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Dear Garrison, I recently heard

February 2, 2006 |

Dear Garrison,
I recently heard you say you are writing your memoirs. Then in your recent Old Scout, you mentioned a book you'd labored on for two years that you were ready to throw out. I hope these aren't the same book. The memoir is my favorite genre, and APHC is my favorite show of any media. Please say you will finish your memoir.

Kathleen Kakacek
Idaho Falls

I like certain memoirs too, Kathleen, like Philip Roth's "Patrimony" and John Updike's "Self-Consciousness" and of course Mr. Pepys's diaries (the unexpurgated version). And now Roger Angell is turning out a beautiful one which has appeared in the New Yorker bit by bit over the past fifteen years or so. Look up the most recent entry, from January. I haven't written one because I know how much time it would take to do it the way I'd want. And I don't have a strong motive.But the book I dumped wasn't a memoir, it was a novelization of a movie screenplay. No tears need be shed for that.

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