The Most Insightful Memoirs About Life in France: Part 2
In my first article on memoirs about life in France, I covered stories of romance, food, gardening, and motherhood. Today, I’ll talk about some classics and my favorite memoir about the French lifestyle. Paris to the Moon Adam Gopnik lived out a lifelong dream of moving to Paris in the late 1990s, then wrote about it for The New Yorker. This is a more high-minded book, packed with Parisian history and cultural facts but full of humor too. Gopnik wittily describes the education he and his wife got in adjusting…
The Most Insightful Memoirs About Life in France: Part 1
English-language memoirs about life in France usually follow a common trajectory: an American or Brit or Australian somehow lands in France and must cope with the unfamiliar culture while learning the language and navigating a new job or life situation. They often cover settling into that new life, fixing up a home, shopping at local markets, cooking food, discovering romance, etc. They are mostly light-hearted affairs with only a touch of drama. In short, they can be formulaic. But I often forgive their formulaic nature because an author’s voice, experiences,…
William Zinsser Makes Memoir Writing Easy
Last year in preparing to write my memoir about adopting three kids from Poland, I checked out five books from the library. They were all on how to write nonfiction. I’d written and published a few short memoir pieces before, but I was unsure how to approach a full-length memoir. Unfortunately, these books didn’t teach me what I was looking for. They had lots of good advice on technique and how valid my story was. But I wasn’t looking for that. I was looking for how not to be overwhelmed.
Don’t Write Brilliantly, Just Write
Welcome to my blog about the writing life and who knows what else in time to come. It’s meant to inspire, inform, and support those out there who love language and love to express themselves through it. This first post is the outcome of my reading Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert’s first-person account of her spiritual journey. If you’re not familiar with this funny, vivid, contemplative memoir, make it your next read. It’s the kind of book that, while telling the story of one woman’s transformation from depressed wife-who-has-it-all to…
