Customer Reviews

The World's Best Memoir Writing

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I haven't read this entire book, just some of the parts from people I was interested in reading about. The book includes excerpts from various people's memoirs. Some of them are Muhammad Ali, Bertrand Russell, Salvadore Dali, Mahatma Gandhi, Elie Wiesel, Charlie Chaplin, and Kurt Vonnegut. Some of the excerpts made me laugh such as Dali's and Kurt Vonnegut's excerpt from his later years (Vonnegut was a feisty old man). I would say the main drawback of this book is that some of the excerpts are too short. I wanted to read more and wish they hadn't ended so soon, but maybe the purpose of the book is to pique your interest in reading the person's whole memoir. The book is divided into Beginnings, Youth, The Middle, and Toward the End so you get glimpses of different people in different phases of their lives with some of the authors' memoir excerpts covered in more than one section.

Picked up this book from the library and enjoyed it so much that I ordered my own copy. I can pick it up and read one memoir when I have just a few minutes--a good addition to any library.

This book skims the cream of memoirs. It will lead to you to pick up several other books, based upon the excerpts used. The background on the authors provides additional insight to the passages.