt, will rear their ugly heads and endanger the project. This includes your own shame and guilt, and that of the family and friends surrounding you. Your intended outcomes, and the likely impact of publication have to be worked through, without losing your distinct truth in the equally valid truths of your siblings and parents and uncles and aunties and friends, who have their own different story that they may or may not wish to expose.
Until we can declare our truth authentically and kindly, thousands of others in our worlds may be reluctant to declare their truths, and collectively we will continue limping along in the semi-darkness.
July 28, 2024
Writer and teacher of writers, William Zinsser has published useful writing texts such as On Writing Well and Writing to Learn. I learned from both of those books. For Inventing the Truth The Art and Craft of Memoir, Zinsser invited nine well-known authors of memoirs to write opinion pieces on the inspirations for, and construction of, their famous memoirs. I was drawn to read this book because I want to improve my writing generally and within this genre. Importantly, I had been inspired by Russell Baker’s Growing Up; Henry Louis Gates’ Colored People; Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes and Tis; and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I had not yet read books by Eileen Simpson, Jill Ker Conway, Annie Dillard, Ian Frazier, or Alfred Kazin. Having found their thoughts about memoir writing in this book interesting and useful, I am more likely to read: Orphans, Reversals, The Road from Corrain, An American Childhood, Dating Your Mom, and/ or Walker in the City.
Zinsser tells us in his Introduction that a good memoir depends upon two things:
• integrity of intention; answering questions such as, Who am I? From where did I come? What values and heritage helped shape me? … telling our own unique story, or as Zinsser writes: “… But she (his mother) was like that to me – and that’s the only memory a writer can work with.”
• Carpentry, or the careful act of construction. In Zinsser’s words, “Memoir writers must manufacture a text imposing narrative order on a jumble of half-remembered events.”
Russell Baker was a reporter and prolific writer. In this text about writing memoirs, Baker tells us of two discoveries that he made researching through family heirlooms. First, a Danish suitor, Oluf, of Baker’s widowed mother had traveled across the country searching for work. Oluf ultimately failed in his conquest, primarily out of poverty and his shame at being impoverished. This ill-fated romance became a seed for Baker’s portrayal of the human consequences of the Depression: “This is the story of a man destroyed by the Depression.” His second discovery was that he (Russell) had been born ‘out of wedlock’. This discovery helped explain why Baker’s grandmother (who had also had a child out of wedlock) and mother detested each other so much!
Baker’s use of humor and self-effacement are masterful. An example: “I said that Uncle Harold, an uneducated and unread man, was famous for being a great liar. But he wasn’t really a liar; he just wanted life to be more interesting than it was. He lived a very dull life… he liked to tell stories but he didn’t tell them very well… Harold perceived that the possibility of achieving art lie not in reporting but in fiction.” Baker’s essay begins to introduce us to a paradox that Toni Morrison develops later in the book: the distinction between Fact and Truth. In Baker’s terms, “If I want to honor my mother in this book I must be truthful.” and “I am now going upstairs to invent the story of my life.”
Frank McCourt described his childhood in which his father’s alcoholism was the central event, and wherein his education was guided by a Catholic church that viewed all human pleasure as sinful. The combination of a drinking culture (If you went into a pub, you would have to buy your round; so, if there were six friends, you had to have at least six drinks!), and a religion that made you felt guilty about adultery before you knew what it was; created the conditions for a miserable childhood. McCourt tells us that he had been taking notes, and wanting to write since he was a child. But growing up in inhibited catholic Ireland, he did not feel confident in his story or his ability as a writer, to write that story. It was only after years of teaching public high school (after Army and college) students, that he took up his pen. His students did not want to hear about misery for its own sake. They were not interested in abusive fathers or priests. They wanted to know how Frankie survived? How had he flourished? How did he forgive? How did McCourt stop feeling self-pity? And how had he learned to laugh at his suffering? In answering these kinds of questions, Frank McCourt has created three of my favorite memoirs: Angela’s Ashes, Tis, and Teacher Man.
Historian and Professor of African American Studies, Henry Louis Gates, Jr, tells us that he began writing his memoir Colored People, as he grieved the loss of his mother, “… the act of writing is more important than therapy… The danger is self-indulgence… Guard against (self-indulgence) by using irony, wit, and self-depreciation, and also by being honest or revelatory about pain and fear.” Gates’s contribution to Zinsser’s anthology includes important ideas about his material: think systematically about trauma; approach memory as a small window derived from peeling back the layers of an onion; the importance of honest and painful reminiscence without ‘oversharing’. Importantly, he introduces the pregnant idea of ‘lifting the veil’ in discovering relevant family, racial, and cultural influences. Structurally, he considers forms, such as epistolary versus canonical; voice as in vernacular and different protagonists (father’s and mother’s); and careful consideration of the likely readership.
