"She became the poster girl for all the evils of the book genre my friend Jane calls 'me-moirs' (as in, Dad was a drunk; Mom was a drunk; Dad was my lover; Dad was my mom). Maynard's peers jumped all over her for being everything writers suspect we are and want desperately not to be—self-centered, exploitative, mercenary."
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, "In defense of Joyce Maynard," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 13, 1999