A memoir should be at least half true and, in another half, interesting, engaging, even fascinating.
A person who has already read Suspended in Vast Plain (and prefers to remain private) shared with me this succinct conclusion. And I relayed it in the interview about my book hosted by the Guy Who Knows a Guy, namely, Michael Whitehouse. Here is the podcast:
So, how a memoir, in its other half, can be riveting? And to whom? No doubt, it cannot be an information dump for some geeks on some narrow topics. But what if the author transposes the reader into another time and place? Like an African region coined Vast Plain, and forty years back?
The time of Suspended in Vast Plain is disparate from what we have now. Then, we lived through the Cold War between two superpowers and blocks: the Free World and the Soviets. This looks somewhat similar to what we are watching and participating in the past six or more months. Another truth of the past is the level of technology available to humans, especially in communications. Cellphones, the internet, zoom and other visual communication platforms, social media, and even digital photography were not known or at an embryonic stage at best. Life has been changed through communication, which includes sharing news, fakes and half-truths, ideas, commentaries, hate and fury, and love and understanding.
In particular, you could not place a phone call from Vast Plain anywhere in the world. There was no line or satellite line, none. Babu – in the Hausa language. I saw only one Western weekly political magazine on stalls. It took weeks and months to exchange letters, books, and encyclopedic information. Foreign radio stations broadcasted a weak signal, and Nigerian media focused on local affairs. Only people travelled and carried oral messages and written dispatches, as in ancient times, but not on camels and horses but by airplanes and cars. Nevertheless, isolation and remoteness were the ingredients of my suspension.
And this is the truth of Suspended in Vast Plain. Interesting and entertaining? I hope so.