Three Memoirs

The Accident (from Run Over, 2001) - Douglas Bell
Ghost Rider - Neil Peart
About Alice - Calvin Trillin

The most striking thing about the Accident is the conversational, matter-of-fact way that Bell recants the most traumatic moment in his life. He describes his morning routine, the path he would take to school, and the feeling of a truck crushing him with such familiarity that you understand instantly that he's recovered. The intersection where he was run over is literally a block away from my house, so my personal reading experience was enhanced – I can literally pinpoint in my mind the place where Bell was injured to the meter. This added a level of realism to the piece that really improved it for me.

Neil Peart surprised me with his adept writing and poetic prose. I suppose I expected a musician to be an incompetent writer in the same way I expect Stephen King’s band isn’t quite as good as he describes them. I forgot, however, that Peart writes poetry for a living – poetry set to music, sure, but poetry nonetheless. The correspondence between himself and his friend is an effective way of communicating the story without utilising too much exposition.

Trillin’s piece takes bittersweet to an extreme – the humorous account of his meeting with his wife is marred by the revelation that she died so young. John Cleese once said that humour is the only way to make an audience truly sympathize with a character – we sympathize with Calvin and Alice, and so we are affected by their tragedy.