Why are 'Misery Memoirs' so popular?

My wife returned from a shopping trip yesterday that included looking through the book section at the local supermarket. They carry a wide range of the current best sellers and she was looking for some escapist fiction to brighten her day.

But on reviewing the back covers of the books on sale, she found that many of them were sorry tales of an abusive childhood or deeply depressing stories of personal pain and loss. Hardly what one might describe as light reading.

So why are these books in the best seller lists? What is so compelling about witnessing another's pain through reading their life story?

I can understand how writing about a personal experience can lead to healing. Follow this link to the BBC web site for a commentary on the same subject in which Toni Maguire puts her view.

Toni Maguire, author of the top-selling paperback Don't Tell Mummy, in which she writes of her abuse at the hands of her father, said in a recent interview it was "difficult going back over the past, but writing helped me deal with the past. If readers take one thing away from reading the book I'd like it to be that they normalise the victim. People have got to realise that it is not shameful to be a victim", said Maguire.

So it's easy to understand the upside for the writer but it still doesn't fully explain the popularity for the reader. Is it because the reader compares the book with their own life and realises that maybe things are not so bad after all? Or is that we all look at other people's disasters like car accidents because we are strangely fascinated by the grotesque?

"It's not shameful to be a victim"
I agree with Toni Maguire that it's not shameful to be a victim, but whilst you are still in a victim mindset you are unlikely to ever find your true path in life. Being a permanent victim is time consuming and it puts the responsibility for your happiness in the hands of someone else, the perpetrator.

Recovery is about taking back the control of your life and that means no longer wearing the status of victim.

You become what you think about
So where is the problem with these misery memoirs if they help the writer and possibly help the reader?

There is an old adage that says you become what you think about and I believe there is a lot of truth in that saying. If you read about misery then you will think about misery, if you think about it you will start to live it.

And in case you think I have overlooked the redemption that normally occurs at the end of these books you may wish to consider this; does reading about redemption for 5 pages outweigh the time spent reading about misery and suffering for 295 pages? I tend to think not.

Misery memoirs? Leave them on the shelf and find yourself something uplifting from start to finish. What about that old favourite Chicken Soup For The Soul.