Toni Morrison also used the metaphor of ‘lifting the veil’, “my job becomes how to rip the veil drawn over ‘proceedings too terrible to relate’…” She took it upon herself to speak on behalf of people who were treated as though they were not intelligent enough to think, read, or write for themselves. “This is my historical life – my singular, special example that is personal, but also represents the race… I write this text to persuade other people – you, the reader, who is probably not black – that we are human beings worthy of God’s grace and the immediate abandonment of slavery.” She tells us that at the risk of being called biased, inflammatory, and improbable, “authors did change things.”
I could not read Toni Morrison’s Beloved until I had read, and partially digested, the message, of pastor Mathew Ichihashi Potts' book, Forgiveness An Alternative Account. Once I had read Beloved, I began to experience some of what Morrison calls forth, “If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic…” Part of what makes author Toni Morrison a Nobel laureate is summarized in her words: “Therefore the crucial distinction for me is not the difference between fact and fiction, but the distinction between fact and truth. Because facts can exist without human intelligence, but truth cannot. So, if I’m looking to find and expose a truth about the interior life of people who didn’t write (which doesn’t mean they didn’t have it); if I’m trying to fill in the blanks that slave narratives left… then the approach that’s most productive and most trustworthy for me is the recollection that moves from the image (or picture) to the text… the act of invention is bound up with memory…”
I enjoyed and learned from Inventing the Truth The Art and Craft of Memoir.
Zinsser tells us in his Introduction that a good memoir depends upon two things:
• integrity of intention; answering questions such as, Who am I? From where did I come? What values and heritage helped shape me? … telling our own unique story, or as Zinsser writes: “… But she (his mother) was like that to me – and that’s the only memory a writer can work with.”
• Carpentry, or the careful act of construction. In Zinsser’s words, “Memoir writers must manufacture a text imposing narrative order on a jumble of half-remembered events.”
Russell Baker was a reporter and prolific writer. In this text about writing memoirs, Baker tells us of two discoveries that he made researching through family heirlooms. First, a Danish suitor, Oluf, of Baker’s widowed mother had traveled across the country searching for work. Oluf ultimately failed in his conquest, primarily out of poverty and his shame at being impoverished. This ill-fated romance became a seed for Baker’s portrayal of the human consequences of the Depression: “This is the story of a man destroyed by the Depression.” His second discovery was that he (Russell) had been born ‘out of wedlock’. This discovery helped explain why Baker’s grandmother (who had also had a child out of wedlock) and mother detested each other so much!
Baker’s use of humor and self-effacement are masterful. An example: “I said that Uncle Harold, an uneducated and unread man, was famous for being a great liar. But he wasn’t really a liar; he just wanted life to be more interesting than it was. He lived a very dull life… he liked to tell stories but he didn’t tell them very well… Harold perceived that the possibility of achieving art lie not in reporting but in fiction.” Baker’s essay begins to introduce us to a paradox that Toni Morrison develops later in the book: the distinction between Fact and Truth. In Baker’s terms, “If I want to honor my mother in this book I must be truthful.” and “I am now going upstairs to invent the story of my life.”
Frank McCourt described his childhood in which his father’s alcoholism was the central event, and wherein his education was guided by a Catholic church that viewed all human pleasure as sinful. The combination of a drinking culture (If you went into a pub, you would have to buy your round; so, if there were six friends, you had to have at least six drinks!), and a religion that made you felt guilty about adultery before you knew what it was; created the conditions for a miserable childhood. McCourt tells us that he had been taking notes, and wanting to write since he was a child. But growing up in inhibited catholic Ireland, he did not feel confident in his story or his ability as a writer, to write that story. It was only after years of teaching public high school (after Army and college) students, that he took up his pen. His students did not want to hear about misery for its own sake. They were not interested in abusive fathers or priests. They wanted to know how Frankie survived? How had he flourished? How did he forgive? How did McCourt stop feeling self-pity? And how had he learned to laugh at his suffering? In answering these kinds of questions, Frank McCourt has created three of my favorite memoirs: Angela’s Ashes, Tis, and Teacher Man.
