Memoir Review: The Long Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden

I´ve read somewhere a couple of time ago that from the economy of writing in general, memoirs are a genre more widespread in the English-speaking realm compared to the European literature. When the - mostly American - writers decide to write a memoir at 30 years of age, the French do still wait until 70 or late. 

When is the story of your life worth telling after all? What makes it relatable? The mathematical age or just the fulfillement of an extranous mission - high professional achievements, family, a discovery, political adventures etc.? Do you need to be the witness of a terrible historical event or your simple everyday life may be more than enough?

Personally, I´m completely happy with the memoirs of the young or of the overaccomplished, as it does not have to do necessarily with your age but with the dynamics of your story. Again, I am - for just another reason - happily on the side of the American cultural trends.

I am intellectually happy again for books like T Kira Madden´s Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, a coming of age healing through writing memoir. T Kira Madden started to write it when her father died. Initially, she was a writer in residence preparing a novel, but settling her family story was a more urgent matter. 

Her multi-racial upbringing - a Jewish father, a mother with a Chinese-Hawaiian heritage, raised in a Mormon household with Buddhist grandparents - is naturally part of the story. Yes, she is all of those DNA add-ons, but her identity is not split between one or the other of those identities. She is also the girl who is trying to discover her sexual identity, or the daughter of two drug-addicted parents. Or the girl who was sexually abused.

Another literary details that I loved about this intense memoir is that the stories are not lineary - chronological - but organised in snippets of stories. More dynamics are due to the dialogues integrated into the predominant monologue of the memoir and the short sentences chosen to express the story. For the reader, it creates a completely different and intellectually entertaining ambiance.

In the same way as, from her early childhood, T Kira Madden connected to other humans through beings, her memoir, her words are connected to the world outside her memoir story, not necessarily relating to her story or sharing a common experience. The strength of her story goes beyond her tribe, a fact of human life documented for the sake of the intellectual exploration. 

Rating: 3.5 stars