From the variety of powerful, relatable and extraordinary personal narratives that exist around us, Kunzum recommends five life accounts that will make you feel closer to the world we are living in. By Paridhi Badgotri
The expansive genre of Life Writing primarily deals with capturing personal memories in reflective consciousness. It records personal narratives and experiences that presents a larger outlook on life to its readers―everything from autobiographies and memoirs to letters and diary entries is encompassed within it. In this fast-paced world, we all are trying to find pages of comfort―something that guides us to find our own path, these books might just be what you are looking for.
Read about a life that is different or similar to the one you are living by picking up any of these five books from Kunzum! You can also Whatsapp on +91-8800200268 to order.
A Personal Narratives Reading List
Homeless by K. Vaishali
At 20 when Vaishali discovered that she’s lesbian and dyslexic, she begins to untangle her anxieties with reading and writing. As she explores her homosexuality and dyslexia in writing, she leaves her home to make her own way and further recovers from a harrowing breakup, academic failure, loneliness, homophobia with anxieties around her caste, gender and body.
Raw Umber by Sara Rai
With the figure of her grandfather Premchand looming over her childhood, it was in Rai’s destiny to become a writer. Rai covers the steady pulse 1960s childhood as it is about the nature of remembering, and the role that memory plays in shaping a writer’s sensibility with vividly bringing a family gallery to life.
In the Margins by Elena Ferrante
In this candid book, the popular pseudonymous Italian novelist, Elena Ferrante, offers a rare look at the origins of her literary powers. Across the book’s four essays, Ferrante explores how writing begins, and often remains, in the cages of language. She even builds a fabulous discourse on writers like Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Ingeborg Bachmann, and many others.
The Lonely City by Olivia Laing
When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. In this book, she explores what it it means to suffer from loneliness and illuminates not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
With its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival, Viktor E. Frankl’s memoir has become one of the most influential books in the world. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.
Related: Exteriors: Annie Ernaux’s Solitude Resonates with Mine