Karr breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, opening our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminating the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.

Caveat emptor -- Welcome to my chew toy -- The past's vigor -- The truth contract twixt writer and reader -- Why not to write a memoir : plus a pop quiz to protect the bleeding & box out the rigid -- A voice conjures the human who utters it -- Don't try this at home : the seductive, narcissistic count -- Sacred carnality -- How to choose a detail -- Hucksters, the deluded, and big fat liars -- Interiority and inner enemy : private agonies read deeper than external whammies -- On finding the nature of your talent -- The visionary Maxine Hong Kingston -- Dealing with beloveds (on and off the page) -- On information, facts, and data -- Personal run-ins with fake voices -- On book structure and the order of information -- The road to hell is paved with exaggeration -- Blind spots and false selves -- Truth hunger : the public and private burning of Kathryn Harrison -- Old-school technologies for the stalled novice -- Major reversals in Cherry and Lit -- Why memoirs fail -- An incomplete checklist to stave off dread -- Michael Herr : start in Kansas, end in Oz -- Against vanity : in praise of revision.