“Voice” as Host Personality in “The Art of Memoir” by Mary Karr (post 2): “Each great memoir lives or dies based 100% on voice…cobbling together a voice”

Chapter 4, pages 35-53, is devoted to the importance of “voice” (as indicated by the above quote from the chapter). “Voice” is a surprising thing to find in a book on a supposedly nonfiction genre, since the term is usually used to mean the narrator personality in a work of fiction.

However, as discussed in the previous post, Karr’s concept of the memoir includes divided selves and memory gaps, which are the two basic features of multiple personality. So her “cobbling together a voice” for a memoir might be like when a person with multiple personality puts forward an engaging host personality.

Mary Karr. The Art of Memoir. New York, HarperCollins, 2015.