Recently I was interviewed for a Youtube channel, called Talk Beliefs, about my memoir, Sins of My Father with particular emphasis on my dad leaving to join a religious cult. The production was really good and we got almost 3,000 views in 24 hours, but one thing that personalised the interview, was that it was spliced with lots of images – photos of Osho from the 1960s and beyond, and his followers, and the ashram and ranch, and photo images of my family.
One bit of feedback I’ve had about my book was, why are there no photos? The Daily Mail review went so far as to say it was a shame there were none. I have mixed feelings about this. The photos on the cover work hard for the book. They capture the love I felt for my dad and my pride on being on his arm, but also how much I felt an outsider in the Rajneesh cult – dressed like all the other kids, but walking in from the side, grasping hold of my hands, the only one in the image who is on her own. Not including photographs throughout the book leaves the story and the people in it to the imagination; and so much about reading is about bringing your own experience to the page – allowing the writing to conjure your own associations, your own emotions. That’s why it’s so satisfying for us writers: reading is a private activity, and every reader brings something different to the experience. The same book is different for everyone who comes to it.
Having no photographs in the book also reflects my decision to not name anyone, as I felt strongly a need to protect those people I love, as much as is possible. Memoir is not an exposé of the intimacies of a person’s life – it is a story, above all else, and the people who feature in it are there to service that story.
But I also know people do like to see photos of the characters who are featured in the book, and I am not passing judgement on those books that do include photos. Memoirs that spring to mind are The Three of Us by Julia Blackburn, a family memoir about a daughter’s relationship with her alcoholic father and too-close-for-comfort-at-times rivalry with her mother, and Tim Guest’s My Life in Orange, of course, about growing up in the same cult that my dad was involved with, led by guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. There is something intimate about inviting the reader in on a life, as if sitting with them and showing them the family album. It’s a different experience, and in the end, perhaps even a different book, than one that doesn’t do this.
But I wonder if this is just down to an editorial decision in the end, which probably has more to do with the publisher than the book in hand. Do you want family snap shots in the memoirs you read, or are you happy for images conjured by the text to be left to the imagination?
Hi Lily
I like to put a face to a name and your book does that with the cover more than sufficiently. Too many photos for me would have somehow directed me along a path I may not have wanted to go or broken me from an image I already had.
I didn’t want more photos. The fact that you allow the reader the liberation of interpreting the text themselves shows how giving you are with something so personal. I suspect other writers would want to guide the reader more closely with images but that only allows a 2 dimensional writer’s view of the text that others may not see.
I loved the book as is. Thank you Lily.
That’s a really interesting perspective, Noah! That it’s a generous act to let the reader bring their own images to the text. I like that. And I am so glad you enjoyed the book. Thank you so much for reading!
I agree with Noah Burd. Too many photos distract from the content of a book, partly because we see images through the lenses of our esthetic conditioning and rarely with a minimum of objectivity . That said, usually in a memoir, a couple of photos are a good addition to the story. I loved your book!
That’s really good to hear. Thank you so much for reading (and enjoying!)
My opinion obviously comes from somewhere completely different to those who don’t know you and your family, but photos would have made it more difficult for me to read. In parts I had to pretend it was about someone else, and photos would have reminded me it was you.
I think it’s perfect as it is.
Thank you Kitty! Glad you feel it works as it is. XX
Another interesting topic! In the case of your book Lily, I think the photos on the cover were used really well and are enough, though I only fully appreciated them after I had read the book. Then I studied them closely. In other memoirs, photos are used as part of the process of writing and reflection. I am thinking here of the brilliantly crafted prologue by Alan Johnson in This Boy for example. I think it really does depend on the approach taken by the writer so I don’t have a strong view. In my own work in progress I am using photos explicitly as a way to recover memories of my father, so they have a very different use.
Heartfelt congratulations, Ms. Dunn! I am reminded of Ms. Tara Westover’s EDUCATED, an incredible piece of writing, a memoir about a life forever changed for the better. It’s been said that “content is king” however in our age of digital communications much of said content is with images. It’s sufficient for me that memoirs only need a minimal number of images, your book being a good example. As others have indicated in their comments, one’s imagination is allowed to venture in its own constructs, based in large part, on how we feel and visualize a protagonist’s experience. Incidentally, Ms. Westover’s doctorate is from Cambridge University, in the same time zone as yours. Anyway, I wish you continued success in all your pursuits! Nicely done….
Thank you so much Carlo. I loved Educated.