Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
Dorothy is here tonight with her last set of reviews for the book categories. Welcome Dorothy! Sorry to see these end!
Before we get started, here’s a bonus song for today’s holiday. We’ll classify this under humor. h/t Geoduck
Memoir and Autobiography, History and Biography, Humor!
by Dorothy A. Winsor
This is the fifth and last post from my project to read and review a book from each category of Goodreads’ Best Book of the Year contest. The categories are Memoir and Autobiography, History and Biography, and Humor. I chose books from three interesting authors: Prince Harry, David Grann (who wrote Killers of the Flower Moon), and Henry “The Fonz” Winkler.
Memoir and Autobiography
I run into a lot of people who are writing memoirs. I can’t imagine doing it. Why would anyone want to read that level of detail about my life? But some people do draw that kind of interest, and one of them would be Prince Harry. So, from the semi-finalist list, I chose his memoir, Spare.
Spare was ghostwritten by J. R. Moehringer. His own memoir, The Tender Bar, won numerous awards and was made into a movie in 2022. He’s ghostwritten other memoirs including one for Andre Agassi. He also worked as a reporter and did work for which he won a Pulitzer. So, no surprise, the book is extremely well-written. (Note to self: If you are rich and want a ghost writer, hire the Pulitzer Prize winner.)
Prince Harry starts his story with his mother’s death. The themes that run through this book are there: the omnipresent paparazzi, the performance of royalty, the emotional isolation. I didn’t know that for years afterwards, Harry convinced himself Diana wasn’t dead, but rather had gone into hiding.
This is a tale of an abusive tabloid press by which Harry feels hounded, as his mother was. Among the events he mentions is Rupert Murdoch’s phone hacking scandal. My impression is that the UK papers are far worse at this than the US ones are, but I could be mistaken. He talks about what it’s like to have paparazzi watching his every move, and making up stories when they can’t find one that’s sufficiently interesting.
For him, this book is chance to tell his side of the story. Of course, we’re all biased when we tell our own stories, so I’m not sure I’d call this book the Truth with a capital T. But constant, not always truthful press coverage is a maddening aspect to his life, and I don’t blame him for his anger.
I was most interested in his account of his time in the army. He was deployed to Afghanistan twice, and not in comfy positions at a safe place. He seemed to do well in the army. One of the things he talks about late in the book is how unprepared he was for a life as a non-royal. He’d been infantilized by his sheltered life whether he wanted to be or not. His military service was the only place where he lived and worked at a normal life.
As I read, I found myself wondering if I should feel guilty for reading what is essentially royal gossip. Does that feed the appetite of the paparazzi? What is this interest we have in the lives of celebrities anyway? These are real people, not characters in a novel. Somehow the reality makes some people enjoy the story more. Celebrities seem to function as stories we make up for ourselves. I find it a little voyeuristic. And yet I chose the book.
History and Biography
Amazon.com: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder eBook : Grann, David: Kindle Store
In this category, I chose The Wager by David Grann. The Wager is not the story of a bet. It’s the name of a British Navy ship that sank off the coast of Patagonia in the mid-eighteenth century. The surviving crew lived as castaways for months. Starving and uncertain of their own survival, many descended into anarchy and violence. Eventually, two groups of them managed to return to England, where they told competing stories of life on the island. Had the captain been incompetent or had the crew committed mutiny?
Grann describes life on a naval ship in fascinating detail. The Wager’s mission was to sail around Cape Horn and hunt a Spanish galleon that was known to be carrying treasure. Grann describes the catastrophic voyage, during which they were beset by problems ranging from storms to scurvy. And by the way, I hadn’t realized what a terrible disease scurvy was.
Grann’s account is based on journals in which several of the crew members recorded day to day observations. Through those accounts we get to know half a dozen crew members well enough that they become like characters in a novel.
This is a well-written story of how thin the veneer of civilization can be.
Humor
Here, I chose Henry Winkler’s memoir, Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond.
Amazon.com: Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond: 9781250888150: Winkler, Henry: Books
This book was not what I expected from the “Humor” category. I thought it would be comedy. Instead, it’s the memoir of a guy who rose to fame early in a sitcom and then had to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. He occasionally writes a funny line, but the story isn’t particularly funny.
Working with a co-writer, James Kaplan, Winkler tells parallel stories. In his public life as The Fonz, he reached world-wide fame. But in his private life, he struggled with dyslexia so severe that he couldn’t read. In the era in which he grew up, that meant even his parents and teachers accused him of being lazy or stupid, a message he internalized.
