Contents

1. Dedication
2. Epigraph
3. Caveat Emptor
4. Preface: Welcome to My Chew Toy
5. 1 | The Past’s Vigor
6. 2 | The Truth Contract Twixt Writer and Reader
7. 3 | Why Not to Write a Memoir: Plus a Pop Quiz to Protect the Bleeding & Box Out the Rigid
8. 4 | A Voice Conjures the Human Who Utters It
9. 5 | Don’t Try This at Home: The Seductive, Narcissistic Count
10. 6 | Sacred Carnality
11. 7 | How to Choose a Detail
12. 8 | Hucksters, the Deluded, and Big Fat Liars
13. 9 | Interiority and Inner Enemy—Private Agonies Read Deeper Than External Whammies
14. 10 | On Finding the Nature of Your Talent
15. 11 | The Visionary Maxine Hong Kingston
16. 12 | Dealing with Beloveds (On and Off the Page)
17. 13 | On Information, Facts, and Data
18. 14 | Personal Run-Ins with Fake Voices
19. 15 | On Book Structure and the Order of Information
20. 16 | The Road to Hell Is Paved with Exaggeration
21. 17 | Blind Spots and False Selves
22. 18 | Truth Hunger: The Public and Private Burning of Kathryn Harrison
23. 19 | Old-School Technologies for the Stalled Novice
24. 20 | Major Reversals in Cherry and Lit
25. 21 | Why Memoirs Fail
26. 22 | An Incomplete Checklist to Stave Off Dread
27. 23 | Michael Herr: Start in Kansas, End in Oz
28. 24 | Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision
29. Acknowledgments
30. Appendix | Required Reading—Mostly Memoirs and Some Hybrids
31. Permissions
32. About the Author
33. Also by Mary Karr
34. Credits
35. Copyright
36. About the Publisher