In early 2016, I wrote about semi-autobiographical novels. Now that nearly 10 years have passed, I suppose it would be semi-okay to write about those books again — mentioning semi-autobiographical novels I’ve read since then or had read before then but didn’t mention in that previous post. So, with this semi-decent first paragraph nearly done, here goes:
As I wrote in ’16, semi-autobiographical novels “can be the best of both worlds for authors and their readers. That mix of memoir and fiction takes facts and embellishes them and/or dramatizes them and/or smooths them into more coherent form. A partly autobiographical approach also allows authors to potentially pen very heartfelt books — after all, they lived the emotions — and perhaps provides those writers with some mental therapy, too.” I also wrote that a semi-autobiographical novel is often, but of course not always, a debut novel — at least partly because that kind of book might be easier to write; the author can use aspects of her or his own past.
Back here in late 2025, I just read The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje, whose 2011 coming-of-age novel was inspired to an extent by the author’s life and a ship voyage he took as a boy from his native Sri Lanka to rejoin his mother in England after his parents had separated several years earlier. A boy named…hmm…Michael. The Cat’s Table is another compelling book by The English Patient author, who went on to live in Canada.
Another semi-autobiographical/coming-of-age novel (those two things often go together) is Betty Smith’s 1943 bestseller A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — about a brainy girl (Francie) growing up in an impoverished urban family.
Then there’s Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, who loosely based her classic 1868-69 novel on herself and her three sisters.
A few decades earlier, Mary Shelley’s apocalyptic 1826 novel The Last Man featured three principal characters based on herself, her late husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their friend and fellow writer Lord Byron.
Aldous Huxley also used famous people as models for characters in his 1928 novel Point Counter Point — including himself, Nancy Cunard, D.H. Lawrence, and Katherine Mansfield.
The characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) are somewhat modeled on the author’s father (attorney Atticus Finch in the novel), herself (Scout in the book) and Lee’s childhood friend Truman Capote (fictionally named Dill).
Kurt Vonnegut’s horrific World War II experiences were fuel for his sci-fi-infused 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five, and Jack Kerouac’s travel experiences provided fodder for his On the Road (1957).
Some of the semi-autobiographical novels mentioned in my 2016 post include James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain, Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, Charlotte Bronte’s Villette, Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit Jungle, Charles Bukowski’s Hollywood, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Colette’s The Vagabond, Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, E.L. Doctorow’s World’s Fair, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The House of the Dead, George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Jack London’s Martin Eden, W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage, Herman Melville’s Typee, L.M. Montgomery’s Emily trilogy, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club.
Your thoughts about, and examples of, this topic?
Misty the cat says: “When Christmas-tree lights reflect off the window, it’s a pane in the grass.”
My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )
This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂
I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…
…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, including many encounters with celebrities.
In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — which contains a tale of two meetings — is here.
Dave Astor on Literature 
A great topic as usual Dave; I must have read at least half of the books you mention above, and the other half I’ll get to. ‘Go Tell It On the Mountain’ has been on my list for a while; time I did something about that. Off the top of my head I can think of ‘Big Brother’ by our favourite, Lionel Shriver, and Orwell’s ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’, which I read a very long time ago. Aside from those I’ll have to sleep on it and see what I can come up with. In common with many other authors I weave incidents from my own life into my writing, which as you note can serve as therapy. Many thanks for the post and if I think of any more I’ll be back. 🙂
LikeLike
I think Rebecca makes a good point that fiction can carry emotional truths that feel lived rather than invented, even when the plot of the novel is not autobiographical.
LikeLike
Another wonderful topic, Dave. I always appreciate how your posts open doors to reflection rather than closing them with conclusions. Your discussion made me think of Lucy Maud Montgomery, who drew deeply from her lived experience without ever writing straight autobiography. Emily of New Moon in particular feels like a quietly personal work and not a record of events, but an expression of an inner life shaped by place, imagination, loss, and the longing to write. Even Anne of Green Gables, though not autobiographical in circumstance, carries emotional truths that feel lived rather than invented.
