Review by Choice Review
The contemporary boom in self-narrative publication is wedded to the history community's growing but grudging recognition that memoir does indeed implicate history. Hampl of the literary world and May of the history world collaborated in creating "Who's Got the Story? Memoir as History/History as Memoir," a brilliantly conceived conference involving historians and creative nonfiction writers in discussion of their connections and divergences. Through the reflective essays in this timely book, the authors distill their discussions, solicited by the editors and composed after the 2007 conference. (Proceedings are still online at .) The essayists include journalists, historians, editors, memoirists, and American studies specialists. The coverage ranges widely. Regionally, it extends from Egypt to Minnesota to Kentucky to California to the former Czechoslovakia. Topically, it covers family, adoption, memory, community, suburbia, race, the craft of writing, war, the nature of story, and public versus private history. Reading each of these superb and provocative essays, readers understand history in the memoir and memoir in the history. What all the writers recognize is that they and their disciplines all deal with the vagaries of memory and how humans construct meaning in the present through memory, however expressed. A superb book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. J. B. Wolford University of Missouri--St. Louis
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Hampl, author of three memoirs (e.g., The Florist's Daughter), and May (history & American studies, Univ. of Minnesota; Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era) present this collection of essays by 14 talented writers who also happen to be memoirists, from Andre Aciman to D.J. Waldie. While histories (public narratives of record) are viewed as reliable and trusted sources, memoirs (intimate, personal accounts) are often viewed with some suspicion; yet, as Hampl and May point out, memoirs can be powerful testimonies to larger historical events. They devote each chapter to one author and include an extract from one of his or her memoirs followed by an essay by the author. The essays recount the contributors' experiences formulating and writing a memoir as well as their views on memoirs and how they fit into the world of nonfiction. The extracts and essays are equally fascinating, providing an inward look at the authors in addition to a small sampling of their work. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.--Mark Alan Williams, Library of Congress (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
