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The purpose of writing a memoir is to unearth your essential humanity and share it with your readers…unless, of course, you don’t, which is often the case. Many, perhaps most, memoirs are published not as a means of artistic expression but to promote something, increase the author’s profile, capitalize on their 15 minutes of fame, or support public opinion. has been. This is especially true of books written by famous people, and perhaps most true of one subgenre: books by politicians.
We’ll start with four new articles from The Atlantic’s Books section.
As Franklin Foer pointed out this week, every election season, readers typically “lack psychological insight, lack narration of the moment…They are, in fact, what candidates are looking for in books.” “It was probably published in The View, and is essentially a campaign ad sandwiched between two covers.” As a result, candidates running for major offices typically I have one or two books. With less than two weeks until this year’s presidential election, Kamala Harris’ 2019 memoir, The Truth We Hold, and many of Donald Trump’s books, including his most influential, It is probably not in the voters’ best interest to read “The Art of the Deal”. Tony Schwartz has publicly atoneed for his role in Trump’s rise since his first presidential election). J.D. Vance’s bestseller Hillbilly Elegy may indicate a little more literary ambition than these titles, but the man depicted in that book in 2016 is the Vance of 2024. It is far from what it looks like. The same year he published his memoir, Vance called Trump. “Cultural Heroin” in the Atlantic. Since winning support for the Senate in 2022, he has gone all in on the former president, adopting his positions and rhetoric as his own.
Still, power and politics are classic and fascinating subjects for literature. And while most of the election season “rushes” lack value, Foer writes, some memoirs by campaigners, activists, aides, and the president do have real value. Michael Ignatieff’s Fire and Ashes tells the story of his brief career as a rising star in the Liberal Party of Canada and his downfall. Betty Friedan is “fascinatingly self-aware” in her memoir Life So Far, while also revealing her “stubborn obstinacy and unstinting belief in her own righteousness.” . Gore Vidal’s “wonderfully sinister memoir” palimpsest explains, in part, how Vidal lacked the qualifications for public office. (One of the big disqualifiers is “He lived for feuds.”) The six books on Foer’s list are a far cry from today, but all about the forces involved in critical elections. He has a clear eye. One of them might be the right companion for you in the days leading up to the new president-elect. I am particularly drawn to Ferdinand Mount’s cold cream. Fore said the brief moments that touch on politics are both poignant and entertaining.
Drew Angerer/Getty
6 political memoirs worth reading
Written by Franklin Foer
Hacky election memoirs shouldn’t be an indictment of the genre as a whole. There are really good books written about power from the inside.
Read the full article.
what to read
Still Life with Oysters and Lemons: On Objects and Intimacy, by Mark Doty
For the poet Doty, attention is a form of secular faith. “The belief that if you stare long enough, you will be surprised and rewarded,” he explains. It serves as a vessel. ” In his 2001 memoir, Doty’s gaze lingers on both great paintings and common household objects. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Doty stands reverently in front of a Dutch still life painting depicting lemons in luminous detail. And then there’s the half-carved violin that adorned the house he shared with his partner Wally, “like music from silence or sculpture from stone.” The memory of these objects is tinged with a sense of loss. Wally spent the last years of his life in their home, dying of AIDS. But Doty’s memoir is a reminder that the beauty and joy in the world does not disappear with the death of a loved one. “Sadness does not go away, and never will, but eventually it begins to coexist with joy,” he writes. Careful observation can be a source of intimacy and contemplation. It is “the best gesture we can make in the face of death.”
From the list: 6 books that will awaken your senses
Released next week
📚 Dangerous Fiction by Lyta Gold
📚 This Motherless Land, by Nikki May
Read your weekend Millennium Images / Gallery Stock
Reasons for itching and how to stop it
Written by Annie Laurie
Pace yourself during the day. If the itching gets worse overnight, try balancing a bag of frozen corn on your foot or soaking in a cold bath. When you apply menthol, the cold tingling sensation will outweigh the tingling sensation for a while. They pull their hair, pinch themselves with the ends of their fingernails, and stick diabetic lancets in their stomachs. And I scratch.
Read the full article.
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