It's a splendid journey." -Richard Ben Cramer, author of "Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life "and "How Israel Lost: The Four Questions" "Fascinating. Our guide, Ben Yagoda, is always fine company, with just the right word, kindly good judgment, and another great story coming up on the next page. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever" "A shrewd and witty history of memoir sweeps us from Julius Caesar to James Frey. This is literary criticism at its lively best." -David Friedman, author of "A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis" and "The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. His history of the memoir reads between the lines-and the lies-with illuminating precision." -Ron Rosenbaum, author of "Explaining Hitler "and "The Shakespeare Wars" "We owe Ben Yagoda such a huge debt of thanks: his witty, comprehensive, and insightful 'biography' of the form reminds us why the memoir matters - and will continue to matter as long as humans think, read, and write.
Yagoda's incisive exploration is a worthy study of a genre that even now cannot completely be defined." - "Los Angeles Times" "Perceptive, thorough, and amusing."- "New York Magazine " "This idea-driven cultural criticism leads to all kinds of interesting places." - "Christian Science Monitor" "Ben Yagoda is one of the most subtle-and entertaining-writers about writing one can find. Read, and discover a book whose pop culture references, humorous asides, and bracing doses of discernment and common sense convey Yagoda's unique sense of the "beauty, the joy, the artistry, and the fun of language.Praise for "Memoir: A History " "Spirited. Laugh when Yagoda says he "shall call anyone a dork to the end of his days" who insists on maintaining the distinction between shall and will. Avoid the pretentious preposition at, a favorite of real estate developers (e.g., "The Shoppes at White Plains"). Marvel at how a single word can shift from adverb ("I did okay"), to adjective ("It was an okay movie"), to interjection ("Okay!"), to noun ("I gave my okay"), to verb ("Who okayed this?"), depending on its use.
Read If You Catch an Adjective, Kill It and:Learn how to write better with classic advice from writers such as Mark Twain ("If you catch an adjective, kill it"), Stephen King ("I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs"), and Gertrude Stein ("Nouns. Not since School House Rock have adjectives, adverbs, articles, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs been explored with such infectious exuberance. What do you get when you mix nine parts of speech, one great writer, and generous dashes of insight, humor, and irreverence? One phenomenally entertaining language book.In his waggish yet authoritative book, Ben Yagoda has managed to undo the dark work of legions of English teachers and libraries of dusty grammar texts.
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