“Memoir is the art of inventing the truth,” said the American writer, William Zinsser. Today, writing memoirs is a trending wave that public figures, celebrities, and politicians have taken as a free space to speak out about their personal life, their experiences, and the changing point that turned them into stars and icons, whether in music, entertainment, or politics.
As of 2020, publications of memoirs started to increase more than ever before, selling millions of copies around the world. Prince Harry’s Spare sold more than 1 million copies on its first day, according to Penguin Random House. The same for Britney Spears’s The Woman in Me as its publisher, Gallery Books, announced. These books give readers access to the personal life of their favourite figures, who decided to share their journey in simple prose so that everyone can enjoy reading their stories smoothly. Thus, this article will briefly explain why memoirs became the ‘readers’ favourite in the last few years.
Authentic Voice
Memoirs usually represent the inner voice of their authors. They write about their journey in words that rhyme with the truth addressed to their fans and supporters. By writing about their life, they take down false theories and rumours about their life and relationships. This often involves breaking etiquette and social rules that might otherwise stop them from expressing themselves.
This authentic voice in narrating their life story is what first drives many modern readers to read memoirs so they can discover the real human behind the glamorous lifestyle that celebrities often show publicly. Here, readers can connect emotionally with their favourite personalities, get to know their background, and gain a way to understand what they actually went through before their rise to fame.
Inspirational Lessons
Celebrities and public figures use writing memoirs as a tool to engage their fans with their own experiences and the challenges they had to face at certain points in their life. This can be way to explore and support their mental health, which during the coronavirus lockdowns became a priority in everyday talk and an essential topic across all social platforms. Accordingly, memoirs turned out to be a lifesaver to many who are still unable to express their feelings and share their journey with others. Here, memoirs come along to help these people by offering them inspirational stories to take as a motivational guide in their life, and to remind them that they have the ability and potential to reach their dreams, just like these celebrities did before.
Secrets and Confessions
Many memoirs hold secrets and confessions that were kept unrevealed for years. Yet, some celebrities and politicians, prefer to step up and tell the truth in a book, whether it’s about a political moment or a personal issue that they never spoke about in the past. For example, Prince Harry talked in his book about his military experience during the war in Afghanistan, which exacerbated the political tensions between Afghanistan and the UK. Price Harry also spoke plainly about his cold relationship with his father King Charles and brother Prince William. These bold confessions created a huge debate on social media discussing the content of the book while questioning Harry’s behaviour towards the Royal Family.
That is why many readers today are so curious to read about such confessions, to discover the world of politics, or even in the entertainment industry, which holds mysteries and secret facts lying behind the luxurious image of those celebrities. Memoirs become a representation of a reality often disguised by fame and glamour.
Final Thoughts
This trending wave of publishing memoirs is likely to increase in the future, since many public figures have gained remarkable success in book sales as well as in reviews. For example, Mathew Perry’s memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing quickly became a bestseller. Perry’s fans across the world shared their opinions on his book through video reviews and blogs, writing about his fame and his past addiction while showing lots of support and love tributes, especially after his sudden death a year after its publication.
Simultaneously, with today’s focus on mental health awareness, modern readers tend to support this cause in social communities by engaging with others’ life journeys. This is often done through books that focus on self-expression and self-love, like poetry. These types of books, including memoirs, create an international hub of readers where they can reflect on their traumas and past memories and write down their thoughts on paper. In this way, these books highlight the need for open talk in societies that otherwise almost reject speaking out of such matters.
Words by Joyce BouCharaa
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