How About we Stop Calling Memoirists “Narcissists”
The result is a scattered, self-indulgent romp through the mind of a depressive narcissist obsessed with his insecurities and childhood traumas.
Here’s something I have been wanting to say for a while but didn’t have a place to: When I read reviews of memoirs like the one above from Publisher’s Weekly - especially of really good memoirs like Stephen Elliott’s The Adderall Diaries– I scratch my head. Too often reviewers call the work of memoirists “self-indulgent” and the writers themselves “narcissists.” It makes me wonder whether those particular reviewers happen to like memoirs. I personally don’t want to read one by someone who isn’t obsessed with his or her insecurities and childhood traumas.
When you read someone’s memoir, you learn a little bit about the world and yourself by taking a look through someone else’s lens. Sure, there are poorly written ones that never take the leap from personal to universal. But it goes without saying that in any good memoir there will be an intense focus on the writer’s internal drama, and this is part of what makes readers able to lose themselves in his or her story.
