Some of the best writers do not consider themselves writers. That can be a great advantage: it allows you to say what you have to say in the most direct way and without worrying about turning it into literature. One of the best memoir books about the Spanish 20th century, Crossings, by Jaime Salinas, is written by a man who never considered himself a writer, although he was the son of one and spent his whole life surrounded by them. In Crossings, published in 2003, …