Winkler includes entertaining details about his work on Happy Days, including the episode in which Fonzie literally jumped the shark and thus gave birth to a meme. But when the eleven seasons were done, he was left with the fear that success like that might never come again. So, we read about him trying to avoid typecasting, working small jobs, doing voice work, doing anything he can. Eventually, he finds therapy and the “Barry” series, both of which provide some healing.
Also, by the time one of his own children turned out to be dyslexic, the world had a label for what was happening. For Winkler, that was an enormous insight and relief. To his list of odd jobs, he added co-writing a series of children’s books (Hank Zipster) about a dyslexic boy, based on his own memories.
For me, some of the most interesting parts of the book are his comments on acting. He talks about having to find the character in himself and needing to trust his own instincts. I found that similar to how writing often feels to me.
The Project: A Wrap Up
I’m happy I did this project. I read some books I otherwise would never even have heard of, and I enjoyed most of them. I learned some things, such as what life was like on a sailing ship or how acting feels when it’s done right. And doing the project gave me a sense of accomplishment. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my reviews and also those by commenters. It’s always good when someone helps you find a good book.
Have you ever wanted to write a memoir? Do you follow royal gossip? (Where is Kate Middleton anyway?) We had a recent thread in which people recommended books, but go ahead and do it again if you’re so moved.
Thanks for hosting me, DAW.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Kevin Pollack did an online interview shows for years and it’s got some great stuff. One of which was Henry Winkler. It’s well worth your time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLvWxr9nr08&list=PL171A603431B91EB2&index=6
Trivia Man
It does seem a little voyeuristic to read full details of someones life. But if it is someone we already have some vague outline of it can be a good way to flesh out our general understanding of that person and the larger context of how they/ we fir in the world.
Trivia Man
I like biographies because they put meat on the bones of history. Malcom X changed the way I thought about civil rights and race relations in general,
Trivia Man
Henry winkler in Night Shift was a fantastic nebbish alter ego to Fonzie.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I like Winkler as he comes across in his book. I bookmarked the interview you pointed out to listen to later.
NotMax
Forget the book in which it appeared but remember description of an irascible captain of a vessel stalking the decks, loudly instructing any crew standing around, “Do things!”
;)
cain
Apparently the palace has been quite nervous about Harry’s memoirs. But if it about the media that’s good. Everyone there is a victim to these assholes. After a virus, a paparazzi is the next form of life.
The fitting punishment is to have their own life treated similarly. That would be a great black mirror or twilight zone episode.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Trivia Man: Yes. I’ve read a couple of the biographies written by Ron Chernow. To me, biographies feel different than autobiographies, and Goodreads put them in different categories. Autobiographies always carry a sense of bias as people represent themselves.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: I thought life on a ship was terrible even before they wrecked.
RaflW
Over a decade ago, my partner did a series of five two-hour workshops on memoir writing for an adult/family summer camp week (where each week has a theme & leader. Could be yoga, or sailing, or whatevs). The two hours included time for everyone to respond to the writing prompts.
I bring this up because the thrust of his classes were: Anyone can write memoir. And it doesn’t have to be a book! It can be journaling for one’s self. Or maybe just to get clear on a few things. Or to hope to preserve a few key memories to pass to next generations, in the form of a few collected short essays shared in an email.
And it doesn’t have to be pulitzer quality. Just write! (And tell the internal editor to take a siesta while jotting.)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Chernow gets criticized for the usual reasons “popular” historians are criticized (by academics mainly).
But, his biography of George Washington is very good.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Trivia Man: I guess it depends on who the subject of the book is. Are they historical figures or celebrities? The latter seems less more like gossip. It’s hard to say where the British Royals fit on the scale from historical figure to celebrity
Phylllis
I love a good celebrity autobiography, and mostly listen to them on my daily walks. I’d read Ron and Clint Howard’s memoir last year. It was interesting to compare and contrast Ron’s Happy Days recollections with Henry’s, and their deep friendship is evident from both books.
As for The Wager, I’m also a sucker for a ripping sea yarn, and Grann knows how to tell a story.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@RaflW: I have neighbors who write accounts they want to give to their grandchildren. I can see that.
Maybe it’s just me. Honest to goodness, I’m boring. What would I write?
