A review by lelia_t
The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick

4.0

This is a great analysis of what makes personal narrative or memoir most effective and meaningful. Gornick and Mary Karr have a similar belief that the writer has to get behind the social mask they feel most comfortable presenting to the world. But Gornick adds that the narrative voice that works best is the one that tells the story that needs to be told, not necessarily the most wholly representative of the author. And sometimes the truth the writer is revealing is unconscious - it’s the act of writing that leads writer - and then the reader - to understand. The best personal narrative inquires deeply into who the self is and in the process the narrative voice becomes the story - the way they deliver their story, the things they don’t say, the surprising exclamations all reveal who they are and how they are shaped by experience and convention and/or are learning to resist those forces.

I’ve read very few of the essays and memoirs Gornick mentions, but her exploration of these works was meaningful anyway, and now I’ve got several new additions to my TBR list.