Nancy K. Miller is one of my favorite contemporary feminist theorists. This study of several "Memoirs" written by adult children of deceased parents kept me interested in ways that scholarship often does not (I usually read it for work, not pleasure-- this book combined the two). With this book, you should also read Maus : A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman, because one of the most fascinating chapters is a study of Spiegelman's gripping Holocaust narratives. Autobiography shapes all writing in ways that critics are really just beginning to explore-- Dr. Miller is at the forefront of this field and deservedly so.