That's entirely understandable, friend. I know it took you a while to figure out how you wanted to tell your deconstruction story, so I'm not surprised that you're grappling with how best to unpack the history of your marriage - I'm also aware that you have compared the fervor of your former faith with the devotion you showed to your husband. I'm sure there's a lot to process.
Maggie smith & lyz lenz’s divorce memoirs! Also, my most recent favorite was All of us Together in the End - not divorce, but it’s about leaving religion and it is beautiful.
Hmmmm, favorite memoirs? All time favorite is A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel. Haven lives in the same town as I do, but Zippy had been my favorite memoir for years before I found that out and met/got to know her. She deals with serious topics, but the descriptions of her quirky takes on things as a child had us crying with laughter when my daughter and I read it aloud together when she was a teenager. A good memoir about marriage and divorce is You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith. I like the way she integrates her poetry into the book, which may also interest you.
as a personal preference, any memoir written after 2020 no matter what it's about on the surface, includes their detailed 2020 story and i cannot handle it. we were all there and lived it and i can't even re-read my own traumatic journals from that year. and it rarely has anything to do with the topic of the memoir. (for example, you could definitely say like "the reason we had to move back to USA was...2020") or whatever, but like, yeah...i have mostly given up reading memoirs. Splinters by Leslie Jamison was good (minus the 2020 parts & the easily searchable details to ID new guy she started dating, i felt bad for him!)
i feel like you could be really good at doing a prose/poetry combination, like closing each chapter with a poem or something. my favorite memoirs in general have eschewed just one genre.
and thanks for the update! hah - a cliffhanger for sure.
That's entirely understandable, friend. I know it took you a while to figure out how you wanted to tell your deconstruction story, so I'm not surprised that you're grappling with how best to unpack the history of your marriage - I'm also aware that you have compared the fervor of your former faith with the devotion you showed to your husband. I'm sure there's a lot to process.
Thank you, friend. Appreciate your insight as always. 💜
Maggie smith & lyz lenz’s divorce memoirs! Also, my most recent favorite was All of us Together in the End - not divorce, but it’s about leaving religion and it is beautiful.
Thank you, friend!
Hmmmm, favorite memoirs? All time favorite is A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel. Haven lives in the same town as I do, but Zippy had been my favorite memoir for years before I found that out and met/got to know her. She deals with serious topics, but the descriptions of her quirky takes on things as a child had us crying with laughter when my daughter and I read it aloud together when she was a teenager. A good memoir about marriage and divorce is You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith. I like the way she integrates her poetry into the book, which may also interest you.
I’ve heard of Zippy (thanks for the tip) and I’ve read YCMTPB three times. 😅 I learned a lot about writing craft.
Ooooh, I'd love to hear more about what you learned from Maggie Smith's memoir. I was intrigued by the poetry/ memoir combo since I also write both.
Made a note to (maybe) write about this. 😅
as a personal preference, any memoir written after 2020 no matter what it's about on the surface, includes their detailed 2020 story and i cannot handle it. we were all there and lived it and i can't even re-read my own traumatic journals from that year. and it rarely has anything to do with the topic of the memoir. (for example, you could definitely say like "the reason we had to move back to USA was...2020") or whatever, but like, yeah...i have mostly given up reading memoirs. Splinters by Leslie Jamison was good (minus the 2020 parts & the easily searchable details to ID new guy she started dating, i felt bad for him!)
i feel like you could be really good at doing a prose/poetry combination, like closing each chapter with a poem or something. my favorite memoirs in general have eschewed just one genre.
and thanks for the update! hah - a cliffhanger for sure.
Yes to the genre bending!
Awake. The Woman They Wanted.