Historian and Professor of African American Studies, Henry Louis Gates, Jr, tells us that he began writing his memoir Colored People, as he grieved the loss of his mother, “… the act of writing is more important than therapy… The danger is self-indulgence… Guard against (self-indulgence) by using irony, wit, and self-depreciation, and also by being honest or revelatory about pain and fear.” Gates’s contribution to Zinsser’s anthology includes important ideas about his material: think systematically about trauma; approach memory as a small window derived from peeling back the layers of an onion; the importance of honest and painful reminiscence without ‘oversharing’. Importantly, he introduces the pregnant idea of ‘lifting the veil’ in discovering relevant family, racial, and cultural influences. Structurally, he considers forms, such as epistolary versus canonical; voice as in vernacular and different protagonists (father’s and mother’s); and careful consideration of the likely readership.
Toni Morrison also used the metaphor of ‘lifting the veil’, “my job becomes how to rip the veil drawn over ‘proceedings too terrible to relate’…” She took it upon herself to speak on behalf of people who were treated as though they were not intelligent enough to think, read, or write for themselves. “This is my historical life – my singular, special example that is personal, but also represents the race… I write this text to persuade other people – you, the reader, who is probably not black – that we are human beings worthy of God’s grace and the immediate abandonment of slavery.” She tells us that at the risk of being called biased, inflammatory, and improbable, “authors did change things.”
I could not read Toni Morrison’s Beloved until I had read, and partially digested, the message, of pastor Mathew Ichihashi Potts' book, Forgiveness An Alternative Account. Once I had read Beloved, I began to experience some of what Morrison calls forth, “If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic…” Part of what makes author Toni Morrison a Nobel laureate is summarized in her words: “Therefore the crucial distinction for me is not the difference between fact and fiction, but the distinction between fact and truth. Because facts can exist without human intelligence, but truth cannot. So, if I’m looking to find and expose a truth about the interior life of people who didn’t write (which doesn’t mean they didn’t have it); if I’m trying to fill in the blanks that slave narratives left… then the approach that’s most productive and most trustworthy for me is the recollection that moves from the image (or picture) to the text… the act of invention is bound up with memory…”
I enjoyed and learned from Inventing the Truth The Art and Craft of Memoir.
June 2, 2015
This collection of essays and Q & A's with several well-known memoir writers isn't a how-to but more a "how I did it." As a writer who has discovered how shockingly difficult it is to get a grasp around a memoir theme, I hoped some of these authors would throw me a lifeline.
My biggest takeaways from the book were that it is normal to realize you cannot rely on memory alone in reconstructing one's past; that focusing on a period of time in one's life will help narrow down the scope and angle, and how much research these writers did to verify what they thought they knew, as well as to discover new and sometimes exciting facts that shed new light on the families they thought they knew.
I especially enjoyed Russell Baker, Frank McCourt and Toni Morrison's essays.
My biggest takeaways from the book were that it is normal to realize you cannot rely on memory alone in reconstructing one's past; that focusing on a period of time in one's life will help narrow down the scope and angle, and how much research these writers did to verify what they thought they knew, as well as to discover new and sometimes exciting facts that shed new light on the families they thought they knew.
I especially enjoyed Russell Baker, Frank McCourt and Toni Morrison's essays.
November 21, 2019
Writing a memoir, a very personal task, involves an individualized process that is specific to each author. This book contains insights from ten authors of meaningful memoirs. Some of their advice conflicts; at other times, their process is so grounded in history that it can never be replicated. As such, this work is less of a how-to book and more of an inspirational book to aid a budding writer’s self-confidence.
I have taken from this work the motif of distinguishing between an autobiography and a memoir. An autobiography is a biography written about and by the author. It is essentially an objective record of facts about one’s life, shaped into a narrative. To contrast, a memoir contains a high degree of subjectivity. Feelings enter the mix and distort objective reality. Indeed, objective reality does not even seem to be an aim. Memoirs aim for respectful tone instead of journalistic accuracy.
The selected interviewees have been taken from many different walks of American life. Any American reader can find someone to identify with. Zinsser even includes Nobel prizewinner Toni Morrison, who wrote fiction and never penned a memoir. (Despite this – or maybe because of this – her interview was one of the most insightful.)
Zinsser is, as usual, on top of his craft. He is known for the best-selling book On Writing Well. This work merely applies some of those principles to the specific task of writing a memoir. One need not aspire to write a memoir to benefit from this work, however. We all craft stories about ourselves, to our friends, family, and co-workers. Zinsser’s work helps us refine what we are trying to say. This is the real benefit of his work and of his niche in writing. Overall, I recommend this book for those who want to learn how to share about themselves better because it helps them know themselves better first and because next it helps them relate that knowledge to others.
