Five Memoirs by Dani Shapiro

In my most recent post (2/2/23), I wrote with great admiration of Dani Shapiro’s newest novel, “Signal Fires.” Shapiro is known as both a novelist and a memoirist, and her memoirs are as wonderful as her novels. Today I write of her five memoirs, all of which I have recently read. “Slow Motion: A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy” (HarperCollins, 1998) is about her difficult and somewhat self-destructive youth. (I posted here on 8/14/11 about Shapiro’s article in which, many years after publishing this book, she struggles with the possibility that her now teenaged son will read it, and ponders the decisions that memoirists have to make when considering others in their lives.) Shapiro’s second memoir is “Devotion” (HarperCollins, 2010), in which she writes of her search for spiritual meaning in her life. Third to be published is “Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2013), which is a combination of memoir and advice about writing. Fourth, “Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage” (Knopf, 2017), about which I posted here on 9/7/17 (I read it back then, and re-read it this year), is a candid look at her own loving but complicated marriage (and which marriage is not complicated?). Finally (so far!), “Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love” (Knopf, 2019) tells of a shocking and traumatic discovery the author makes about her own history, causing her to reconsider much of her life. Each of these memoirs is thoughtful, revealing, and beautifully written. Each addresses a different time period and/or focus in the author's life, and read together, they form a compelling whole. I hope Shapiro will continue to write memoirs, and I for one will read them all.