Are Memoirs Always About Your Parents?

My Dad

A discussion ensued from a post on one of my favorite blogs, 100 Memoirs by Shirley Hershey Showalter. Several memoirists weighed in on whether all memoirs inevitably are about our parents. Several writers agreed.

My situation, however, presents another point of view. I begin by dealing with my parents---who they were and how they affected my childhood. But then I move on. I move on because there was not much parenting going on in my childhood. My story becomes more about my efforts to put my childhood behind me.

A friend of mine cautioned me recently, “Brenda, you can never run away from your history.” I acknowledge the wisdom of the statement. I now am able to say, “If nothing else my father gave me some very valuable genes.” Is that moving on? What did you parents give you?

Check out the discussion here:

http://100memoirs.com/2011/08/17/memoir-is-it-inevitably-about-our-parents/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+100Memoirs+%28100+Memoirs%29