Ten Memoirs By Unforgettable Women
“Everyone has at least one good book in them.” The memoir, especially in recent years, has often proved this adage true. When all else fails, writers usually turn to their personal lives for inspiring material that will get the ink flowing. The following list of memoirs by women features the very best of the genre, from eyewitness accounts of war to stories of childhood abuse and adolescent growth. A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous A Woman in Berlin spans a short but unforgettable period of time in history. In April 1945, Red Army troops arrive in Berlin and take over the city. Women are raped in front of their husbands. Children die from being malnourished. In the midst of this insanity, a female journalist records the horrific details of the Soviet occupation and her own experiences as a rape victim. Her writing is sharp, unforgiving, and devoid of any pity, particularly for herself. After being raped multiple times, she decides to do the unthinkable: provide sexual favors to a single high-ranking officer who will in turn guard her from other men. From the rubble of war, her writing emerges as a beacon of refreshing truth and a journalistic exposé on the plight of innocent women in the aftermath of WWII. Lies My Mother Never Told Me by Kaylie Jones Kaylie Jones’ father was a National Book Award-winning author who penned four of the greatest World War II novels ever written. Her family friends included the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, Irwin Shaw, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, and Norman Mailer. Jones grew up in a life of privilege with two beautiful and accomplished parents. However, not everything is as it seems, a point which Jones makes again and again throughout her heartbreaking memoir. Her father, an alcoholic, died when she was only sixteen years old. Traumatized by her loss at such an early age, Jones turned to both her father’s writing and the bottle for solace. This memoir reflects in unrestrained detail the struggles of growing up, overcoming her addictions, and living in her father’s shadow. I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawaii by Susanna Moore Susanna Moore, the author of the national bestseller In the Cut, brings to life a hauntingly rich memoir about her life in Hawaii. Palm beaches, sandy shores, and tropical drinks sit on the backburner in this evocative and fascinating book about the culture and history of the real Hawaii. Light Years: A Girlhood in Hawaii by Susanna Moore Susanna Moore looked to the sea for escape from the pain of her mother’s nervous breakdowns. She read books like Treasure Island and Moby Dick under a coconut grove that was said to be planted by a native king living in the 19th century. This memoir intimately captures Moore’s childhood in the 1950’s and 60’s and reflects on her yearning now, as a New Yorker living on a different kind of island, for the therapeutic waters that saved her from the hurt of her everyday family troubles. Though born in England, Alexandra Fuller was raised in Africa during the Rhodesian Civil War (1971-1979). Her parents were racists who fought to keep Africa under white rule. Fuller recalls in a flurry of detail the structural hierarchy of schools. “A” schools were strictly reserved for white children and contained the best facilities and teachers. “B” schools were for children who were neither white nor black. “C” schools, at the bottom of the education system, were for black children only. Fuller recalls other tragic circumstances of her life in a memoir which is emotionally charged and historically enlightening. She writes tenderly about her parents, despite the fact that she portrays them as careless and free-drinking. She loses three of her four siblings in infancy and moves with her family from Rhodesia to Zambia to Malawi and back again. In the course of her travels, Fuller paints a portrait of a torn African continent and a childhood impacted by the bigotry of her own family. Borrowed Finery by Paula Fox Paula Fox was abandoned by her alcoholic father and 19-year-old mother in 1923. Her memoir is devoted to the first 20-odd years of her life, with a focus on her rough and traumatic childhood. Paul and Elsie Fox, though having made the decision to leave their daughter behind, cannot bring themselves to step entirely out of her life. For her entire childhood, Paula is bounced back and forth among relatives and schools in locations as disparate as Hollywood, Cuba, and Montreal. This memoir discusses with magnificent shows of restraint the disorder and chaos of Fox’s childhood and her tale of survival. Geisha of Gion by Mineko Iwasaki Mineko Iwasaki is the most famous geisha of her generation. As the inspiration behind Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Iwasaki was selected from an early age to become the successor of a geisha house in Kyoto. She describes in lush detail the beautiful kimonos, dances, and theatres where she performed, but the heart of the memoir lies in her decision to leave behind the geisha profession and close down the okiya (geisha house) at the unprecedented age of 30. The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates: 1973 - 1982 by Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates is a giant of contemporary literature. Her journal reveals the strict regimen by which she approaches writing on a scale which is nothing short of obsessive. If more than a day or two goes by in which she does not write, Oates admits she feels worthless. Teaching, she reflects, gives her energy but leaves her exhausted. Her journal entries are intensely revealing, reading like miniature confessions which individually reflect on all aspects of her private life, from her relationships with other famous writers to her love for her husband. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Poet Maya Angelou writes about her difficult, if not tragic, upbringing in Arkansas. She tackles in this memoir controversial subjects like rape, racism, self-identity, and literacy. As an eight-year-old, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend, an event which though only briefly described forms the subtext of the entire work. Angelou worries in her final year of high school that she might be a lesbian, has sex with a teenage boy, and becomes pregnant. Through this stunning memoir, she describes the disappointments of her youth and her will to overcome life’s most overwhelming challenges. Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood by Julie Gregory Gregory’s childhood was filled with the worst and most unusual forms of physical and emotional abuse. Her mother made her suck the sulfur from red-tipped matches. On a regular basis, she took hundreds, if not thousands, of different pills. In her spare time, her mother took her to doctors, offered cures, and begged occasionally for open-heart surgery. Gregory writes uneasily about her childhood but reflects without hesitation on the hurt and pain of her early years in a memoir that confronts an often overlooked and unknown form of child abuse. Katherine J. Chen is currently a sophomore at Princeton University where she is majoring in English with a certificate in Creative Writing. She spent an inordinate amount of time over the summer mastering the art of cover letter writing, a time commitment which she now believes was well worth it. Photo from http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue25_2009/images/FR/LiesMyMother-hc-c.jpg
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