Artful Truths: The Philosophy of Memoir

Philosopher de Bres responds to “a common set of criticisms that have been lobbed at memoirists over the centuries” in her disappointing debut. De Bres first explores what memoir is, defining it as “a nonfiction account of the author’s own past life” before considering and shooting down the claim that all memoir is fiction. She then considers ethical concerns of the genre and its potential for harming others: “When people treat something fictional as nonfictional,” she writes, “serious injuries can result.” While these matters are well worth examining, de Bres tends to state the obvious: in discussing the relationship between language and truth, for example, she notes that Shakespeare’s “Juliet is the sun” or Robert Burns’s “my love is like a red, red rose” are “not true or false in the way we usually use those terms.” Despite an earnest attempt to make a philosophical study accessible to a broad audience, de Bres fails to deliver revelation and instead leaves the reader with bromides about how memoirists should practice their craft: “I think there’s a strong argument... in favor of memoirists adopting a general policy of respecting the historical truth.” Memoirists may enjoy these intellectual wrestlings, but for the most this will come up short. (Aug.)