Kris and I both love to read memoirs. Kris likes those memoirs that probe one’s psychological state or get into some deep story, while I like memoirs of writers and thinkers (which is not to say they don’t sometimes explore the inner world nor to say that those psychological memoirs aren’t by thinkers). In fact, I like memoirs by folks who are primarily writers and memoirs is their specialty. Like Joseph Epstein, whose other books, including the new one about Fred Astaire (Icons of America)
, are good but not as good as his memoir-like essays. He calls them “familiar essays” and defines such as a “line [of thinking] out for a walk.”
What’s your favorite memoir? Favorite memoir writer? Any recent one you read that you want to give a shout-out to? Any recommended books? Do you know of Greg Garrett?
I had not heard of Greg Garrett, picture at the right, until someone sent me his new book, No Idea: Entrusting Your Journey to a God Who Knows
, and he’s a memoirist worth knowing and reading … and I expect plenty more reading of Garrett. Garrett is his own person with his own story — quite the story — but he’s got a little of Anne Lamott in him, and a bit of wit, and some Frederick Buechner and Parker Palmer, but he’s so much more than those combinations. He’s got a voice of his own and a style that is gentle, silky-smooth prose. He wonders in this book about where God will lead him, but he trusts God — but he’s not sure where God will lead him. Pensive, but not overly so.