Books

What drives our country's ongoing fascination with memoir? In her 11th book, Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir, author-teacher Natalie Goldberg posits one clear answer:

"This revolution in personal narrative ... is the expression of a uniquely American energy: a desire to understand in the heat of living, while life is fresh, and not wait till old age – it may be too late. We are hungry and impatient now."

Old Friend is Ms. Goldberg's instructive, rousing invitation to join the memoir fervor.

Two decades ago, her book Writing Down the Bones became a best-seller that nudged writers and would-be writers to pick up their pens and gain confidence through a structured method she dubbed "writing practice." Old Friend is her fourth book of writing instruction but her first to concentrate on a specific literary genre. It builds on the techniques laid out in Bones and teaches how to cover the exoskeleton of a memoir idea with heart, nerve and skin.

As someone who has attended several of Ms. Goldberg's workshops, I recognize the flow of the book, more than any of her earlier works, as similar to the format of one of her seminars. She begins by offering her philosophy on timed writing exercises, and then starts to lob out one writing topic after another.

Her message has always been essentially this: Get to work. Some of the topics prod you to be grounded and tactile: "Write everything you know about mashed potatoes." "Tell me a memory associated with a bicycle. The spokes, the wheels, the narrow seat."

Others move into more nebulous territory: "Write about a time you itched. It could be physical or metaphorical."

And still others go right for the scary quick: "Tell me about the worst thing that has happened to you." "Anyone alive has had great suffering, if we are willing to admit it. Can you also notice the great tenderness at its edge? Tell me about it. Go."

Her aim is to jostle your memory from every angle, from the obvious to the underbelly. "Because life is not linear," she says, "you want to approach writing memoir sideways, using the deepest kind of thinking to sort through the layers: You want reflection to discover what the real connections are."

There are also enlightening discussions of what makes the best memoirs work. Ms. Goldberg has published three memoirs herself, so the advice rings with the conviction of experience. If you're seeking counsel on finding an agent or how to work well with an editor, look elsewhere. A mature teacher, Ms. Goldberg sticks to her strength: Guiding people to plunge their hands into the rich, pungent soil of memory and authentically record what they find resting in their own palms.

The Practice of Writing Memoir

Natalie Goldberg

(Free Press, $25)

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