A life in parts

I love memoirs — not the dry biographies that I remember from elementary school, but first person stories told in a way that brings me alongside the author, shoulder to shoulder with them in the experience. My current listen is Bryan Cranston’s A Life in Parts, a collection of stories about his life both before and during his success on Malcom in the Middle and Breaking Bad (among other acting successes). Each chapter is about a different part of his personhood, with sections titled: Son, Explorer, Celebrity, Flea Marketeer, Father, and Walter White. I’m a bit jealous at this bit of creativity as he intersperses the parts he has played, both real and fictional, throughout his life and turns each one into a story.

I was thinking of the different chapter headings I could use If I were going to tell my memoir that way — the easy ones are Daughter, Wife, Mother, Reader, Crafter, Knitter, Librarian, and Writer. A more interesting one might be Nutter (affectionately referring to my life with Zoloft, of course). Biologist would be all about my love of Anatomy and Physiology and dissecting a cat with my sister in college. Cheerleader (a season cut short by a faked sprained ankle so I didn’t have to perform in public) and Marijuana Harvester for that time I got in trouble for picking the weed that our neighbors grew and making a “salad” out of it in our backyard.

I don’t know if I’ll ever actually join the ranks of memoir writers, but my working title at the moment would be: I Don’t Know Where We’re Going, but I’ll Tell You Funny Stories Along the Way.

Now to figure out my chapter titles . . . maybe Brown Avenue, Skyline Blvd, 955 La Paz Road, Highway 40, Fort Sill, Mustafa Kamel (our street in Cairo, Egypt) — lots of potential here.