Memoirs and Autobiographies are both supposed to be factual representations of the authors life. However, it is a well-known fact that autobiographies will contain some bias--they should however be well-researched so that the author's memories are backed up by other sources. Memoirs, on the other hand, require no research. They claim to be glimpses of history as the author remembers it.
Most memoir writers write about scandalous things--growing up in poverty, abuse, and crime are common causes. All memoir writers seem to have an agenda--whether it is shocking members of the Pulitzer Prize committee into giving them an award or getting their families back for some perceived injustice or, in the case of JD Vance, advancing political careers. All three motives would be suspect if the person stuck with the researched truth, they are disgusting when research and family members frequently come forward to debunk the "memory."
Aside from J D Vance's Hillbilly Elegy--were he supposedly documents his childhood being raised by Appalachian "hillbillies"--two other memoirs come to mind: Angela's Ashes (which won a Pulitzer) and Running with Scissors. These become talked about and make the authors rich while destroying the reputations of real people. Further, some of the "memories" are actually not even memories. They are pure fiction.
Consider Angela's Ashes--Mr. McCourt states he worked for the devout Catholic, Mrs. Brigid Finucane, and wrote threatening letters to collect money from people who owed her. When she died, he stole money from her and tossed her book where she kept track of the debts. No person in Limerick can remember this Mrs. Brigid Finucane. There were only Jewish moneylenders anywhere in Limerick. There was, however, a Vincent Finucane who ran a Radio shop, but Mr. McCourt never worked for him. During this time, Mr. McCourt did work for Jackie Brosnan. Jackie Brosnan is never mentioned in the book.
Jackie Brosnan, however, did sell bicycles. Presumably, like Mrs. Brigid Finucane, he bought the items he was selling or built them for less money than what he sold them for. He then had a payment plan where people could take the bicycles home and come in each week to pay him for them. Again, this set up is similar to the one Mr. McCourt describes for Mrs. Finucane. Just as he was responsible for helping to get the money from those who did not repay Mrs. Finucane, he was also responsible for getting money from those who did not pay Mr. Brosnan.
Curiously, he states he stole from Mrs. Finucane after she died. I wonder if the truth was that he was acting like most go-betweens for money lenders and stealing money from the people who owed Mr. Brosnan. Pilfering a little off here and there. We will never know because Mr. Brosnan adored Mr. McCourt and trusted him completely. He knows that Mr. McCourt lied in his book, but he still does not think anything bad about it and believes the book to be mostly true.
In the case of Running with Scissors, the family sued the author. This was settled out of Court--which means the publishing company paid a big sum to shut the family up. The author has implied to people since that he won the case.
The problem I have with people like this who do not care about truth--and I understand memory is fickle; I understand that sometimes we remember things differently than how they really were--but these authors take the truth and realize it isn't dramatic enough and so they fabricate things and claim they are "memories." Mr. McCourt knew he worked for Jackie Brosnan and not Brigid Finucane. He knew Jackie Brosnan was a kind gentleman whose payment plans allowed many people who could not afford bikes to have one. He should have known that in order for Mr. Brosnan to stay in business, the accounts needed to be collected. Still, he created a fictional character, made her a evil Catholic (he has big beef against the Catholic church and any of its adherents), and then made himself a hero by destroying her debt book when she died.
J.D. Vance claims to have grown up with hillbillies, but he didn't really live in the hills of Appalachia. He lived in a coal town in Ohio. Most Appalachian people do not relate to his book, but the rest of America eats it up as honest truth.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is another one of these injustices. The man who wrote this book, which is making a lot of money as it is being pitched to school children across the U.S. (probably because of one of its sexually explicit material). If you want to read about the stereotype of an Indian, this book let's you know the stereotype is true. The sad thing is that I used to live with a Shawnee woman. I met a lot of Indians and none of them behaved like the people in this book. I never saw any of them drink or beat their kids. I only saw people who wanted to live in harmony with nature. So I can tell you from first hand experience this "Absolutely True Diary" is a lie.
In addition to the families of these people, these books feed negative stereotypes of poor Irish people, poor Appalachian people, and poor Indians. They win prizes and are forced upon students of all ages as "good literature" when they are nothing more than the National Enquirer backed by Academics. There should be some requirement to verify the information found in any memoir or autobiography before it is given any award or distributed to students as mandatory reading.
What really makes these memoirs MUSTN'T reads is that when people fabricate their memoir and get publicity because they wrote fiction they promoted as truth, it takes away from people who really went through horrible experiences like Jaycee Lee Dugard and her A Stolen Life: A Memoir. This book also contains some raw sexual experiences, since she was raped for decades by her kidnappers and writing the book was therapy. However, this book is a lesson--a lesson to people in law enforcement that they should always do their jobs even if they are threatened with lawsuits for doing them and a lesson to others that no matter what the situation you can survive. Her follow-up Freedom is equally enlightening.
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