Claire: I really, really believe in [the power of the memoir of ordinary life] as something that is this important form. It’s an important female form. It’s an important literature from the point of view of female readers. There is this quality of seeing their own life experience in nonfictional form that makes women feel less alone. There's a lot of pushback against memoir as being too narcissistic or too self-involved. If it’s done with this relationship in mind, there is this moral quality to it. Your job as the memoirist is to say what is true, and what is really difficult, and make the reader feel less alone.