"Everybody has a story--but is it worth telling?"

That's the headline of an article on CNN.com that caught my eye. Memoir has been on my mind, of course, since that's what our panel was about at 4Cs. Anyway, it's an interesting (if a bit general and superficial) little read. I like this part:

"But Vigderman, though expressing concern about the 'appeal to prurience' innate in a pop memoir, has a kinder view. After all, she says, a curiosity about our fellow human beings is as old as mankind itself.

She quotes another writer gone since the 17th century, the Japanese poet Basho, to stress her point.

'It is deep autumn,' Basho wrote. 'My neighbor/How does he live, I wonder.'"