Memoir Monday: Please Excuse My Daughter by Julie Klam

Please Excuse My Daughter by Julie Klam is a unique memoir. Well, by definition every memoir should be unique. We all see life from our own perspective and that fact alone makes each memoir different. But this one stands out because it's about a woman who had to overcome being a Princess. I never would have thought of this as a problem, let alone an obstacle to overcome in life. After reading Please Excuse My Daughter I see how it can be as much of an obstacle as coming from generations of poverty stricken families. Either way you are raised to believe there are set expectations, limitations to what you can do and constant reminders to strive for the status quo. These are powerful things to overcome whether they are imposed by society or, in Julie Klam's case her own family.

Julie was raised to believe that you could do anything, as long as when you were done you went out and found a rich husband to take care of you. Secondary education was encouraged, as long as you went to a good business school. That's where the men were. Ms. Klam knew that she wanted more for herself than to land a millionaire, but finding her own path was not easy. This is where her struggle begins.

The best part of this memoir is there's no family bashing, no blame, just a snapshot of a writer trying to go from a Princess to independent woman. With the support of her family and the help of her therapist she makes the journey. With her writing she gave me many laugh out loud moments and made me think.

As a writer I can relate to Julie Klam's aversion to rejections. They are tough and the easiest way to stop getting rejections is to stop sending out your writing. It's also the easiest way to stop pursing a writing career. By the end of the memoir I couldn't help thinking of the saying, A Writer Writes. It's a simple statement, but so true. Julie Klam found her independence, financial and personal, through her writing. The more she wrote the more her confidence grew in her writing.

I finished reading Please Excuse My Daughter in less than a week and was motivated to get more of my own writing out there. I have been working on finishing a few different long term writing projects, but will be submitting more articles, poems, and short stories to on line and print publications. So wish me luck and few rejections :)

Thanks for stopping by for today's Memoir Monday. I would love to hear your thoughts on Julie Klam's memoir, Please Excuse My Daughter.

Kristin : )