Ken Whyte’s Substack today is about the evolution of the memoir writer over time – how a series written over the span of several years or decades reveals as much about the person writing as it does about the subject — and even more when the subject is the writer.

He uses the three books by Henry Marsh as his example. I read and loved Do No Harm, and I didn’t know there were followups. I guess I’ll track them down.

I won’t spoil any of it, it’s a great piece, but here’s the core of it:

This is the charm of memoir, and its difficulty–it’s high susceptibility to the moment, exigencies, mood. Each of Marsh’s three books is a genuine reflection of him during the writing. Volume one teases out human frailty from behind the masks of god-like neurosurgeons. By volume three, the mask is gone and the retired surgeon is as frightened, confused, and emotionally unhinged as the rest of us.

Read the piece, subscribe to his newsletter, it never disappoints.