Memoir Archive

“There is a rose in Spanish Harlem.” Correction: There was a rose…. - Walking the track in East Harlem the other day, I spotted this flower. I thought, “There is a rose in Spanish Harlem,” so I snapped a photo and sent it

A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son’s Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha - People tell me, “I’ve read a book that changed me.” I’m not convinced. They seem unchanged to me. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was the greatest novel I’d ever read

A Month of Sundays: Searching for the Spirit and My Sister - "A Month of Sundays" is about the death of Shirley Kress Carter, born in 1937 and died as Christmas ended in 2000. Shirley was a mother of six, a professional caregiver,

A Round-Heeled Woman - You may not know her name, but you have probably heard of Jane Juska, the 66-year-old retired teacher from California who placed the following ad in the

A Three Dog Life - Does she have a husband? Well, Rich is around, a phone call or a visit away. He can speak. He can even make sense: “If I wasn't with you and

A Whole Lotta Love: What The Home Shopping Network Special on ‘Eat Pray Love’ Might Have Offered - Today we're in China and Japan. Why are we anywhere? Just scroll down past the China and Japan recommendations for the reasons behind the 'East Pray Love' special.... But

A Widow’s Story - Guest Blogger Elizabeth Benedict is the author of five novels, including the bestseller Almost, and editor of the anthology, Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives.

About Alice - Alice Trillin died in New York City on September 11, 2001. Did anyone else die in Manhattan that day? In “About

Act One - The best Broadway memoir. Ever. I’m not the only one who says it. Here's André Bishop,  Artistic Director of Lincoln Center: "This is the greatest theatrical memoir ever written and it reads

Akira Kurosawa: Something Like An Autobiography - You love so many of his movies. Star Wars, of course. The Magnificent Seven. That first great Clint Eastwood western, A Fistful of Dollars. And, most recently, A Bug's Life.

All Gone: A Memoir of My Mother’s Dementia. With Refreshments - Salmon swim upstream, and so do the children of unhappily married Jewish women. Alex Witchel had the full cast of characters. A remote, disapproving father who once punched her in the

All in Good Time - "Welcome to the evening," the voice on the radio said, and you stopped for a minute when you heard those words, because they were so full of promise you had

All the Things We Never Knew: Chasing the Chaos of Mental Illness - Sheila Hamilton’s business is getting the story. She does it very well --- as a television reporter, she’s won five Emmys. In Portland, Oregon, where she hosts the morning drive-time

An Intimate Interview: Beneath the Surface of Bruce Springsteen - After a year on Broadway, the Bruce Springsteen evenings have come to an end. It’s an amazing show --- I saw it in January and reviewed it here -- and

An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny - We all have a list of books/movies/music that make us nuts. Based on what I heard, this book surely looked to be on mine.   Consider: One Monday on a New York street,

And There Was Light: The Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance - His favorite color was green --- the color, he later learned, of hope. And hope is what pours over you on every page of Jacques Lusseyran’s memoir. It’s unavoidable. It’s the

Andy Warhol - I would bet that most Americans think that Andy Warhol was some kind of idiot --- at best, an idiot savant.  His art was of the

Angela’s Ashes - Angela’s Ashes, the first of Frank McCourt’s memoirs, touched me deeply. And not just for itself. It took me back, to when I was 15 and in my first year

Annie Ernaux - As a reader, I’m prone to sudden, extreme enthusiasms --- they’re like crushes. With Annie Ernaux, that first happened in 2004, when I read “Simple Passion,” a novel-that-read-like-a-memoir. Even better,

Annie Ernaux: The Years - I don’t know what to call “The Years” --- history? memoir? --- but I do know it’s the best book I’ve read this year. For me, that means the writer