Memoirs in ‘The Age of Transparency
Voracious American readers no doubt enjoyed this past Labor Day holiday weekend by devouring more than one of this summer’s captivating memoirs. Starting with the much-anticipated “In the Room Where It Happened” by former White House Chief of Staff John Bolton followed by Mary Trump’s “Too Much & Not Enough; How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” Now, we are being illuminated by one-time lawyer and fixer to President Trump Michael D. Cohen’s “Disloyal: A Memoir: The True story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.” The first volume of President Barack Obama’s memoir, “A Promised Land,” is scheduled to publish on November 17th. It’s hard to keep up.
For me, this powerful place memoirs have taken in our current era began two years ago in 2018 with the publication of Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ “Small Fry.” In her multi-award-winning debut, Brennan-Jobs revealed the many layers beneath one of the 20th Century’s most innovative minds, her father and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. She also detailed her own feelings about the complicated man her father was, both on the job and at home. Its position in the literary canon falls very far from a “Tell-All” book. Rather, it serves as a meditative investigation of the complex relationship she had with her father, while also telling an incredibly engaging “coming of age” tale of her years growing up between her two parents' very different homes in Northern California during the 1980s. There are no victims, nor perpetrators in “Small Fry” -- simply honest revelations about human frailties.
These riveting memoirs we have seen publish over the past two years pull back the figurative curtain, not to reveal the Wizard of Oz, but the true power dynamics of our time. They serve as a forceful light in this “Age of Transparency.” We are now seeing the second wave of the “#MeToo” and “#TimesUp” movements, watching so many injustices being revealed: the prevalent racism, sexism and misogyny which is intricately woven into the fabric of American society. Only the writing and publication of these memoirs, coupled with smartphones filming and sharing the violent injustices in our streets will force Americans to face these unquestionable truths.
We must join together and work hard to eradicate from our shores the manipulation of truth and law that enable the unabashed inequalities and injustices that plague our society, so that we may restore America to its hopeful and optimistic place in the world as the shining “city on the hill.”
