Post #14 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Raves – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Update: Karen Walker’s memoir is a finalist in the New Mexico Book Awards-2009.
Following the Whispers, Karen Walker’s memoir, reveals numerous turning points in her life. We sometimes begin work on a memoir by focusing on a single turning point that changed our lives. Karen, on the other hand, shows us that life has many turning points, many changes in our journey. This causes me to ask: Have you found a way to reveal the multiple personal influences and events in a way that each contributes to the illumination of you life?
Read Karen’s memoir to learn how to intentionally take the reader with you as you show how you changed and grew. Let me give a few examples:
p. 52 “The next day, Mark called. ‘Why do you stay with him, Karen? I don’t get it. You’re smart, attractive. What gives?'”
When reading this passage, I thought I had spotted the turning point in Karen’s life — a turning point that would enable her to get out of a bad marriage and move forward in her life.
p. 81 “I’d reached a milestone of sorts. I was trying to evaluate whether to continue working for someone else or go back into business with Mark. At the same time, I began to take responsibility for my own behavior, recognizing when I was responsible and when someone else was, rather than automatically blaming myself when things went wrong.”
“Aha,” I thought when reading this passage. “This is the real turning point for Karen.”
p. 93 [Seeing that the relationship with her business partner was destructive for her even though it had been important and helpful at an earlier point in her life journey, Karen writes:] “But the negative patterns I’d learned as a child were breaking, and I was beginning to find my own voice. I recognized old patterns as they occurred and could change my behavior accordingly.”
“OK,” I thought. This is even more important than the previous two points, so this must be the real turning point in the story.
p. 112 [Karen has once again moved to a new state, leaving her second husband, searching for a connection to her spiritual self. At this point in the story, she has been alone in a Kiva while reflecting on her life.] “This was a powerful moment–the culmination of my search for Self and finding comfort with aloneness and solitude. I’d finally come to terms with my fear of being alone and how that had kept me choosing inappropriate partners and staying with them long after I knew the relationship wouldn’t work.”
… Well, by now I understood that Karen had beautifully crafted a story that let me accompany her on this life path that never makes just a single turn in the road to lead us to enlightenment but that presents many forks in the road, each an opportunity for personal progress.
There are multiple levels to Karen’s memoir and in this brief review I have only mentioned one. Following the Whispers will give you the opportunity both to learn how you can take the reader along with you as your life has unfolded, but also will let you reflect on listening to your own whispers.
Kendra Bonnett and I interviewed Karen about the process of writing her memoir. CLICK HERE to listen to the audio of this Women’s Memoir Author Conversation. Karen offers the memoir writer many insightful points to consider.
