Disparate Parts Coherent Whole

Catering to the modern reader's fleeting attention

An Exclusive Writing Lab post dissecting sentence construction, verb selection, and the narrative genius in Maggie O’Farrell’s memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am.

Welcome back:

It’s been a couple of hectic weeks of wrapping Studio classes, bidding students a happy summer, and setting up the schedule for next September. Now, I’m with my son and helping him move into his new apartment and celebrate his promotion. How do you not love that face!!

I love how I’m out of focus, and he’s sharp in this photo taken while we waited for brunch to arrive.

There’s always time for Flight School though, so now it’s time to get into the analysis of this book.

The questions are these: What is it? What can we steal?

If you haven’t had a chance to finish I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell, or set it to the side, that’s okay. These exercises are designed to help you get deeper into your own work and think in multi-dimensional ways, and they will always be here for you to dip into and think about.

Defining I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

Like Without A Map by Meredith Hall, this memoir “derives its energy, its narrative drive, from exploration of the past,” as Brenda Miller and Suzanna Paola tell us in Tell it Slant. At the same time, it’s also a series of essays that all deal with near-death moments.

Each piece connects with the other elements—via body parts and a sick daughter—creating a whole picture of a woman’s life, but each piece can also stand alone. The writer points this out at the front of the book when making note that sections of three chapters have appeared in The Guardian and Good Housekeeping.

You might wonder: Why do writers do this essay-under-the-umbrella-of-memoir thing? And the answer is simple. It’s a multi-use thing that makes the book remarkably flexible for excerpts. It also suits the attention span of the modern reader.

It’s also easier on the writer. If she can come up with an overarching theme for all the stories within, it’s easier to write, easier to sell to a publisher, and easier for that publisher to promote.

Can I do that?

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