An Accidental Memoir: How I Killed Someone and Other Stories

by Wendy Reed

On a rainy Tuesday morning in 1996, Wendy Reed’s car hydroplaned, crossed an interstate median, and crashed into an oncoming car, whose driver was killed. Though Reed and her son were unharmed and Reed initially described herself as "fine," in the months that followed she would be engulfed in a storm of guilt and recrimination, as well as jarring legal proceedings over the accident.

In An Accidental Memoir , Reed, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, points the lens at herself and explores that accident and a succession of personal experiences through fact and fiction. Told from unusual perspectives and in highly figurative language, the stories draw on the Southern Gothic tradition of Flannery O’Connor and feature dark humor, flawed people, disastrous events, and moments of spiritual grace.

Taken together, this collection of deliberately fragmented essays and short stories become a meditation on subjects such as work, family responsibilities, death, and raising a child.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2012

Reviews

[Mary Dansak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Block out your day to read this one. From the title to the last word, I was mesmerized. Wendy Reed allows us an intimate peek into her life in this collection of memoir, essays, and short stories, all tied together by one exact and tragic moment in her life. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this disjointed collection of writing works so well. Perhaps it’s because it’s a mirrored image of how we make sense of our own lives, returning over and over to our defining moments, sometimes through story, sometimes in detailed recollections, and sometimes in a desperate attempt to find the reasons behind these pivot points. Or maybe it’s just that Reed’s writing itself is sharp and beautiful, brave and honest. This is a wonderful book.

[Shari Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite book of 2013. I can't recommend it enough. Wendy was fearless in word and story.

[Gregory Whitis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wendy Reed’s An Accidental Memoir
I was introduced to Wendy Reed’s writing when I met her at Tuscaloosa’s indie bookstore, Ernest and Hadley. Dr. Don Noble included her in his Alabama Noir. Ms. Reed authored a rib-cracking, humorous short story about a local deer processor, titled "Custom Meats." I loved her sense of humor and writing. I decided there and then to read more Wendy. An Accidental Memoir, besides the included relevant short stories, is about her personal experience surviving and coping following a fatal car accident. She and her toddler managed to walk away, but the other victim wasn’t so lucky. She died. Reed tackles the ensuing emotional wreckage, and then, to make matters worse, endures the legal ramifications that follow. It's a deeply personal account of an event that could happen to anyone. She draws on remarkable inner strength. For us male readers, An Accidental Memoir is a wondrous adventure into the complex mind of a very stable and confident woman—speaking as a married man for forty years, we need all the help we can get understanding what makes them tick. Looking forward to reading more from her.

[Raney Simmon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to get into this book. I really did. But I just couldn't get interested in it and I just couldn't find a reason to care. The prologue of the memoir sounded promising enough. But then, the memoir turned into short stories about random events in the author's life. But they were events about the author's life that I just couldn't get in to. They also added nothing to the main purpose of the memoir. I thought this book was going to be reflecting on an incident that changed the author's life. Instead, the reader gets disappointing, pointless stories that have nothing to do with the main event that Wendy goes through in her life that caused her to write this memoir. But I just couldn't get through it. After 58 pages, I just couldn't read this any further because I saw no point in what was being written.

[Mary Dansak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Block out your day to read this one. From the title to the last word, I was mesmerized. Wendy Reed allows us an intimate peek into her life in this collection of memoir, essays, and short stories, all tied together by one exact and tragic moment in her life. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this disjointed collection of writing works so well. Perhaps it’s because it’s a mirrored image of how we make sense of our own lives, returning over and over to our defining moments, sometimes through story, sometimes in detailed recollections, and sometimes in a desperate attempt to find the reasons behind these pivot points. Or maybe it’s just that Reed’s writing itself is sharp and beautiful, brave and honest. This is a wonderful book.