"Not all memoirists are keen to share their life stories. For Margaret Atwood, an author who has sold more than 40m books, the idea of writing about herself seemed Dead boring. Who wants to read about someone sitting at a desk messing up blank sheets of paper? Happily, she did it anyway. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts (Chatto & Windus) is a 624-page doorstopper chronicling Atwood's life and work, and a tremendous showcase for her wisdom and wit."
"Helen Garner's similarly chunky, Baillie Gifford prize-winning How to End a Story (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) is a diary collection spanning 20 years and provides piquant and puckish snapshots of the author's life, work and her unravelling marriages. Mixing everyday observation and gossipy asides with profound self-examination, it is spare in style and utterly moreish. In Arundhati Roy's Mother Mary Comes to Me (Hamish Hamilton) and Jung Chang's Fly, Wild Swans (William Collins), formidable mothers get top billing. In the former, The God of Small Things author reveals how her mother, whose own father was a violent drunk, stood up to the patriarchy and campaigned for women's rights, but was cruel to her daughter. Describing her as my shelter and my storm, Roy reflects on Mary's contradictions with candour and compassion."
Margaret Atwood's Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts is a 624‑page chronicle of life and work that combines wisdom and wit and transforms mundane writing scenes into compelling narrative. Helen Garner's How to End a Story collects 20 years of diary entries offering piquant, puckish snapshots of daily life, literary labor and unraveling marriages, mixing everyday observation and gossipy asides with profound self‑examination. Arundhati Roy's Mother Mary Comes to Me and Jung Chang's Fly, Wild Swans place formidable mothers at the center, revealing parental contradictions, resilience and political resistance. Tina Knowles' Matriarch recounts raising Beyoncé and Solange while fostering pride in blackness and womanhood.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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