Patti Smith's Just Kids

An example of a piece of memoir text I have read and enjoyed is Patti Smith's Just Kids. This book retells her relationship with photographer/artist Robert Mapplethorpe. In my opinion, Patti Smith has a strength in writing memoir. That could in part be from her super eventful and cool life, however, within the way she retells stories there is most definitely talent.

"We used to laugh at our small selves, saying that I was a bad girl trying to be good and that he was a good boy trying to be bad. Through the years these roles would reverse, then reverse again, until we came to accept our dual natures. We contained opposing principles, light and dark."

Memoir is beautiful because it is able to move people with the words used. Biographies can also be moving yet not in the same way- not as poetically in my opinion. I think this is because of the fact that memoirs focus on smaller bits of the authors life. This not only allows for more of a descriptive setting of the stories told but it also gives the author liberty to use devices such metaphor within the writing. I see biographical writing as a more formal version of memoir touching less on specifics and more on the larger picture.