How Will You Tell Your Story?

Is your personal narrative redemptive, or contaminated? The difference may determine how happy, or the opposite, your life will be.

Because I’m all about memoir right now, I made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of research, and Googled it. So now you don’t have to.

I discovered that Mel Brooks is about to publish a memoir, so we’ll soon know all about his service in World War II, and what it was like to work with Sid Caesar. And it’s just in the nick of time, because Mel is 95 years old. And there’s reason to look forward to it. Says the author-to-be: “I have always been a huge admirer of my own work. I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know.”

On the flip side of the comedy coin, there’s Cecily Strong’s memoir This Will All Be Over Soon, about a year in the life after the death of her beloved cousin Owen, who died from brain cancer. Author quote, from her interview with the Washington Post: “It represents my staying alive,” she said. “It really was like a gift to try and figure out how Owen was so positive. It made me examine positivity and optimism in my own life. That actively brought that…