I have taken from this work the motif of distinguishing between an autobiography and a memoir. An autobiography is a biography written about and by the author. It is essentially an objective record of facts about one’s life, shaped into a narrative. To contrast, a memoir contains a high degree of subjectivity. Feelings enter the mix and distort objective reality. Indeed, objective reality does not even seem to be an aim. Memoirs aim for respectful tone instead of journalistic accuracy.
The selected interviewees have been taken from many different walks of American life. Any American reader can find someone to identify with. Zinsser even includes Nobel prizewinner Toni Morrison, who wrote fiction and never penned a memoir. (Despite this – or maybe because of this – her interview was one of the most insightful.)
Zinsser is, as usual, on top of his craft. He is known for the best-selling book On Writing Well. This work merely applies some of those principles to the specific task of writing a memoir. One need not aspire to write a memoir to benefit from this work, however. We all craft stories about ourselves, to our friends, family, and co-workers. Zinsser’s work helps us refine what we are trying to say. This is the real benefit of his work and of his niche in writing. Overall, I recommend this book for those who want to learn how to share about themselves better because it helps them know themselves better first and because next it helps them relate that knowledge to others.
December 5, 2023
Quite interesting. Not a book on “how-to-write-a memoir,” but an interesting collection of essays by memoirists.
I was fascinated by Toni Morrison's discussion of slave memoirs. (among them - 1769 The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, Written by Himself; 1836 Charles Bell’s Life and Adventures of a Fugitive Slave.;1861 Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself.) She noted that teaching slaves to read and write was outlawed and these writers knew that literacy was power, so stating that the book was “written by himself” was in itself powerful. Most also included prefaces by white sympathizers to authenticate that the books were indeed written by the slaves.and to verify that very little editing was needed ( since slaves were thought by many to be "incapable of intelligence.")
I’ve read and enjoyed the memoirs of several of the contributors (especially Annie Dillard and Russell Baker) and may now look at the memoirs of several of the other contributors. Fun to hear how they approached their writing.
From Annie Dillard:
From Russell Baker:
A short quick entertaining read for lovers of memoirs.
I was fascinated by Toni Morrison's discussion of slave memoirs. (among them - 1769 The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, Written by Himself; 1836 Charles Bell’s Life and Adventures of a Fugitive Slave.;1861 Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself.) She noted that teaching slaves to read and write was outlawed and these writers knew that literacy was power, so stating that the book was “written by himself” was in itself powerful. Most also included prefaces by white sympathizers to authenticate that the books were indeed written by the slaves.and to verify that very little editing was needed ( since slaves were thought by many to be "incapable of intelligence.")
I’ve read and enjoyed the memoirs of several of the contributors (especially Annie Dillard and Russell Baker) and may now look at the memoirs of several of the other contributors. Fun to hear how they approached their writing.
From Annie Dillard:
I tried to leave out anything that might trouble my family. My parents are quite young.... Everybody I’m writing about is alive and well, in full possession of his faculties, and possibly willing to sue. Things were simpler when I wrote about muskrats.
From Russell Baker:
I had written what I thought was a good chapter about my uncle Harold. It’s the one that begins: “Uncle Harold was famous for lying.”....But he wasn’t really a liar; he just wanted life to be more interesting than it was.
A short quick entertaining read for lovers of memoirs.
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April 20, 2025I started this anthology of craft essays for a class and finished it after. Favorites were the essays by Annie Dillard and Toni Morrison (whose essay I'd encountered in a fiction techniques course, so useful in other genres as well). I also enjoyed Frank McCourt's account of how teaching informed his writing. He describes how the students forced him to "loosen up," which he found essential to his writing: "I knew the students were thinking, 'What the hell is he up to?' and I became more natural and open and honest. I couldn't have witten Angela's Ashes without becoming that person. Whatever I did in the classoom spilled over into the book" ("Learning to Chill Out" 76).
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"If you prize your memories as they are, by all means avoid--eschew--writing a memoir. Because it is a certain way to lose them. You can't put together a memoir without cannibalizing your own life for parts. The work battens on your memories. And it replaces them.
