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memoir weekMemoir WeekThe stories we tell about ourselves.22162663memoirfalsefalsespacernullmemoir weekIshmael Beah's A Long Way GoneIshmael Beah's A Long Way GoneIshmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, discussed.Elizabeth Rubin0Rehabilitating child soldiers.Elizabeth,nonotruenonotochyperlinkno2007329120107PMThursdayMarMarch123/29/2007 4:01:07 PM633107664670000000200733073216PMFridayMarMarch193/30/2007 11:32:16 PM633108799360000000memoir weekA Brief History of Memoir-BashingBen YagodaIt's almost as old as the memoir itself.noA Brief History of Memoir-BashingA brief history of memoir-bashing.noWay, way back in the day, before memoirs lost its s, when all the memoirs that had ever been written could fit in a couple of modest bookcases, the form represented a brilliant innovation in genre. Or so it seemed to Samuel Johnson. Writing in 1759, he observed that the best kind of biography was one in which "the writer tells his own story." Such books benefited from their authors' total command of the subject, Johnson argued: "Certainty of knowledge not only excludes mistake, but fortifies veracity. … [T]hat which is fully known cannot be falsified but with reluctance of understanding, and alarm of conscience." (Dr. Johnson, meet Mr. Frey.)truenotochyperlinkno200733054306PMFridayMarMarch173/30/2007 9:43:06 PM633108733860000000200733054306PMFridayMarMarch173/30/2007 9:43:06 PM633108733860000000memoir weekAll About Me?The state of the modern memoir.noAll About Me?Memoir Week at Slate.noWelcome to Memoir Week at Slate. Over the next three days, our critics will be weighing in on new memoirs. What has been most striking to us at Slate is how many memoirs these days are anything but coming-of-age stories; instead, they tackle issues and subjects larger than the self. Elizabeth Rubin and Mike Vazquez dissect the story of Ishmael Beah, who became a child soldier in Sierra Leone at the age of 12. Ann Hulbert looks at two memoirs about autism and asks why autism has become a metaphor for our times. Stephen Metcalf studies the scarlet history of the biography. Jess Row returns to Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior to see how this seminal memoir holds up. And Meghan O'Rourke and Dan Chiasson discuss the role of autobiography in poetry 40 years after Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath helped start a vogue in confessional poetry.truenotochyperlinkno200732711420PMTuesdayMarMarch133/27/2007 5:14:20 PM633105980600000000200733010519PMFridayMarMarch133/30/2007 5:05:19 PM633108567190000000memoir weekFor Whom the Memoir TollsAllen ShawnHow to write about the dead.noFor Whom the Memoir TollsHow to write about the dead.noThe other week, Slate posed the following question to a group of memoir writers: How do you choose to alert people who appear in your books that you are writing about them—or do you not alert them at all? If you do, do you discuss the book with family members and friends while the work is in progress? How do you deal with complaints from people who may remember events differently than you?truenotochyperlinkno200732915137PMThursdayMarMarch133/29/2007 5:51:37 PM633107730970000000200732915137PMThursdayMarMarch133/29/2007 5:51:37 PM633107730970000000memoir weekJust Screw ItRich CohenHow I told my family I was writing about our feud over the Sweet'N Low fortune.noJust Screw ItHow I wrote my family exposé.noThe other week, Slate posed the following question to a group of memoir writers: How do you choose to alert people who appear in your books that you are writing about them—or do you not alert them at all? If you do, do you discuss the book with family members and friends while the work is in progress? How do you deal with complaints from people who may remember events differently than you?truenotochyperlinkno200732874151PMWednesdayMarMarch193/28/2007 11:41:51 PM633107077110000000200732973941AMThursdayMarMarch73/29/2007 11:39:41 AM6331075078100000002007326114645AMMondayMarMarch113/26/2007 3:46:45 PM6331050640500000002007326114645AMMondayMarMarch113/26/2007 3:46:45 PM633105064050000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue2007326114333AMMondayMarMarch113/26/2007 3:43:33 PM6331050621300000002007326114333AMMondayMarMarch113/26/2007 3:43:33 PM633105062130000000