This week in Ms. Olmsted's class, we are reading and discussing The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende. It is a memoir. Dictionary.com's first definition for memoir is, "a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation." So, a memoir could just be an author rambling about a series of events. But what makes a memoir good? Think about The Sum of Our Days or any other memoirs you have read in the past... What made them stand out? What kept you turning the pages? The Sum of Our Days focused on Allende and her family and the things that happened in their lives as Allende struggled with the death of her daughter, Paula. But what made the book interesting? Personally, I think that memoirs are interesting in general because it is like a good friend is telling you the juiciest bits of their life story. I think that The Sum of Our Days was good because it was humorous and because there were a lot of interesting things happening all of the time in the book. It didn't slow down; it seemed like there was always something going on. Or was it just the way Allende told the story that made it interesting?
For those who visit the blog this week, please give your two cents! Did The Sum of Our Days stand out to you as a good memoir, or did you feel like you had to trudge through it? Why? What makes a memoir good? Is it the subject matter? The way the author writes? The humor factor? The tragedy factor?
