Comments on: Is a Travel Memoir Really a Memoir?

By: Andrew X. Pham

Andrew X. Pham — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:38:28 +0000

Thank you for sharing your experiences, Jerry. I enjoyed reading about that ride by those vets.

And thank you for your kind words, Jerry, and for addressing the question. I’ll put it to my students. We’ve been debating the term “travel memoir” for some time.

Cheers,

Andrew X. Pham

By: jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:20:06 +0000

P.S. In answer to your question about travel memoirs in general, I suppose they started from the beginning. Any time someone wrote about their travels, for example Herodotus or Marco Polo, it became a travelogue. Perhaps the thing that differentiates a travelogue from a memoir is that during a memoir, the character learns and grows. The protagonist in a memoir has a character arc. Click here to see my essays on Japan took the JAP out of me by Lisa Steinberg-Cook. It's a great example of such a memoir .

By: jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:46:09 +0000

Andrew, After receiving comments, I often go to check out their authors. I enjoyed discovering your website, and Amazon reviews, and as a result am ordering one of your memoirs. I am also fascinated by your earlier acclaimed memoir, Catfish and Mandala about your bicycle trip through Vietnam, and hope (wish) to have time to read that too. Vietnam played an important role in my life, since I tried to hurl myself against the machine that was creating the war. Now, in my passion for memoirs, I have hurled myself with equal vigor into the search for wisdom. Books about those periods, written from other people's points of view, are giving me a more complete understanding than I ever dreamed I would be able to achieve. If you are interested, check out my other travel related essays. Click here for one about a bicycle ride through Vietnam by a group of war veterans in this essay. Jerry

By: Andrew X. Pham

Andrew X. Pham — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 09:50:45 +0000

Very interesting. Thanks for the essay. I was wondering when the term “travel memoir” was coined. Who used it first to describe/review which book?

By: jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:01:52 +0000

Thanks, again, for reading the blog, Sharon. That’s what it’s here for. Over the three years since I started, I have lost track of how much about myself I’ve written, since my emphasis is on helping readers write their own. So I’m actually fascinated to learn that you know I went to India, naturally a prominent feature in my memoir-in-progress. Well, your comment gets to the heart of the sixties – the whole 60′s idea of dropping out was so darn impractical, and yet, there were many lessons that were learned during those attempts at reinventing reality. I just heard an interview on television yesterday (chairman of Xerox Corp.) about how the boomers were often seen as self-involved, but maybe over the next couple of decades we’ll find ways of giving back. Certainly telling our stories is one way to do that. Jerry

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:30:37 +0000

I’ve been reading more of your blog, and I find there are several parallels in our lives; I too dropped out and, after a trip to India, back in again! People tend to think of India as th eplace where people totally let go of reality; for me it was the opposite.

By: jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:54:48 +0000

Thanks for the waves, Sharon. I’m glad you find the site useful. It sounds like your travels coincided with your coming of age, which also coincided with crazy times in our culture. I can’t wait to read it.

Jerry

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:24:38 +0000

My memoir is about my travels through South America as a fresh-faced 19 year old in the early 70′s. Thanks for this article; it’s so true and very helpful.
And waves at Jerry Waxler!

By: jerrywaxler

jerrywaxler — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:12:45 +0000

Thanks, Pauline. This sounds fascinating.

By: Pauline Hager

Pauline Hager — Sat, 30 May 2009 00:30:09 +0000

Jerry, according to my Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, “A memoir is a record of events based on the writer’s personal observation.” That’s exactly what I did in my travel/memoir book “Memoirs of an American Housewife in Japan.” I write about my experience living in rural Japan, 75 miles northwest of Tokyo, the people, their homes, their educational system, their social customs, my humorous faux pas committed due to my ignorance, my travels inside Japan and other fascinating Far Eastern countries such as Malaysia, Southern China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand. I write in detail about my personal experience in these countries. I leave the lodging and food to Fodor’s travel books. Thanks for letting me set the record straight, at least in my view.