Post #13 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Raves – Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett
In Alyse Myers’ gripping memoir, Who Do You Think You Are?, we are reminded of how little we know about our parents. On the average, our parents are 25 years older than we are. We never knew them when they were young; never saw what brought them joy and sorrow; never knew the influences on their lives.
Enter the mother-daughter relationship. If you are writing a mother-daughter memoir, then I recommend that you read this book that provides an honest investigation into an unexplainable relationship between Alyse Myers and her mother. Unexplainable because no child can understand why a mother does what she does. Although the author covers this mother-daughter relationship from the time she is small until she is in her early thirties, when her mother dies, she carefully selects incidents and stories from her life that build a word sculpture of the strong, yet flawed bond between them.
Why read this book if you are writing a memoir? If your memoir covers a brief time period, then some of the problems you might otherwise encounter never surface. However, if you are going across many years of your life, you need to to sharpen your theme and message and then choose material that belongs. It is tempting to wander away on tangents. Alyse Myers’ memoir is an excellent example of staying on target.
Here are a few of the many insightful and well-crafted parts of the book that caused me to reflect on relationships I’ve know and heard about:
— [My father] tossed the paper on the table. I remember the word “Why?” was in big letters on the front page. Right under the word “blackout.”
“Why” was a good question, I thought. About a lot of things. p. 50
— I pressed the radio even closer to my ear. I wanted the radio to help drown out the sounds of a marriage falling apart. p. 55
— That night, I decided I would never depend on anyone to drive me home. I didn’t want to be like my mother. p. 107
— I wasn’t going to depend on my mother to give me money to live. I wasn’t going to depend on anyone. p. 150
— We spoke about everything and nothing. p. 163
— My mother became a different person after my daughter was born.
Or maybe she already was that person. Maybe she just needed my daughter to help show me that other side, the side I never saw growing up. p. 183
— Later, my husband asked me why my relationship with my mother was so different from that of my sisters.
They had a different mother, I told him. They didn’t see what I saw, they didn’t know what I knew, I tried to explain to him. She treated me differently than she treated them. I wasn’t sure he understood. I wasn’t sure I did, either. p. 221
Are you a Kindle reader? If so, Who Do You Think You Are? is now available for immediate download. Click on the Amazon button on the left.
CLICK HERE if you would like to read Alyse’s guest blog and writing prompt.
CLICK HERE if you would like to listen to our interview with Alyse as she answers questions about writing her memoir.