It's a matter of writing's vividness for the wrier. If you spend a couple of days writing a tricky paragraph, and if you spend a week or two laying out a scene or describing an event, you've spent more time writing about it than you did living it. The writing time is also much more intense" (Dillard, "To Fashion A Text," 156-157)
"All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory—what the nerves and skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our 'flooding.'" (Morrison, "The Site of Memory, 199)
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"If you prize your memories as they are, by all means avoid--eschew--writing a memoir. Because it is a certain way to lose them. You can't put together a memoir without cannibalizing your own life for parts. The work battens on your memories. And it replaces them.
It's a matter of writing's vividness for the wrier. If you spend a couple of days writing a tricky paragraph, and if you spend a week or two laying out a scene or describing an event, you've spent more time writing about it than you did living it. The writing time is also much more intense" (Dillard, "To Fashion A Text," 156-157)
"All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, what valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory—what the nerves and skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our 'flooding.'" (Morrison, "The Site of Memory, 199)
July 13, 2023
A collection of thoughts on writing memoir by nine authors. As one would expect, some are more accessible than others. Or maybe it's just that some of the people write about their approach to writing in ways that better connect with who I am and the way I enter my creative place.
I think I pulled something from each of the authors but found that Frank McCourt and Toni Morrison's sections really stood out. A bit strange that Morrison was included as I don't think she ever actually wrote a memoir, but it was her insights that were most compelling. I walked away thinking a lot about what she wrote. I think this book is worth it just for her insights.
You can go online and find several places where Toni Morrison talks about her writing process - and you should- but there are a several thoughts in here that I will continue to think about - ideas that I've never seen anywhere else. Like her insights about that inner place- the source, the images, the pictures where creative writing best originates. I think the title of this collection, Inventing the Truth is best represented by her vision of how to access the reality within that inner place where rich powerful emotions/memories reside.
I walked away thinking I've really missed out by not reading any of her books. Perhaps one of my many Goodread followers will suggest which of her books I should first read?
I think I pulled something from each of the authors but found that Frank McCourt and Toni Morrison's sections really stood out. A bit strange that Morrison was included as I don't think she ever actually wrote a memoir, but it was her insights that were most compelling. I walked away thinking a lot about what she wrote. I think this book is worth it just for her insights.
You can go online and find several places where Toni Morrison talks about her writing process - and you should- but there are a several thoughts in here that I will continue to think about - ideas that I've never seen anywhere else. Like her insights about that inner place- the source, the images, the pictures where creative writing best originates. I think the title of this collection, Inventing the Truth is best represented by her vision of how to access the reality within that inner place where rich powerful emotions/memories reside.
I walked away thinking I've really missed out by not reading any of her books. Perhaps one of my many Goodread followers will suggest which of her books I should first read?
May 5, 2021
What I loved about this book is that it gave me other books to read or in many cases, re-read. I have read Baker, McCourt, Conway, Morrison,Kazan, and Simpson. I may reread some of their books. I have not read Gates or Frazier or Dillard. How can I have missed reading The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek? I better make up for that soon. The motivation for writing memoirs varies. I was delighted with Frazier's coming across boxes of letters, documents, and stuff when cleaning out his parents' home after their deaths. He had an 11 month old baby and was tied to home more--day and night--and considered a great time to research the materials he had at hand with no need for travel. Morrison considered her research or background to be slave narratives but wanted to fill in the introspection that they lacked. Gates wanted to write about his people as they were, not as they were trying to present themselves to white people. How to deal with those you wrote about? Most were concerned about the reactions of their families. Some allowed the families to censor what was written. Others did not. The story was that McCourt's mother Angela of Angela's Ashes stood up at some preentation and said that it was all a lie!
June 28, 2020
Frankly, I was surprised what a quick read this was, because the stories were so interesting, until I got to Toni Morrison, who bored me to tears until the last pages, when she answered a question, and talked like a human being instead of an encyclopedia.
Ian Frazier wrote the most interesting story of how he wrote his family history, and I fell in love with his way of writing, but I'm just not interested in his subject. I'm bored with extensive family trees. Sorry, it's just not my thing. I married a man who came with one that included three of the witches executed in Salem, and lived in a town that had memorials to his ancestors. sigh Enough, already. They're all dead. I'm not.
That said, one of the best features of the book is the bibliography at the end. I added more than a few books to my tbr list from there.
Quite a pleasant read that kept me up later than I had planned. I was so happy to learn that Frank McCourt loved Wodehouse, Russell Baker loved Thurber, as did Annie Dillard, and "The Education of Henry Adams" was mentioned several times. A timely book might be "A History of the United States Since the Civil War" by Ellis P. Overholzer that was finished in 1931.
