misery memoir
n.— «Last monday, the mother of Constance Briscoe lost the libel action she had brought against her daughter for the publication of Ugly, Briscoe’s memoir of her upbringing of neglect and abuse. The case was both astonishing and tragic. We are fascinated, in part, by what have come to be called “misery memoirs” because they seem to offer a spectacle that is against nature—surely mothers and fathers love their children.» —“Erica Wagner on how memoirs prove our lives are not lives alone” by Erica Wagner Times (London, United Kingdom) Dec. 4, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...
A Louisiana listener shares a favorite passage from Laurie Lee’s memoir Cider with Rosie (Bookshop|Amazon), about his boyhood in post-World-War II England. An extract is here and contains the passage:“For the first time in my life I was out of the...