A memoir is an interesting piece of work. A glimpse, often rather detailed, into another person's life. Often, we accidentally write our own memoirs in our minds, and yet when one sets out to do so, nothing will come to mind. Funny thing, memoirs.
Reading one is fun, particularly when the subject matter is interesting, but even when not. If we look at books such as "The Catcher in the Rye," we see a fictional memoir, still in the same style. What really goes on in the book? Nothing of import, just another few days in the life of some kid we've never met. Still, the idea holds us, and we read through. We love reading about the lives of other people, especially when their struggles are our own. If we see that someone has gone through something before that we face now, are we not interested in seeing what happened at the end?
Anyway, I'm reading a particular memoir now, that I won't really mention, as the struggle which is detailed is probably too easily related back to my own life, and that is then too personal for me to openly talk about on a blog post meant for ~150 possible readers. But the effect it has is profound, I often have to stop reading simply to reflect on what the author is stating, or something said is so similar to my life that I can't continue on without feeling slightly overpowered by the author's situation. There truly is a powerful part of memoirs, that I doubt any human can truly resist, without a cold, calculating mind, or a pure analytical, possibly academic reading process. That is not mine.
While reading, I find myself gaining a deep attachment with characters, and in a memoir, or similar first person perspective, it becomes so easy to simply insert myself into the role of that character. To feel, see, hear as they do. Then, when the detailed portion of life becomes so similar to my own, I can't help but feel more affected by it than anything else. It becomes almost too real. It is real, for me and the author, and, as all books, it offers a common bond, secret and exciting, between the reader and author.
Finding a memoir therapeutic is hopefully quite common, or else I'm a little weird(probably both), but in either case, it is certainly an experience offered, and happily accepted by me, from another person, far away, perhaps in time and in space. Memoirs certainly are funny little things.
