Just finished this book. Conroy has a lot to tell as he's lived an incredible life. His early family history is hard-to-believe crazy. One thing that he wrote in this autobiography was (paraphrase) "if you are finding something hard to write about, that is what you should write about." As I am working on a reflective memoir about my long career as a psychotherapist, this hit a chord with me. Like in therapy, I suppose, that if there is something that you find very hard to talk about as it tests the limits of your vulnerability, then that's what you want to be talking about behind closed doors. Of course, if we are writing for an audience, this challenges our vulnerability on another level. If we are writing about our life and experience with others, can we risk saying what we really thought and felt? Can we risk not to be this honest? I liked the book and it has prompted me to go back and reread Prince of Tides and The Great Santini.
