I understand that memoir is a gray area between non-fiction and fiction. It leans strongly toward non-fiction, toward fact. But who has a perfect memory? Maybe you were wearing a red dress, not blue jeans. Maybe you told your sister that secret, not your best friend. Maybe it happened before you moved to Georgia, not after. Memory is a funny thing.
But at what point do we say “This isn’t a memoir, this is a work of fiction.” Can you weave the barest factual pieces of your life in with a created life and still call it your memoir?
I’ve been reading a book called Lying: A Metaophorical Memoir by Laura Slater. In it she has epilepsy. Or maybe she doesn’t. But, as many of the reviewers say “It’s irrelevant.”
But it isn’t irrelevant. Not to me. Because I have epilepsy. And readers out there could be taking her tale of epilepsy as truth. And maybe it isn’t. It doesn’t sound true to me–someone who lives it.
If her book was labelled fiction and the epilepsy of her character didn’t ring true I would be more accepting. How could the author of a work of fiction know? But memoir gives it the strength of fact, maybe the only information about epilepsy some people have. Could some prospective employer of mine in the future remember her statement that epilepsy makes people prone to lying and think, “Well, I don’t need a liar on my payroll.”
I don’t think my disorder should be used by some memoirist as a plot device. It annoys me.
What do you think about memoir writing? Where is the line? Is there a line? Do we have to make a choice between fiction and non-fiction or can we mix them both up and call it memoir?