CliosFanBoy
I wrote a biography a few years ago that got published. The single biggest help was knowing two of the subject’s grandkids, who gave me access to all sorts of material. Unfortunately, my writing style is a bit dry & academic, but they liked the book. Fortunately, the subject was a good guy. If he’d been a jerk, I would have had quite a problem.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@cain: Harry is obviously unhappy with William and Charles because they have no sympathy for him. Also with Charles and Camilla, who he believes plant stories favorable to them and unfavorable to him. But he sees the paparazzi as the root cause of those problems.
arrieve
I haven’t gone for celebrity memoirs since I was a teenager, but I did read Spare. (Or, actually, listened to the audiobook, when I had covid and wanted something mindless that let me lie down with eyes closed. Harry, as it turns out, has a soothing voice.)
I too was skeptical about the book, but it was far more interesting than I expected, and left me feeling much more sympathetic to Harry. Has he always shown good judgment? Lord no. But he talks about things like his first deployment in Afghanistan being the first time in his life he didn’t have armed bodyguards following him around, or the time he ditched the guards and walked around by himself in Paris and how free he felt. Or the multiple times when he would meet an interesting woman only to have the press immediately hound her to the point she had to break it off for her own sanity. I would have ditched the royal life too.
Suzanne
One of my favorite books of my entire life is Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore. It is a memoir/family story. Mikal is the younger brother of Gary Gilmore, and was a writer for Rolling Stone. It is an absolutely shattering book, and yet a total page-turner.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Phylllis: Winkler is obviously fond of Ron Howard. Winkler comes across as a guy who’s generous in a variety of ways.
Mr. Prosser
Memoir depends upon interest in the individual I suppose but although I am truly interested in former President Obama’s administration and how he perceived the events and friends and enemies of his terms I really got bogged down in his book and never finished it.
I fully enjoyed Wager and I hope any future lives don’t include a life at sea in the early modern centuries of exploration or warfare.
I would recommend Fire Weather by John Vaillant to anyone as a historical narrative.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@CliosFanBoy: Especially since you knew the grandkids. Otherwise, writing about a jerk could be fun.
Suzanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s not just you. I cannot imagine ever wanting to write about myself. I mean, if some publisher offered me fat stacks to do it, I would force myself to do it. Do not get me wrong.
CliosFanBoy
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I always heard good things about him. His biography of US Grant is also very highly regarded.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@arrieve: I was impressed by Harry’s account of his military service.
CliosFanBoy
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Maybe. I had a publisher interested in an annotated version of one of my ancestor’s memoirs. He was a Confederate Chaplin. But he was such an egotistical jerk that I decided I had better things to do than spend the next three years with him. Ugh. Not long ago some neo-Confederate wrote a book about him, which I refuse to buy. .
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Suzanne: The name Gary Gilmore rang bells for me, but I had to look it up to remember why. Holy cow. That would make for an interesting family autobiography. Not everyone has a murderer in their family.
Starfish
@RaflW: Do you know where this camp was and if it still exists?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mr. Prosser: Fire Weather sounds like it would offer a lot of insight into the oil industry and climate change.
Mr. Prosser
@CliosFanBoy: A wonderful book I always thought Grant was a drunk who allowed corrupt others to run his administration but this was an eye-opener
Mr. Prosser
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Oh believe me it does. Northern Alberta is a hellscape created by humans.
Starfish
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Marlee Matlin recently spoke for an event, and she said that Henry Winkler really encouraged her when she was a deaf kid with an interest in acting. She mentioned it in this old Guardian article as well.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
B. Traven’s (author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) book The Death Ship: The Story of an American Sailor remains singed into memory.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mr. Prosser: Yeah, apparently that drunk Grant thing was dirt created by Confederate sympathizers.
There’s a Grant museum in Galena, Illinois. His house is there too. I believe he was living there when the war started. We visited a few years ago. The photographs of Grant are haunting.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Mr. Prosser:
During my year at the USMC Command & Staff College (as a civilian), we learned everything about Grant. He’s arguably the best American general in our history (with apologies to Daniel Morgan) and his post-Civil War career, while full of pot holes, wasn’t what most people pushed as an historical narrative for all of the 20th century.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: The title alone suggests a life at sea was problematic.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Starfish:
Winkler really shines in the interview I linked to above. Really one of the good ones in show biz.
Tom Hanks spent 2 and and a half hours with Pollack during an interview episode and it never dragged. And he again came across as one of the good ones.
narya
@Suzanne: thanks for the reminder. I subscribed to RS in the 70s and liked his writing. I knew Gary was his brother but haven’t read the book: let’s see if the library has it.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Wikipedia summation:
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: That’s disturbing.
