By Marion Roach Smith
Grand Central Publishing, $12.00, 114 pages
ISBN 9780446584845

This is hands-down one of the most honest books on writing ever; the slender, yet full-bodied endowment that it is. There are 112 pages that will have you clinging to every last point, period, and dangling participle. Marion Roach Smith takes her readers on a quest for the self, the stories that inhabit us, and how to connect the dots between writer and reader in telling our tales. With candid humor, personal narrative, and outright encouragement, she dares writers to stretch their minds to encompass the small and detailed rather than the vast, big picture of sharing. Sound a little too simple? It is and it is not. So often in writing memoir the details are glazed over to get to the incalculable amount of an experience. She puts the hammer down on that sort of thinking, “taking inventory of all my stories, acknowledging that many more exist, while looking for only those that fit this assignment,” helps to streamline thinking and put you on a path that leads to relationship.

“Edit with murder on your mind.”

The reader needs a reason to keep the story within them, carrying it through their day and through their own experiences. Cramming that pack too full of events and lessons drags readers down and ultimately forces them to drop it—clearly not the goal for a writer. Instead Marion Roach Smith teaches how to lighten the load with only your finest offerings. The Memoir Project is a frank and funny date with a friend who tells you the truth and you love her for it.

Reviewed by Sky Sanchez-Fischer