A Widow’s Story

A Widow’s Story

Rating:  A Widow’s Story: A Memoir, by Joyce Carol Oates. Ecco (2011), 415 pages. Joyce Carol Oates, in my experience, is a writer you either love or hate (love because of how effortlessly and incisively she maps out the terrain inside her...
Infidel

Infidel

Rating:   Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  Free Press (2007), 353 pages. In order for me to love a memoir the author must cover the following basics: a great memory for not just the concrete details of life as a small child (if the memoirist has omitted the...
The Tender Bar

The Tender Bar

Rating:  The Tender Bar: A Memoir, by J.R. Moehringer.  Hyperion (2005), 370 pages. Moehringer has proven, in The Tender Bar, that he is that most uncommon of authors—a male memoirist with both full access to his feelings and the ability to write about them....
When Skateboards Will Be Free

When Skateboards Will Be Free

Rating:  When Skateboards Will Be Free: A Memoir of a Political Childhood, by Said Sayrafiezadeh.  The Dial Press (2009), 287 pages. There was a time when I couldn’t get enough of tragic childhood memoirs.  I would be appalled and heartbroken on behalf...