Tony Jay
As far as I can see, the British Monarchy hit a crisis point in the late 90s when the circumstances of Diana’s death and the Queen’s response (which is a different thing than her personal reaction) to it gave focus to a generalised sense across the nation that the whole institution was a pretty ridiculous farce full of unlikable toffs and modern Britain could possibly do without it, maybe.
That terrified a lot of powerful people. Not so much because they themselves were monarchists in the ‘Gawd Save The Queen, Bless ‘Er” sense, and certainly not because they thought Britain might be on the verge of becoming a Republic, but because the structure of the British Establishment, with all its predictible networks, favour-trees and influence-routes, depends absolutely on the institution of the monarchy to be the source of the power they all wield. Question the need for a monarchy, question the suitability of a monarchy to fill that role, and the whole damned pack of cards gets shaken in unpredictable ways. And the British Establishment hates unpredictability.
So a deal was sought. Meetings were held. Promises were made. And in the wake of it the British monarchy’s foundational basis shifted from Divine Right to Media Hype. No longer would the Royal Family be shielded from damaging scandal because of forelock tugging servility, but because they had agreed to become a Media-friendly story engine where everyone was assigned roles in a super-posh soap opera and was expected to fill them (and thus fill the requisite number of pages across the media) or else.
That’s what we’ve had since Harry was just a kid. His family as a certain kind of Celebrity Saga that the Media could package and sell to an audience that likes that kind of thing. Actors playing out storylines not of their making. It’s wrecked more than one young royal, protected others from exposure for some horrendous shit, and allowed the Establishment to get on with feathering its own nest without too much pushback from the dazzled proles.
Once Harry started to push back against the cage bars, and especially once he married a woman who knew the Celebrity game and wasn’t willing to play the meek, second-fiddle role assigned to her, the knives came out and the bleeding started in earnest. I have zero time for that family, but I respect Harry as an individual for telling the whole rotten edifice to go fuck itself rather than betray the promise he made to his wife.
William chose a different road. It may well turn out that his wife is paying the price for that. I find that question eminently shrugable.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Tony Jay: That’s a really interesting analysis. I think of the US public’s interest in celebrities as part of the bread and circuses that keep people from paying attention to reality. “Reality” show host Trump is a terrible sign of the times.
Tehanu
If you want to read a really well-written memoir about a meaningful life and participation in history, you should read General Grant’s own memoir. There’s a good Library of America edition.
TheOtherHank
I’m late to this thread, but if anyone would like to read novels about the mission on which the Wager was sent, Patrick O’Brian wrote two books about it. The Golden Ocean which takes place on board the Centurion (the flagship of the expedition) and The Unknown Shore which takes place on the Wager.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TheOtherHank: They’re novels? Cool!
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: What you have written there makes absolute sense to me.
citizen dave
I’ve been to Grant’s house in Galena, Illinois (we love that town). What I recall is that a group of the well-to-do men in town provided the money/built it for him post-Presidency. And that when Grant was dying of cancer he wrote his autobiography/went on an extensive tour to provide for his kin after he was gone (too lazy to google the exact details). A small house, not a mansion by any means.
Back in the day I was a fairly big Springsteen fan, and sometime 20 years or so ago I remember reading an interview with Bruce saying he’d never do an autobiography–no one will hear what’s in his mind, etc. Then a few years later (and a $10 million advance–just googled), lo and behold his autobiography comes out. Seems like it was well-received. I have not read it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@citizen dave: I read Springsteen’s autobiography. It gives a great view of his creative life and well as his life life
ETA: I also read Peter Jackson’s. In both cases, I like their creative work.
Tony Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That’s how I see it. Rebuilding the Monarchy’s reputation took a lot of concerted PR work and concluded with the Queen’s mawkishly overmourned death. They’re currently trying to pivot from a Queen-centric storyline to one where the daffy eldest son isn’t a laughable loser but is instead a credible King we should all respect and, well, it wasn’t working even before the cancer diagnosis.
Harry’s push-back hurt the Monarchy. They’ve tried to demonise his wife and paint him as a whining posh boy but that’s dangerous for an institution based more than anything else in this 21st world on the idea that Posh = Cool and Interesting.
If the real story around William and Kate is so bad they’ve literally had to enforce radio silence for weeks… things could spiral. No matter how hard the incoming Starmerpartei try to maintain the status quo.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
There’s a reason that British culture went hard into a Downton Abbey/Richard Curtisland/Isn’t that Stephen Fry a beautiful speaker media loop, and it’s not because people were crying out for it. Posh had to be made Cool and relatable, the narrative demanded it.
