The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr
The Art of Memoir, Mary Karr
7 Rating(s)
List: $20.99 | Sale: $14.70
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The Art of Memoir

Bestseller

Author: Mary Karr

Narrator: Mary Karr

Unabridged: 7 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/15/2015

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

Bestselling author and renowned professor Mary Karr offers a master class in the essential elements of great memoir—delivered with her signature wit, insight, and candor.Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well.For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse.  (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre.Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.

About Mary Karr

Mary Karr is the author of three award-winning, bestselling memoirs: The Liars’ Club, Cherry, and Lit, as well as The Art of Memoir, also a New York Times bestseller. She received Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships for poetry and is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tim on June 25, 2024

I got the genealogy bug from my father. My girls recently told me I have to write down all my "stories" before I die. (Apparently, living forever isn't an option.) I retorted, "Even if I spend two days a week for the next year, I won't have enough time to write down all my stories." They replied, "Well......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on November 21, 2015

As someone who aspires to write a memoir of his own one day, I found The Art of Memoir both engaging and encouraging. Writing a memoir requires more than just journaling memories onto a page. The practice forces you to punch yourself in the gut multiple times as you uncover the ugliest and most pers......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on December 11, 2016

This is one of the strangest books I've read and I am finding it almost impossible to write a review. Maybe it's because I was expecting something different. I was expecting a book that would help writers who wanted to write a memoir. This book does not do that. 'The Art of Memoir' is more of a memo......more

Goodreads review by E.L. on October 05, 2015

As a fan of Lit (I battled with Cherry and didn't finish it), I was eager for Karr's thoughts on the genre which, as she reminded us a number of times in this book, she's been teaching for 30 years. Her list of reasons for why people shouldn't write a memoir reminded me of someone who has had succes......more