Friday, April 24, 2015

Good idea

… Memoirs should be more than just selfies in book form - The Washington Post.

…  much of the current crop of best-selling memoirs … breaks down into a handful of dispiriting categories. Among them are I’m Famous (Tina Fey’s “Bossypants,” Amy Poehler’s “Yes Please,” Rob Lowe’s “Stories I Only Tell My Friends”); I’m Running for President (Marco Rubio’s “American Dreams,” Ted Cruz’s “A Time for Truth,” Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Choices”); and I Used to Be Dead but for Some Reason I’m Not Anymore (Eben Alexander’s “Proof of Heaven,” Bill Weise’s “23 Minutes in Hell”). Tina Fey is funnier than Bill Weise. Marco Rubio is stronger on immigration policy than Rob Lowe. But to a larger or smaller degree, they’re all books as selfies: “Look at me!” plays in the guise of truth-telling, attempts to move us to see the author as clever or electable or holy. Such books, particularly of the political variety, are routinely slathered in anecdote and platitude, pleasurable and informative only for those who wish stump speeches were longer.

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