And I say that as someone who loves Stephen Fry.
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Grant’s reputation for drinking came out of an incident in California ~1850. His post commander, a martinet, caught Grant tipsy at a pay muster and threatened to courtmartial him. The other officers told Grant he would not be convicted (they’d be the jury) but he was sick of the peacetime Army and really missed his family.
So Grant resigned, borrowed $100 dollars from another lieutenant and went back East. He finally was able to repay the debt in 1862, when he captured Simon Bolivar Buckner at Fort Donelson. They were both generals by then.
Grant’s father Jesse was appalled. Ulysses was the apple of his eye, and Jesse’s friends had heard plenty about his heroic son. Jesse Grant even journeyed to Washington to pursuade the Secretary of War to reinstate his Ulysses, but Jefferson Davis refused.
The “Old Army” was a gossipy place, and Grant’s reputation as a drinker dogged him when he re-entered the service. Grant proved to be one of the Army’s most efficient generals and War Department spies confirmed he was a sober man, so Lincoln discounted the gossip. The fact was, Grant drank enough whisky to be a normal Army officer.
Geoduck
@Tony Jay: I was gonna say, you’re dragging Stephen Fry into this?
And glad to see the Muppets get their due.
Melancholy Jaques
The Wager is on my list of books to buy. I’ve been reading history and novels of the Age of Sail more or less continuously since I read Mutiny on the Bounty when I was just a kid.
Right now I’m finishing Six Frigates by Ian Toll, about the founding of the US Navy.
TheOtherHank
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes, they are novels about Anson’s expedition against the Spanish. They probably count as YA stories since the main characters in each are midshipmen on their respective ships. In The Unknown Shore the midshipman character and his buddy the surgeon’s mate are obvious prescursors to Aubry and Maturin in his main series of novels.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TheOtherHank: One of the midshipmen on The Wager was Byron’s grandfather (I think. Possibly great-grandfather). He was an attractive character, and I was glad to assume that he was going to survive the ordeal, given that he had to continue the line.
TheOtherHank
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Midshipman Byron is the main guy in The Unknown Shore . He’s even mentioned in one of the Aubry/Maturin books as Admiral Byron who dearly loves a storm.
And now I do have read The Wager
Geminid
@Tony Jay: Ah, Mr. Jay, I want to wish you a Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
An Irish proverb:
Ironcity
@Dorothy A. Winsor: They are “novels” because they need a genre to go in but they are as close to history as you can get. I’ve read the mall, I think, and if you strip out the fictional characters inserted into real battles or various missions like intercepting the Manila galleon or whatever they give a great detailed description of life in the 18th-19th century RN. There is even a lexicon and compan ion by another author, not O’Brian, (that is a pen name anyway) titled “A Sea of Words”.
BellyCat
Very much enjoyed your insightful reviews, Dorothy. Thank you.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@BellyCat: I enjoyed doing these. I’m glad you liked them.
Timill
@Ironcity: Dean King, and the Kindle edition is $2.99 at the moment: https://www.amazon.com/Sea-Words-Companion-Complete-Seafaring-ebook/dp/B007DFUQ72/
Ironcity
@Geminid: And when Grant was down to not enough $ to get back to his wife (staying in St. Louis with her family I think) while he was sent to the misty wilds of the Pacific Northwest he got to New York and borrowed bare minimum $s needed from a cadet friend from his West Point days who ended up as a Confederate general officer, though I don’t recall which one, didn’t think it was Buckner, but it could well have been. Military service being a family affair in many cases Simon Bolivar Buckner of Kentucky was the commanding general of the U.S. invasion (or reoccupation, really) of the Aleutian Islands was Grant’s friend’s son. That same Simon Bolivar Buckner was the U.S. Army commander at the Battle of Okinawa and was one of the few general officer casualties.
Barbara
@Suzanne: It started out as an article in the New Yorker magazine and I second how compelling his account of his family is. If you ever wonder about nature versus nurture this book recounts something like a natural experiment in what it means to a child to have a loving parent.
On the other side of the house, I picked up a book written by Nancy Spungen’s mother (Patricia?) In a bookstore and started flipping through it and could not put it down, so I bought it. There are limits to what a good parent can overcome. The story of her daughter’s descent and death is scary and really quite sad.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I had a lot of sympathy for Harry, in that he is obviously a very damaged individual, and the memoir is clearly “his truth”, but it wasn’t fact-checked on even the most basic statements. Example: he writes about being called at his boarding school by some Palace functionary to tell him his great-grandmother (the Queen Mum) had died. In (well-documented) reality, he was on a ski trip with his father and William in Switzerland. So you can’t trust what he says as the truth, just what he felt and remembers.
