misery memoir

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misery memoir

n
(Literary & Literary Critical Terms) an autobiographical work in which the author gives an account of hardships he or she has experienced, esp in childhood
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
References in periodicals archive ?
Lynch, however, continues to bring her study up to date by covering the intersecting autobiographies of Nell McCafferty and Nuala O'Faolain, and the spectrum of misery lit from the revered John McGahern to the controversial Frank McCourt.
Studies in life writing
It gave rise to a whole genre of memoirs of tough childhoods, misery lit. But hardly any of them came near to the literary quality of Angela's Ashes.
Frank McCourt; OBITUARY
They have dedicated shelves for it in bookshops these days, actually entire sections, labelled things like "misery lit" and "inspirational memoirs", piled high with tales of lost childhood and abject misery.
My life's just not miserable enough to write a book