Two Paths: One Heart : a memoir

AUTHOR’S NOTE The people depicted in this memoir are how I remember (or mis-remember) them and may not be an exact representation of who they are (or were). Names have been changed to protect those I care about (and some I do not). Mary Karr says in The Art of Memoir, “The best memoirists stress the subjective nature of reportage” (14). So let me echo her words: some of the depictions here are, unfortunately, subjective; I do not possess a perfectly photographic memory, or a complete archive. I have done my best to be as truthful as possible throughout. However, I have followed Mary McCarthy, author of Memories of a Catholic Schoolgirl, when she said: “Many a time in the course of doing these memoirs, I have wished I were writing fiction. The temptation to invent had been very strong, particularly when I remember the substance of an event but not the particulars. Sometimes I have yielded as in the case of conversations…. They are mostly fictional…. Only a few single sentences stand out. Quotation marks indicate that a conversation to this general effect took place, but I do not vouch for the exact words” (qtd. in Karr 18)