Memoir is not confession

If a memoir is not a confession, what exactly is it? In prepping for the online writing class I’m teaching, I’ve been looking into this issue. First, because I certainly don’t want to give the impression that truth is irrelevant. But any “truth” to be read in a memoir is what is remembered — personal, clouded, and faulty at best. Moreover, it’s not a journal. I can’t be asked to re-read my own journals let alone dig into someone else’s poorly formed tales. I wrote this piece really as a class, then re-tooled it for Medium, you can find it here. I’d love to know what you think.