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Originally Posted by Quoth
The more recent Angela's Ashes set in the past annoys me too as I've lived in or near Limerick for nearly 40 years. Being poor anywhere in 1930s (Brooklyn) or 1940s (Limerick) with an alcoholic father from Norn Iron isn't going to be nice. It's a biased voyeuristic book & I can't see the point of it any more than the Dubliners. I'm sceptical too that a lot isn't fictional.
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I liked
Angel’s Ashes, but I didn’t care for his subsequent two memoirs. I think Evelyn Waugh said to Diana Cooper (my memory of their correspondence could be faulty) that everyone had one book about their childhood in them, but no subsequent memoirs of worth. While I don’t think that’s the exact truth; it’s more that many have no more than one book about their childhood in them, it’s an insight that’s stayed with me. Maya Angelou is another example;
Caged Bird was great, the rest not so much.
I like memoirs, too much in truth, but I agree they’re problematic. Memory plays people false all the time. And what are the standards for reconstructing conversations? I couldn’t tell you exactly what I said to someone yesterday, much less decades ago.