Thanks, Dotsie! Yes, I think there's the misconception (certainly among critics) that memoir IS navel gazing. Just staring into a mirror. So in "Fearless Confessions," I try to make the case that what memoirists are doing is much more than that.

To me, therefore, the best memoirs are those whereby the "self" is superimposed on the world, so to speak. In other words, our stories don't occur in a vacuum. If you're writing, say, about domestic violence, then, as you're telling your important story, you're ALSO telling the story of a social problem...one that affects us all, not just those, specifically, in a domestic violence situation. Think of how the life of one battered woman, say, plays out among a larger family, a larger community, the government, etc.

This is the REAL story one memoir on domestic violence also tells.

Or, given the news these days and all these politicians caught having affairs: do they suffer from sexual addiction? Surely some of them do, risking everything as it were (job, family, position, respect) "just" for sex. I mean, we have governors resigning, governors lying to their constituents, etc.

So I think that memoirs, therefore, about sexual addiction, DO cast a light on a larger problem. That's kind of what I mean--if that makes sense?

In short, our personal stories are larger than ourselves.
I'm curious how others see this?