More Celebrity Memoirs That Don't Suck
Though I do have questions #75
Here’s the thing about celebrity memoirs.
…wait, sorry, I got carried away as per usual. Hi. How are you? How was the week? No, I know, right? I feel the same way. OK, good talk.
The thing is - I think we can all agree that the vast majority of famous-person memoirs have very fairly given the rare good ones a very bad rap. They’re usually chronologies of events without any candor or substance, they’re chatty without individuality or soul, and usually they elide the bad and juicy things, particularly when it’s a bad or juicy thing they themselves have done. It’s a PR effort only, and like the majority of press efforts, they say entirely none and zero things whilst using a lot of words.
(Please keep snarky comments about people who use too many words to. Your. SELF.)
Oh, and they’re usually terribly written, and smart people generally think they’re above the genre. (Some of you have probably stopped reading already.) But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, they’re great!
That said, a handful really are worth considering for their stories, their imagery, and their vulnerability. Lucky for you, mes petites, I read a bunch of junk so I can honestly recommend the few good ones (plus one that everyone else seems to like.) Check out some good ones below, go back to Celebrity Memoirs That Don't Suck V1, and please leave your favorite celebrity or well-known-figure memoir in the comments!
Look, it seems like Dave Grohl is an all-around exceptionally good guy. And The Storyteller, a series of essays and memories, is going to do nothing to disabuse you of this notion. It’s basically the most cheerful and upbeat rock n’ roll memoir of all time, even with the deaths of his loved ones.
If you’re looking for him to dish dirt, he doesn’t, though the last third of the book is essentially “fun times with other celebrities,” which are charming if not profound anecdotes. And I personally found the style of putting life lessons in bold italics so you don’t MISS the Important Points lazy and condescending. Like, Dave, if the writing doesn’t already convey that we should follow our dreams, it’s a you problem.
So it wasn’t a perfect five-stars but it was a fun read! Four lambs due to some grief.
If Greenlights had a ghostwriter, I’d be surprised/impressed because this is exactly what you think Matthew McConaughey’s memoir would sound like. Wisecracking, a little lawless but with a twinkle, a tad self-impressed, reflective and musing while usually managing to stay on the right side of self-indulgent. (Though TBH I blithely skipped over the snippets of poetry and journal entries, because those kinds of things give me second-hand cringe. I just think journals are private for a reason but maybe you’re tougher than I am!)
He also doesn’t dish dirt (but how was working with J Lo, Matty?) and he also used the unnecessary style of emphasizing his key points in bold. Give us a little credit, publishers! But a good read and an important reminder about living an intentional life.
What a jagged and candid memoir Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is. It’s like the emotional opposite of reading Dave Grohl - Carrie Brownstein is vulnerable, dark, self-critical, sharp, forthright while still wryly funny. You don’t have to be a Sleater-Kinney or riot grrl fan (I’m not) to find this recounting of fame, of anxiety, of punk, of a hunger for the spotlight and a habit of self-sabotage, and of women in rock to be an interesting perspective. It’s also intelligent and very eloquently written.
Listen.
Every carbon life form, including the National Book Award panel, adored Just Kids wholeheartedly. So you probably will also love Patti Smith’s recounting of her early days in New York, of poetry and bohemian life and forgoing food for art supplies, and of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. It’s extraordinarily well crafted, an intricate and intimate portrait of a place and time in the late sixties and early seventies.
Personally, I liked it - but I found it a little too blithely earnest and rosy (everything always works out! No problems here! And then I just happened to meet a record producer, tra la!) Also, I’m so sorry to confess, these kinds of stories weirdly don’t resonate with me, I must lack an essential free-spiritedness gene. It’s why I also disliked On the Road. Like, take a shower and get a job, yuck. But I’m the only person I know who didn’t love Just Kids and even I can admit that it’s a very worthwhile read.
RIP Roger Angell
Sports writing, old-fashioned real sports writing, is a thing of powerful beauty and a vanishingly rare gift. Tip of the hat and God Speed to you, Mr Angell. You could turn a phrase.
Some Parting Thoughts:
All links go to Bookshop.org, which supports indie bookstores, which is a real underdog cause. If you buy books, please consider this option, rather than the Big Online Store! You can see all past recos there.
If celebrity memoirs don’t turn you up to eleven, never fear - every week is a different genre! Check the archive for past topics.
You may remember Mapplethorpe for his photos which sparked an obscenity trial in 1990, in my hometown of Cincinnati. I was a teenager then and my mother, never a troublemaker, marched me downtown, through protestors, to attend that exhibition because she thought it was important to stand in solidarity with art and free speech. Her politics have, ah, radically changed since then (thanks, Rupert!) but that day shaped mine as well, and I’m grateful to her for it. This admittedly has nothing to do with books but does champion ideas, and the trust we can have in each other to explore new or provocative topics, so I’m including it. You’re also probably not reading this far anyway.