I feel like the integrity of memoir as a genre has cropped up a bit lately. I mentioned it in my review of Unquiet (Ullmann classes her book as a blend of fiction and memoir) but before that, I was discussing it with a friend who saw Leslie Jamison speak about her memoir, Splinters, which focuses on the break-up of her marriage. I haven’t read Splinters yet, but my friend said that Jamison emphasised the importance of not casting her ex wholly as the bad guy, that in memoir you had to show the ‘good bits’ as well, or risk losing the trust of your readers.

I had that in mind as I began journalist Kate Legge’s memoir, Infidelity and Other Affairs. It’s also about her marriage, which eventually ended after her husband had an affair. In terms of my curiosity about portraying the ‘bad guys’ in memoir, I was rewarded early in the book: Continue reading →