What stays with me about semi-autobiographical novels is not the accuracy of facts, but the authenticity of feeling. When writers reshape their own experiences into story, they often give us something truer than memoir. A way of understanding how a life felt rather than simply how it unfolded. And of course, I have to leave one of my most favourite LMM quotes: Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” Looking forward to many conversations waiting for us in 2026!!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Rebecca! L.M. Montgomery’s three “Emily” novels offer a perfect blend of fact and fiction. A reader can tell that the books are partly based on “lived experience,” as you note. And, yes, novels such as “Anne of Green Gables” can feel a little autobiographical even if they’re not quite. For one thing, I’m sure Montgomery was quite a brainy, precocious teen in her time — as was Anne Shirley.
Your comment’s two paragraphs are both eloquent and I love that Montgomery quote you cited! I can just picture Anne saying it. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow! Love this post, Dave! An author friend introduced me recently to the term “auto fiction” – autobiographical fiction – a term I’d never heard before but you’ve provided excellent examples. Always learning from you. Many thanks! 🥰
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Vicki! I had never heard of the term “auto fiction,” either, until seeing your comment. It’s definitely a more compact phrase than “semi-autobiographical fiction,” and I assume few people would think “auto fiction” is about cars. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
That was my first thought, too! Stories about cars! Maybe it’s just a trendy title — passing fancy? Your post is a keeper, Dave. Thank you again. 🥰
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, Vicki, that term does have a trendy feel to it.
And now I’m thinking that “On the Road” is both “auto fiction” and “semi-autobiographical fiction.” 🙂 🚗
I appreciate your follow-up comment!
LikeLiked by 2 people
LOL — indeed. Good example! 😉😉😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Louis Golding’s Magnolia Street, partly because, with one of my cousins, i’m working on a handwritten memoir of 1930 – 39, describing life during the Depression – Unlike Golding’s opposite sides of Magnolia street, the Judaeo-Christian, UK born or European refugees of our family’s neighbourhood lived next door to each other. Other side of the family lived in Leeds.
Chilling, intense, unforgettable, Frost in May is an autobiographical novel in which the nuns of the convent school to which nine year old ‘ convert’ Nanda is sent to know that they must break her will. ‘No character is any good in this world unless that will has been broken completely. ‘
According to the author, Antonia White, the nuns of the Convent of the Five Wounds – near London, did their best to break hers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Esther, for those really interesting examples! The memoir you’re working on sounds fascinating, and “Frost in May” indeed sounds chilling. Some aspects of organized religion are very disturbing. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve read some of the semi-autobiographical novels that you’ve mentioned. I agree that they can be very heartfelt stories. My semi-autobiographical, second novel was, indeed, therapeutic as well as self-revelatory for me, especially as it covered a period of my life that I had buried until then. I cannot speak for other authors of the genre, but I found it challenging to write since I had to create characters that were far removed from the real-life individuals and who could not be easily identified to avoid any controversy.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Rosaliene! I hear you; in a way writing a semi-autobiographical novel is easier, because the material is so well known to the author, but in a way it can be harder because one has to disguise some of the material — as you note. And, as you also note, writing a semi-autobiographical novel can be self-revelatory and therapeutic — even as it also can be traumatic to relive certain memories.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think a semi-autobiographical novel is a helpful way to start writing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Luisa! It does seem like a very good approach to take with a first novel. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
You’re more than welcome, dear Dave!
It’s always my pleasure
LikeLiked by 2 people
Many thanks again, Luisa! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you to Darlene Foster for recommending Michael Ondaatje! (I had only read his “The English Patient” a number of years ago.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m pleased you read and enjoyed another of his books. I really enjoyed his memoir Running in the Family too. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5941.Running_in_the_Family Thanks for the great list of semi -autobiographical books. I think many authors use some parts of their lives in their books, I know I do.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for the comment, Darlene! I thought “The Cat’s Table” was really good, and am now reading Ondaajte’s “Warlight” novel (quite intriguing so far). I’m not surprised that his “Running in the Family” memoir is excellent as well! And, yes, many authors use some parts of their lives in their books — whether deliberately or subconsciously. 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
I haven’t read Warlight yet. Must put it on the TBR list.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I randomly chose a couple of his books during my last library visit. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people