Ian Frazier wrote the most interesting story of how he wrote his family history, and I fell in love with his way of writing, but I'm just not interested in his subject. I'm bored with extensive family trees. Sorry, it's just not my thing. I married a man who came with one that included three of the witches executed in Salem, and lived in a town that had memorials to his ancestors. sigh Enough, already. They're all dead. I'm not.
That said, one of the best features of the book is the bibliography at the end. I added more than a few books to my tbr list from there.
Quite a pleasant read that kept me up later than I had planned. I was so happy to learn that Frank McCourt loved Wodehouse, Russell Baker loved Thurber, as did Annie Dillard, and "The Education of Henry Adams" was mentioned several times. A timely book might be "A History of the United States Since the Civil War" by Ellis P. Overholzer that was finished in 1931.
June 18, 2019
The 1987 edition of Inventing the Truth originated in the winter of 1986 as a series of talks sponsored by the Book-of-the-Month Club at the New York Public Library. A shadow of its predecessor, Extraordinary Lives (1986), this slender book has as its theme, reminiscences about writing memoirs. Although novelist Toni Morrison and medical writer Lewis Thomas veer off to a degree from this theme, all the essays are valuable as examples of good writing. There is no index, but the volume concludes with fascinating annotated bibliographies of the authors’ favorite first-person narratives.
July 9, 2019
A book I'm already feigning to re-read! Full of a wonderful selection of contributors with their own experiences, identities, and traumas to lend perspective to. It was great to get a detailed account of their research methods both inter-personally and factually. The stories drew a web between guilt, memory, and, of course, writing that I had never connected before.
I will continue to reflect on how, and if, guilt indicates narcissism and of the transformative nature, for better or worse, of memories themselves. Not only are memories forever re-accounted through writing but they become re-invigorated with each remembrance.
I will continue to reflect on how, and if, guilt indicates narcissism and of the transformative nature, for better or worse, of memories themselves. Not only are memories forever re-accounted through writing but they become re-invigorated with each remembrance.
May 31, 2023
I love reading and writing memoir, so a book of memoirists talking about memoir should have been a home run for me, but it felt more like a pop up that somehow lands for a single between the right fielder and the second baseman. I mean, there are some interesting points made here in the nine long monologues/speeches, but overall, I don't feel that I learned much about the form. Probably the most useful section is the appendix in which all of the authors list first-person narratives that they would recommend.
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March 16, 2017Another book read for a class. Inventing the Truth is a collection of interviews with writers about their experiences writing memoir. The best by far was Jill Kee Conway's "Points of Departure." Otherwise, more like a collection of promotional materials for books then a book itself. As someone whose life fantasies include reading the entire New York Times Sunday Book Review section every week, this is not entirely damning praise, but it still felt like the pyramid scheme of reading.
June 21, 2019
I read the intro and all the chapters by women. The only male contributor I read was Ian Frazier because I really enjoy some of his writing (his essay here was so so). Annie Dillard's "To Fashion a Text" and Toni Morrison's "The Site of Memory" were the definite standouts in this collection—read those if nothing else.
June 22, 2021
Outstanding collection of talks from well known memoir writers about writing memoir. Some I was familiar with, and some I want to get to know much better! My favorite part was a section at the end where the authors list memoirs that were important to them during their writing. I enjoyed every bit of this collection.
July 18, 2021
The first 2/3 of this book is amazing. I loved the stories and styles of writing of the various contributors. However, the last 3 or 4 essays were a snoozefest, which is really ironic because those essays were written by the most successful and well know writers in the book.
Overall, not my favourite Zinsser book, but did have some pretty enjoyable stories and writing tips.
Overall, not my favourite Zinsser book, but did have some pretty enjoyable stories and writing tips.
July 31, 2021
(I see now there is a newer and expanded version. I would recommend that one.)
This is an impressive collection of essays about writing, memory, the importance of narrative. My favorites were the last three, and all were excellent. Toni Morrison's explanation of the difference between facts and truth is worth the price of this book alone.
This is an impressive collection of essays about writing, memory, the importance of narrative. My favorites were the last three, and all were excellent. Toni Morrison's explanation of the difference between facts and truth is worth the price of this book alone.
April 10, 2019
Excellent. Very useful book on how different authors write their memoir/ biographies; how they structure their work to make it of universal relevance ; why they choose to focus on one particular theme; what is their personal view on what are memories.
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