Heavy Hitters

 Early on in a recent New Yorker piece about repeat memoirists, the author writes

To be fair, memoirs have exhibited a tendency to multiply ever since Augustine recalled pocketing those pears. His "Confessions", which began appearing around 397 C.E., were spread over thirteen books, each conceived as a distinct unit.

Well, the last four books consist of philosophical and theological reflections. And in this case "book" means something other than a hefty bound volume: the handiest copy of The Confessions on my shelves, Garry Wills's translation, runs to 340 pages, autobiography and the rest together. The modern memoir of a comparably young man, Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, takes four hundred pages to cover fewer years.

The next sentence runs

In his wake, heavy hitters have included Diana Athill, Shirley MacLaine, Maya Angelou, and Augusten Burroughs, each of whom have produced a proper shelf of memoirs.

Someone understanding the reference of "heavy hitters" could say whether it is a match card or a lineup card we should not trust the author with.