His memoir illustrates an important lesson for the rest of us and especially for other memoirists:  You are not the most important character in your life story—it is the other people in your life who give it meaning and who make it interesting.  His best characters are the people who touched his life, who abetted his schemes and who helped him through difficulties.  That is a great lesson to be mindful of as we carry on our lives, but it is also a powerful tool for memoirists figuring out how to make their stories more engaging.