The Art of Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Mary Karr
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By:
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Mary Karr
About this listen
Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash best sellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well.
For 30 years, Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse. (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and "black belt sinner", providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre.
Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr's own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told - and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.
Joining such classics as Stephen King's On Writing and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today's most popular literary forms - a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2015 Mary Karr (P)2015 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Shields and Salerno illuminate most brightly the last 56 years of Salinger’s life: a period that, until now, had remained completely dark to biographers. Provided unprecedented access to diaries, letters, legal records, and secret documents, listeners will feel they have, for the first time, gotten beyond Salinger’s meticulously built-up wall. The result is the definitive portrait of one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century.
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Ingenious novel or biography? Hard to tell....
- By Melinda on 09-05-13
By: David Shields, and others
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To Show and to Tell
- The Craft of Literary Nonfiction
- By: Phillip Lopate
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Distinguished author Phillip Lopate, editor of the celebrated anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, is universally acclaimed as “one of our best personal essayists” ( Dallas Morning News). Here, combining more than 40 years of lessons from his storied career as a writer and professor, he brings us this highly anticipated nuts-and-bolts guide to writing literary nonfiction. A phenomenal master class shaped by Lopate’s informative, accessible tone, and immense gift for storytelling.
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Not a guide on writing personal essays
- By A. Yoshida on 08-07-13
By: Phillip Lopate
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Where the Past Begins
- A Writer's Memoir
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Amy Tan
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
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Moving from her childhood in Oakland and growing up with her Chinese parents through her success as a novelist, Amy Tan delves into her creative interests in music, the paralysis of beginning a new project, journal writing, and travelling. Where the Past Begins chronicles the making of a writer. With characteristic humor and poignant observation, Tan weaves a nontraditional introspective narrative that is as complex and vibrant as this beloved American novelist's fiction.
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Narration Issues
- By Sara on 12-14-17
By: Amy Tan
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Dear Fahrenheit 451
- Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks
- By: Annie Spence
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Librarians spend their lives weeding - not weeds, but books - books that have reached the end of their shelf life both literally and figuratively. They remove books that patrons no longer check out, and they put back books they treasure. Annie Spence, who has a decade of experience as a Midwestern librarian, does this not only at her Michigan library but also at home, for her neighbors, at cocktail parties - everywhere. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, she addresses those books directly.
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Totally captivating
- By Grace Smith on 03-24-18
By: Annie Spence
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My Life with Bob
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Pamela Paul has kept a single book by her side for 28 years - carried throughout high school and college, hauled from Paris to London to Thailand, from job to job, safely packed away and then carefully removed from apartment to house to its current perch on a shelf over her desk - reliable if frayed, anonymous-looking yet deeply personal. This book has a name: Bob. Bob is Paul's Book of Books, a journal that records every book she's ever read.
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An uncanny mirror and a celebration of book love
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When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one. She was whisked away to Narnia and Kirrin Island and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy and played by the tracks with the Railway Children.
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The author’s sarcasm
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The Last Love Song
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Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction.
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Riveted for 1591 miles
- By Kaysi12 on 04-11-16
By: Tracy Daugherty
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Poetry in Person
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- Narrated by: Alexander Neubauer
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This first audio edition of Poetry in Person: 25 Years of Conversation with America’s Poets (Knopf, 2010), invites listeners into an intimate classroom with eight acclaimed poets. Full of compelling, in-depth conversation about manuscripts and drafts by the poets themselves, plus readings of the finished poems, these historic recordings offer one of the most detailed portraits ever produced of how poems are actually made.
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Fascinating
- By d on 08-28-16
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So We Read On
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Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
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Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
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The Republic of Imagination
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Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite novels, she describes the unexpected journey that led her to become an American citizen after first dreaming of America as a young girl in Tehran and coming to know the country through its fiction. She urges us to rediscover the America of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges us to be truer to the words and spirit of the Founding Fathers, who understood that their democratic experiment would never thrive or survive unless they could foster a democratic imagination.
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Love
- By Rebecca on 05-29-16
By: Azar Nafisi
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l just love Margaret Atwood.
