Another lesson from Anne Frank

Posted on October 10, 2009 by moonbridgebooks

The Anne Frank House museum posted on YouTube the only live footage of young Anne before her death from typhoid in a concentration camp. The short clip was taken following the July 1941 wedding of the Franks’ neighbor, with 13-year-old Anne looking down to the street from an upper window to see the young couple leaving the apartment building. Years later, after Anne’s diary was published, the couple recognized Anne and gave a copy of the clip to Anne’s father and to the museum where it has since been available for viewing by visitors. There are other videos posted on the Anne Frank House new You Tube channel, including one of Otto Frank, Anne’s father, speaking about his daughter’s diary which he received after his family’s deaths. When he finally read the diary, he was quite surprised by Anne’s deep thoughts and self criticism.

Probably most parents don’t really know their children, just as most children – even grown children – probably don’t really know their parents, this despite living under the same roof for years, speaking to each other daily, observing each others’ oddities and emotional hot buttons. We don’t dig into each others’ thoughts or formative experiences, we just don’t have the awareness to do that or, in our busy world, the time. And yet, when we are able to ask the deep questions, probe into past experiences, we learn so much about each other and why we act the way we do, which then enriches our lives and our relationships. When I heard some of my mother’s childhood stories, her whole being seemed to be illuminated to me. Writing about our thoughts and our reflections on experiences is even more of a treasure as a lasting and most intimate look at who we are. Imagine what gold Anne’s diary is to her father.

Take a look at the YouTube channel for the Anne Frank House museum, which includes the clip of Anne and a virtual tour of the attic space the Frank family hid in during WWII

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
Posted in capturing memories | Comments Off on Another lesson from Anne Frank

Using artwork and photos in memoir

Posted on October 2, 2009 by moonbridgebooks
Tonight I attended a talk by famous architect Gyo Obata whose artist/professor father was imprisoned in a U.S. internment camp along with his family during WWII. Gyo escaped by being allowed to attend Washington University in St. Louis, which agreed to accept about 22 Japanese students at that time. Photographer Ansel Adams’ son Dr. Michael Adams was also there to speak about their family’s friendship with the Obatas and how Ansel Adams was asked to document the Manzanar camp in photos.

After Chiura Obata’s death, his granddaughter wrote Topaz Moon, what amounts to an illustrated, historical memoir of the family’s internment time based on letters, stories from her grandmother, notes written by her grandfather about his sketches and paintings, and research about the internment. Obata’s art is mostly sumi black Chinese ink or pencil on white paper – often simple depictions of everyday camp life that serve as snapshots since cameras were not allowed inside. He may not have been a writer, but he captured the dust storms, the crowded living conditions, visitors meeting through barbed wire, as well as the beauty of the distant mountains.

My own mother used to be a talented artist and when telling me her childhood stories for Cherry Blossoms in Twilight, she often doodled to help explain her words. Fortunately I kept those sketches and was able to use many in the book – a picture is worth a thousand words, you know, and especially valuable as part of the essence of the person who created it.

Visuals in a memoir are a wonderful addition, from photos of artworks or craft pieces to the scanned handwriting from letters or recipe books to little scribblings or doodles. They illustrate more fully who the person is in ways that mere words cannot. Of course, photos of the memoir subject and their family are wonderful to see included. Most of us use the camera to document important events, but perhaps the most important events are the everyday ones. Those are the ones that really capture the personality and loves – a mother cooking, planting flowers, playing the piano or a father grilling a steak, sitting in a favorite car or kids sitting on the porch eating popsicles. Don’t forget the photos of a pet cat purring in a lap or a beloved dog getting his ears scratched. With a little extra thought, a memoir might expand into quite a three-dimensional picture.

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
Posted in capturing memories | Comments Off on Using artwork and photos in memoir

Should you write about your kids?

Posted on September 27, 2009 by moonbridgebooks

Julie Myerson, British mom and writer, was lambasted for writing about her drug addicted teen in her recent book The Lost Child: A Mother’s Story. Her son called his mother “obscene” for “exploiting and exaggerating” his troubles even though he liked an early draft showed to him and let her use some of his poems. The book has just come out in the U.S. and Myerson is awaiting a possible backlash here. Or perhaps Americans are more used to exposes on drug abuse and tell-all stories in both books and in the media. Myerson states, for one, that this is her story and the way she saw it and, second, she saw a need in the U.K. to support other parents dealing with their childrens’ drug abuse, to let them know they aren’t alone. U.S. authors David Scheff (Beautiful Boy) and Michael Greenberg (Hurry Down Sunshine) have recently written about their children (drug abuse, mental illness, respectively) to popular acclaim. Read the Amazon reviews of these books to see many thankful responses of others dealing with loved ones lost in similar circumstances. “Heartbreaking,” “inspiring,” and “hopeful” describe these books.

Myerson made the decision to write her story to help other parents. It is unclear at what point her son decided it was a fictionalized assault on his privacy – he was in his late teens when the troubles began and 20 when the book was first published. Scheff’s son and Greenberg’s daughter, on the other hand, were of legal age at the time of writing and approved of their fathers’ writings. A New York Times article, A Mother’s Memoir, A Son’s Anguish, gives an excellent discussion of this privacy dilemma. Underage child involved or only adults, all memoir writers must decide what to include about others in their lives and whether it is worth the possible ire or embarrassment of those others. If your book will help others desperately needing support, if it will help others gain understanding of the plight of others, is it worth it? Is it worth it for anything less? Can you be more tactful and respectful? These decisions should be made with a clear head sans thoughts of anger or revenge. And hopefully sheer exploitation for financial gain never crosses one’s mind.

See also What would my mother say, and other memoir fears

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
Posted in memoir writing | 3 Comments