Belle’s Book Club: The Best of Non-Fiction
What do you think about when someone says Non-fiction? An autobiography? A memoir? A how to manual or self-help book? I don’t think I’d ever given it too much thought other than fiction is made up and non-fiction isn’t.
I’ve been looking at it with a different filter though since starting the Creative Non Fiction module of my Masters in Creative Writing. Suddenly it’s become a whole different can of worms. The academic perspective forces you down all kinds of rabbit holes, like is your narration reliable? Are you writing with a “flawed self” or an “implied I”? Can someone’s opinion of something be deemed fact when it’s subjective. Are our memories reliable? Are we exaggerating for effect?
I recently read Three Women by Lisa Taddeo – a non-fiction book describing the findings of research into the sex lives of yep, you guessed it, three women. I remember reading some of the pretty explicit sex scenes and thinking, was she there? Is this really non-fiction?
Then I got to thinking about it and remembered quite a few non-fiction books that were true stories; stranger, better or even indistinguishable from fiction. Here are 6 of my favourites:
- Wild by Cheryl Strayed
There’s something beautifully and cowardly escapist about reading someone’s ‘ditch everything and walk a long way’ story. Cheryl accounts her tale of walking over 1000 miles across the Pacific Crest Trail. I remember thinking, I can’t even put up a tent and there’s no way I’d stay alone in one, even in my garden. Thanks to this girl I feel I don’t have to do it but that I know enough to feel like I have. Phew.
- Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Right, I’m going to come out and say it, I didn’t love this book. I am however very glad to have read it. To me it was a story of a fairly posh lady’s very privileged long holiday. Probably reading about it is the closest most of us will ever get to that genre of enlightenment. I’m grateful to hear about it. Who wouldn’t want to divide a year into three mega sessions of limitless eating in Italy, yoga chill outs in India and an elongated holiday romance in Bali. Take a fall for us all, Gilbert.
- This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay
This selection of memories of a former ob-gyn doctor had me shaking, laughing, and ugly-face crying within fifteen minute time blocks. I still can’t talk about the final scene without blubbing. OK, some of the tales of bizarre things stuck where sun most certainly doesn’t shine may not be exactly true, but oh ladies, what if they were? My already high levels of respect for the NHS and junior doctors especially, rose exponentially reading this. Our system needs to work better for them, no question.
- A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
I’m not going to lie, I read this because I wanted to say I had (tick!). After having done so, I felt I could read it 10 more times and get something more out of it each time. It’s a classic for a reason. It’s angry feminism, it’s truth and it’s insightful and ridiculously clever. And, you know that 90’s group Shakespeare’s Sister? Well that name came from this; Judith Shakespeare – VW created her to make a point, sister.
- All But My Life by Gerda Weissman Klein
This is a lesser known holocaust memoir given to me by a friend. I read it shortly after reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz, a book that falls under the genre of Historical/Biographical Fiction which gives the author more creative license. The author of that book based the stories on interviews with survivor, Lali Solokov before he died. That book is considered to be “almost true”. This book, All But My Life, has many similarities with Tattooist but it’s definitely and categorically non-fiction. I feel that there is little fiction can bring to the truth of a holocaust account.
- What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami
I was given this by a friend who I think chose it with less consideration than the poignant gratitude with which it was received. It is a book to read… by a writer… who runs. That combines all my favourite things. It turns out it’s less about running than using running as a catalyst for life catharsis (say that fast). It’s up there I think in my all-time top 5 ever books.
I recently put out a request for recommendations in this genre recently and I’ve now got these on my list:
Educated by Tara Westover: Memoir of a girl brought up isolated and craving education with a father obsessed with the end of days
The Five by Halle Rubenhold: About the victims of Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel murders
Lowborn by Kerry Hudson: Exploration of poverty in Britain today and how starting with a disadvantage is like a giant disadvantage snowball that it’s hard to redirect. I wonder what this author thinks of Eat, Pray, Love.
There’s truth out there with some people telling it in beautiful ways, just watch out for flawed narrators and implied “I”s.
*In fact, don’t. Believe me, they change nothing, just read and enjoy.