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Memoir as Medicine
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Writing has been medicine for Nancy Slonim Aronie. At nine months old, her son Dan was diagnosed with diabetes. Then, at twenty-two, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. During the years she and her husband took care of Dan, and when he died at age thirty-eight, Aronie could not find the book she needed. So she wrote her memoir. Over decades of writing and teaching, Aronie has created a set of prompts, directions, and examples that she shares in Memoir as Medicine. Listeners will learn how to write through where they have been and into understanding, healing, and even joy.
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Not for me
- By Amazon Customer on 07-09-23
What listeners say about The Art of Memoir
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kathy Heckathorn
- 10-28-22
Just What I Needed
After receiving harsh criticism from my memoir writing group, I reached out for help.
Mary Karr's advice launched me on a corrected path. I especially appreciate the section on voice and how to wrangle with this elusive element. Mary's voice vacillates from enlightened college professor to foul-mouthed Texas brat, and I loved every minute of it. She showed me where I'm going wrong and how to fix it. I devoured her book during a day of gardening. Now, I'm her newest avid fan.
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- Deborah
- 02-02-16
Could not stop listening!
Would you listen to The Art of Memoir again? Why?
I'm going to listen to this book several times, there's so much meat in these words to savor.
What other book might you compare The Art of Memoir to and why?
None! There's nothing like this that I've ever read or listened to. And I've read dozens of memoir writing books in search of knowledge, inspiration...direction.
What about Mary Karr’s performance did you like?
It's always good to hear the writer read her work. There's a realness to the words instead of a performance of the words.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-18-17
Celeste Mode
Spot on title ! Incredibly detailed. Informative. Insightful with down to earth sympatico . Love this author' s style.
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- Heather Booth
- 05-17-18
Wonderful advice and entertaining
Mary Karr is a great story-teller and has had an interesting life and successful writing career, so it is both worthwhile and enjoyable to spend time "with" her listening to this audio book. The first 3/4ths of the book were more fun and the last was more technical. At one point she apologizes for using her own history but her personal experiences are more interesting than most of the memoirs she uses as examples.
Very good advice fir aspiring memoir writers, including a checklist to see if you are even ready (emotionally) to wrote one. There is so much here. I'm probably going to have to buy the book or listen again.
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Overall
- Deny
- 08-12-16
learning about truth...I knew I had a life ...trut
loved the Narration and I learned that truth IA worth telling. I had ignored that which would make others look good but truth is truth. I have very bad vision on a phone so small..computer broken..so I apologize for bad spelling but my words were important to me even though probably in a pile but I have to accept that the same may happen to my book. thank you for giving me the ability to be me.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Alicyn Leader
- 03-01-17
Real practical helpful insights11
I found The Art of for notw writing a general. I will come back to this book frequently time and again. A terriffic book about ;
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- Deborah Bond-Upson
- 12-16-22
Mary Carr’s Generous and Spirited Gift
Hearing her voice her vast specific knowledge, experience, insights was a godsend. So deep, interesting, and useful. Mahalo.
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- Steady
- 01-19-24
Worthwhile if you want to write anything
It’s as easy to listen to as the guidance is challenging and supportive. I felt like I was in a graduate class without having to do all the work! But now my work begins.
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- Pedwis
- 06-05-21
Awesome Guide
I am fascinated by Karr’s style. She picks a suitable quote and then uses outstanding examples that she garnered through research, interviews, and conversations to explain, caution, and guide the future memoirist. A writer can chose to pay attention to what she says or how she says it. For me, I pay attention to what she says, but I perk up and listen again because of how she says it. Voice in this piece is what woos me.
Although, there were times when I was not sure if the narrator or the quote was being presented. Maybe if I read it myself instead of listen, the experience might have been different.
Thank you Mary Karr. You just added some value to my work apron.
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- Marianhf
- 04-01-17
Personally useful!
This book was one of the most interesting and practical one yet about writing a memoir. I especially enjoyed her recommendations for memoirs to read while writing. the final brief chapter was especially moving and inspiring.
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