Misery lit… read on

Waterstone’s now has a “Painful Lives” shelf which features the newest such examples; Borders has a “Real Lives” section.

What lies behind the speedy rise of the “misery memoir”? Is the popularity of these books a healthy sign that Britons are shaking off their stiff upper lips and finally talking out loud about painful events? Or is there an element of voyeurism, even salaciousness, in the snapping up of such memoirs?

I’m of two minds about this new ‘misery lit’ phenomenon. First of all, I do believe it can help people who have been abused to read about others who have gone through similar experiences – reading Alice Miller’s Drama of the Gifted Child when I was in my 20’s helped turn my life around at that time.

But having a section in a bookshop called “Painful Lives”??? Is it just me or is that more than somewhat cringemaking? And beyond the suggested elements of voyeurism or salaciousness involved in buying these books, what about the author’s ‘jumping on the abuse victim bandwagon and laughing all the way to the bank’ element?