In telling the story of a mother’s abandonment and eventual life as a poet and paramour of Charles Bukowski, the memoir reveals a true, hard, beautiful vision within.
REVIEW: The Good Poetic Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir by Irene Hoge Smith
Category: Reviews
An archive of our reviews of memoirs, essay collections, and other works of creative nonfiction.
REVIEW: Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops: A Memoir by Allison Hong Merrill
The memoir traces the author’s early life in Taiwan, examining the powerful cycles of abuse into which she was born her journey to break them.
REVIEW: What Happened to Paula: On The Death of An American Girl by Katherine Dykstra
Through the story of one girl’s murder, the writer examines evolving attitudes about the roles women are forced to assume in American society.
REVIEW: Mobile Home: A Memoir in Essays by Megan Harlan
The memoir in essays excavates all the layers of what home is from the perspective of someone whose childhood home was never one place.
REVIEW: Graceland, At Last: Notes On Hope and Heartache From the American South by Margaret Renkl
In an essay collection that is digestible yet poignant, readers are invited to consider new perspectives.
REVIEW: Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift by Jessica DuLong
The maritime community’s response on 9/11 shows ordinary people can offer respect, assistance, and kindness to help through the worst crisis.
REVIEW: I Named My Dog Pushkin (And Other Immigrant Tales): Notes from a Soviet Girl on Becoming an American Woman by Margarita Gokun Silver
Using a hybrid form, the comic memoir-in-essays chronicles the author’s journey from girl who left Moscow to completely assimilated American.
REVIEW: In Defense of Ska by Aaron Carnes
Through history, interviews, and personal anecdotes, the book rekindles love for a genre that flamed out as quickly as it appeared.
REVIEW: The Other Mothers by Jennifer Berney and The Trying Game by Amy Klein
Two books examine challenges women face having a baby: an LGBTQ memoir one and a second combining memoir and advice.
REVIEW: The Guild of the Infant Saviour: An Adopted Child’s Memory Book by Megan Culhane Galbraith
Galbraith’s remarkable hybrid memoir focuses on the adoptee experience from both a personal and historical perspective.
