When Kenneth Brannagh wrote his biography at thirty and someone asked him how he could do it so young he said, “For the money.”

“At the age of 20, he’s not even old enough to enjoy a writerly glass of whiskey while he writes his third!”

Of course he can drink whiskey! He’s a Canadian, eh? We break out the bottle at 19 up here.

That’s fantastic news – that girl sticks with me.

As far as divorce memoirs from the child’s perspective, a longitudinal story would be best, but impossible, I think. But snapshots from an adults limited memory of being a child, showing their response to the information they were receiving, versus what they were thinking, and showing how their perspective changed over time with more information and maturity. It would be interesting to know how they approach relationships differently based on their experiences. A young adult might be able to do this best, though maturity may be a factor – possibly an old soul with a unique voice and perspective?

Very intriguing suggestion on #3. Do you mean written by the child at the time, or an adult writer who successfully manages to recapture that viewpoint?

Which brings up another interesting aspect of memoir/autobiography that I didn’t let myself dive into – the unreliable narrator! How much can we trust the first-person view? Maybe it’s always impossible to tell a story about yourself objectively, but a child’s perspective starts out even more limited and/or skewed.

-sharon