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[wwidsith]

What is going on with the current fad for books about horrible, abused childhoods?  My local Waterstones now has a whole section labelled Tragic Life Stories: I can't even begin to list in how many ways this is wrong.  The memoirs all have respectably blurred photos of crying children on the front cover, and preposterous titles like Daddy, Don't

Comments

[anonymous]

I see the merits of your argument, and I also hate the self-obsessed misery genre, but I don't think Pelzer is some sort of scumbag riding his own misery. However, I've only read A Child Called It, so I can't vouch for his later works or if he grew exploitative and mercenary.

I DO think that a lot of the best work in literature is born from misery and self-abuse, though, so whether or not some of this has literary value is debatable...

Puh!

[hazel_shea]

Oh my gosh I was just skimming back over your entries when I saw this one and I had to comment.

This issue has been festering my mind for about two years and it really pisses me off- the first time I went into a bookshop (I think it was Waterstones too) and saw that little label saying 'Tragic Life Stories' I was about ready to explode. In the week after seeing that I had at least five or six pub-conversations in which I had a rant like yours above at various people who had the misfortune of sitting opposite me- and none of them even seemed to care! How is no one else concerned about the emergence of this as a dominant literary genre!

I have endless arguments with my mum about these books too because she likes them. They now seem to be a supermarket staple and have replaced the hard-back best-seller section in my local Morrissons. No joke.

Re: Puh!

[wwidsith]

Heheh, I am very pleased that you have also been having pub arguments about this!

It makes me more happy that you have been reading back-issues of my blog, though..