The Deliberate Reader

The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life

I am a dedicated library user, and generally only buy books when I know that I’m going to want to reread them or use them as a reference. Before I’d even finished The Memoir Project, I knew that it was going to be a book that I’d want to own.

Despite having no plans or desire to write a memoir, I selected the book from the library because I love reading memoirs so much. I was curious about the writing techniques behind them, and some of the differences between what makes a memoir phenomenal, versus one that’s meh. It’s not simply the topic: some of the most fascinating memoirs have, on the surface, seemed like they’d merit a “who cares?” (Exhibit A: A Girl Named Zippy. Growing up in a super small town in Indiana doesn’t seem like fodder for a memoir that had me singing its praises to my friends. But it was and I did.)

That is where the book shines – she describes how every memoir must have an overarching theme, and every story in the memoir must move the theme forward. And my favorite part of her advice? “Just because something happened doesn’t make it interesting.”

Essential reading for anyone interested in writing a memoir, but highly recommended for all nonfiction writers. I’d even recommend it for fiction writers as well, as her advice for editing and making sure everything in the book moves the story ahead translates to fiction writing also.

Another bonus? The book is short and easy to read, so no worries that you’ll get bogged down in lengthy technical discussions. It’s fantastic.
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Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth.

The sequel to Worth’s Call the Midwife continues with her engaging storytelling, although if you’re reading for additional tales of her experience as a midwife, you won’t find them in this volume. Instead, she traces some of the lasting effects of the workhouses, despite having been closed for decades.

I was slightly hesitant to read this book, because the mentions she gives to the workhouse in her first book made my heart ache with grief over the circumstances that drove people into them, and that they experienced once inside. Separating mothers from their young children, never to be allowed to see them again? It’s horrifying.

Worth’s skills as an author are on full display: she begins the book with the most brutal tale (and it truly is brutal – a six-year-old being flogged until her spirit is as broken as her flesh), and yet she still manages to keep it all readable. Considering the topics described, there is still an amazing amount of joy present in the book, which helps prevent it from becoming unrelentingly bleak.

There are also moments of humor, all the more appreciated because they were somewhat unexpected. The courtroom scene with the usher’s comments to the accused, and his translating for the judge made me chuckle.

While I somewhat preferred the first book because it had more of Worth and her experiences, instead of it being her mostly telling other’s stories, I would still recommend this one. Just be aware that there are some hard hard things to read in it (much like in her first book.)

Publisher’s Description:
The sequel to Jennifer Worth’s New York Times bestselling memoir and the basis for the PBS series Call the Midwife

When twenty-two-year-old Jennifer Worth, from a comfortable middle-class upbringing, went to work as a midwife in the direst section of postwar London, she not only delivered hundreds of babies and touched many lives, she also became the neighborhood’s most vivid chronicler. Woven into the ongoing tales of her life in the East End are the true stories of the people Worth met who grew up in the dreaded workhouse, a Dickensian institution that limped on into the middle of the twentieth century.

Orphaned brother and sister Peggy and Frank lived in the workhouse until Frank got free and returned to rescue his sister. Bubbly Jane’s spirit was broken by the cruelty of the workhouse master until she found kindness and romance years later at Nonnatus House. Mr. Collett, a Boer War veteran, lost his family in the two world wars and died in the workhouse.

Though these are stories of unimaginable hardship, what shines through each is the resilience of the human spirit and the strength, courage, and humor of people determined to build a future for themselves against the odds. This is an enduring work of literary nonfiction, at once a warmhearted coming-of-age story and a startling look at people’s lives in the poorest section of postwar London.

Book Details

Title: Shadows of the Workhouse
Author: Jennifer Worth
Category: Memoir
My Rating: 4 Stars

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