Ironcity
@Timill: That’s the author. Dean King with John B. Hattendorf and J. Worth Estes “A Sea of Words ” Holt, 1995. I’m looking at the paperback edition now. Came from the bookshelf between “The Great War in the Air” and “Undaunted Courage”. I didn’t claim the bookshelf is that well organized.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I’m reading a book called Gilded Youth, about child-rearing practices of the British aristocracy and the monarchy, and it makes clear how so many damaged individuals emerged from the system. Distant, uninvolved parents, and kids raised by paid workers. Occasionally someone like Queen Elizabeth II finds a devoted nanny like Bobo MacDonald (who was with her until her death) and that can make all the difference. Hopefully William and Catherine can break the pattern (especially since Catherine was raised in a more middle-class way, and her parents are very involved with supporting them and the kids).
Dorothy A. Winsor
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): It’s hard to imagine sending an eight year old to boarding school is good for emotional development. I don’t know.
hitchhiker
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
I wrote a memoir about the year our family went through after mr hitchhiker took a weird fall while out skiing and broke his neck. We had two daughters in middle school. He left on a Wednesday in early March and didn’t come home again until late May, still unable to sit up, dress himself, or use a toilet. When it happened, I’d been writing and publishing short stories, and was trying to draft a novel.
My journal for that time devolved into capturing the details of family life plus trauma center, family life plus painfully partial, slow, & uncertain recovery, family life trying to settle into some kind of revised normality. That’s what I wrote about, and later my writing group friends suggested I do the work and turn it into a book. I did.
I’m commenting on your comment about Harry’s mistakes in his memoir. There are mistakes in mine, too. Things that I “remember” vividly are missing important details, as friends who later read the book and were in the room informed me. I had access to all the hospital records, including nurse’s notes, and I still managed to make a mistake about something that happened in ICU.
I read Spare, and I read the (eagerly offered) list of mistakes that appeared immediately. If I’d been somebody famous with a lot of critics in the press, a very similar list could have been written about my book, and it would have been just as meaningless. There’s nothing he said that undermines the story of his life as a spare. It’s not enough to say, well, that’s his truth, but these errors show that the whole thing might not be real.
The errors show nothing of the kind; they only show that it’s impossible to meet the standards imposed on him, which is kind of his point.
Melancholy Jaques
@Tony Jay:
Question the need for a monarchy, question the suitability of a monarchy to fill that role, and the whole damned pack of cards gets shaken in unpredictable ways.
As Shakespeare put it:
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows!
Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, scene 3
Brachiator
@hitchhiker:
This is a very good point. We normally don’t fact check every detail of our own lives. Nor do most of us have reporters and photographers following us around.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Exactly
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
I thank you! Good day, mostly. Watched the common-law-father-in-law run a half marathon (at 74), had a delicious Lebanese lunch, and got out of Liverpool Town Centre before the St Paddy’s Day faithful began their miraculous transformation of a million barrels of Guinness and Bushmills into an ocean of vomit. Then I watched Liverpool FC throw away an FA Cup quarter final 4-3 against the awful Manchester United in the very last seconds of the game, which was less of the good.
Luckily I’m of pure(ish) Irish stock, so I won’t get mad, I’ll just get melancholy.
@Melancholy Jaques:
That’s why Shakey gets all the plaudits. Guy said everything first, and better.
Geminid
@Ironcity: I looked up the Grant-Buckner relationship and found I had it wrong. Buckner helped Grant after he made it back to New York. Grant had to wire his father for travel and expense money and while he was waiting, the hotel keeper pressed him to pay his bill. That’s when Buckner stepped in and vouched for Captain Grant.
At Fort Donelson, Grant offered to lend the newly captured Buckner money if he needed it but Buckner declined. Buckner thought highly of Grant, and after Grant’s death Buckner assisted his widow financially.
Aside from his conflict with a commander, Grant liked California and wrote in his Memoirs that during the War he had thought of settling there afterwards. But this was before Congress created the rank of Lieutenant General and Lincoln appointed Grant to the post, putting him in charge of all the Union’s armies. That and Lincoln”s assasination made a political role inescapable. As Grant prefaced his Memoirs, “Man proposes, God disposes.”