Good memoirs by ordinary people?

zip100
Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:26:52 +0000

When I searched my memory for some of my favorite memoirs these came to the top of my list. They are both pretty dark though. They are both written about normal people dealing with extraordinary events.

Wild Swans: Three daughters of China by Juan Chang
Chang’s story of her life, her mother’s and her grandmother’s is also the story of China’s changing political history during the same period.

What is the What? by Dave Eggers
A memoir of one of the lost boys of Sudan. This was written by Dave Eggers (who is not one of the lost boys) and Eggers labels this as fiction but it is based on the recollections of one of the lost boys, Valentino Achak Deng, and written in his voice.