Memoir Moratorium

After finishing J.R. Moehringer's touching book "The Tender Bar" (2005) earlier this week, I've decided to declare a memoir moratorium.

Moehringer's book is worth reading. If you're new to memoirs, this would be a good introduction. It's  full of memorable characters - indomitable mother, irascible and abusive grandfather, wayward uncle holding court for the colorful inebriated cast inhabiting his Long Island tavern. I recognized some of that cast from my own years playing tender and not-so-tender bars.

But I'm temporarily abandoning this subset of non-fiction because the amount of learning I extract from memoirs seems to be on the decline. Many of these books are moving, well written and funny; Moehringer's nails that hat trick. Still, my geeky need to learn, at least at present, appears to be taking precedence.

Almost exactly two years ago, a memoir called "Tolstoy And The Purple Chair" by Nina Sankovitch lifted me from a serious dip. So I'm sure I'll return to the genre - keep your recommendations coming despite my declaration; nothing is forever and lists are meant to be filled.


p.s. A month later and still having major problems with this blog site from my home PC; thank goodness for the public library.