What is a Memoir?

If we followed Oscar Wilde’s advice in his essay ‘The Critic as Artist’ we might feel unenthusiastic about dipping into this genre.  The essay consists of a dialogue between two characters, Gilbert and Ernest. The former asks Gilbert what is amusing him and he replies:

ERNEST. Well, while you have been playing, I have been turning over the pages with some amusement, though, as a rule, I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering; which, however, is, no doubt, the true explanation of their popularity, as the English public always feels perfectly at its ease when a mediocrity is talking to it. Thankfully not everyone has this opinion of memoir. Jessica Strawser wrote that there is a market for memoirs:

The good news: Demand for the genre doesn’t seem to be fading, so that means there’s still room to break in. And, as with everything else in publishing, knowing how to increase your chances really can put you ahead of the game. So, there is always good news in the world of memoir writing. Memoirs sell if they are popular and there is a growing demand for the.

What is a memoir? The online etymology dictionary has provided this information:

memoir (n.)

early 15c., “written record,” from Anglo-French memorie “note, memorandum, something written to be kept in mind” (early 15c., Old French memoire), from Latin memoria  (1) “to remember”). Meaning “person’s written account of his life” is from 1670s.

Memoir

Brenda Peterson and Sarah Jane Freymann gave the following advice about memoir writing. They say the ‘A memoirist will not exactly mirror everyone else’s perspective, so there is always room for disagreement.’ They give the following advice:

1. Trust your own lens of memory.
2. Get the facts as right as possible.
3. Fill in the blanks of memory, but disclose uncertainty.
4. Add authentic dialogue.
5. Be selective about when and how you show your work to others.

A few years ago I wrote a memoir entitled CommonThings That are Suddenly Special. It is an inspirational memoir which will motivate readers to see the ordinary things and events in their lives as special and extraordinary. It is what Thomas Larson defines as sudden memoir, which helps the writer to cope, get through, get past. Freud claimed that our memories are stored in our brains as static entities, but recent neurological discoveries show that our memories are in a state of flux and are continually being updated or refashioned. 
In this inspirational memoir, I take the reader on a journey from the interfaces of north Belfast to the cherry blossoms of Kyoto. The memoir was inspired by Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book. She was a Japanese author who served as a court lady to the Empress Teishi in the mid-Heian period around the year 1,000 during which time she composed her pillow book which was in effect a collection of observations, impressions, opinions on everyday life in the court, including the highs and lows of aristocratic life. You might say Sei with her witty and sometimes pithy, sometimes unflattering remarks was a kind of early modern tweeter! 
I used Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Bookas a framework to reflect on my own life and some of the events that have shaped it. It starts with a reflection on the four seasons. Basho’s spring haiku where he celebrates the cherry blossoms is reflected on and we learn that the poet felt as if he was in a Noh play. I adhered to the ‘sudden memory’ style throughout the book as one moment you are in the Empress Teishi’s Japanese court where the full-moon gruel festival is in full swing, and women are chasing each other with gruel sticks and the next moment you are reading about a St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Belfast where young men are wearing green glitter newsboy hats and are sporting red curly beards, and women are wearing green tinsel wigs, long 80s style neon fishnet gloves and trailing green and white turkey feather boas round their necks. Or one moment Sei Shonagon recalls going to the palace to see a procession of blue horses and the next moment, and I recall a TV programme where the horses were parading around before the start of the Qatar Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe. 
The reader will be taken a walk down memory lane, which could sometimes be the Waterworks in north Belfast where the mute swans glide along elegantly to the snowcapped Slemish mountain where St. Patrick herded sheep. Sei conjures up an enchanting landscape of rippling rivers and mountain peaks with Shinto shrines, and you will find her insights illuminating. But you will also be fascinated by my viewpoints on Irish mountains and their incredible myths and legends from the Cave Hill in north Belfast in County Antrim to the Mourne Mountains which sweep down to the sea, in County Down. 
You could be savouring Sei’s Japanese aesthetic in one entry when she describes a misadventure involving palm-leaf carriages and in the next breath you could be reading about the gates in the interface peace walls in north and west Belfast or finding out about The Gateless Gate, a Buddhist text.Or do not be surprised if you are admiring a photograph of a bridge at Toome and then further on in the memoir, you are dancing on the bridge of Avignon. You could be reading about W.B. Yeats’ nine bean-rows or Muslihuddin Sadi’s hyacinth or awakened by a priory peacock or amused by an observation about Not the Nine O’Clock News. The memoir, like Shakespeare’s Cleopatra is full of infinite variety and moves from an early modern Japanese world of sliding screens and reed blinds where women lived in the shadows, to the hustle and bustle of a 21st century post-conflict Belfast where women are equal partners in public life and have for the most part have obtained their independence. 
Like her role model, Sei Shonagon, my lists are not mere inventory, but a powerful memoir, peppered with insightful comments and witty observations.

Common Things That Are Suddenly Special: A Memoir by Brenda Liddy. Inspired by Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Common-Things-That-Suddenly-Special/dp/1493504770