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What Happened After "The Liar's Club" and "Cherry" Oct 24, 2009 (25 of 26 found this helpful)
Mary Karr is an awesome writer and "Lit" just became one of my top 50 books of all time. The first 100+ pages are harrowing as Ms. Karr describes her long self-destructive slide into alcoholism (just like her parents). These pages are hard to take, just like watching a car wreck in slow motion. However her brutal honesty and her gallows humor about her road to redemption and sobriety save this memoir from being another AA recovery tale. She writes of her self-centered, off-center mother and a childhood from hell with the ring of truth. The heart of the memoir is family : grieving for her father (who, she perceived to win "the better parent prize" because he didn't stand over her with a butcher knife), figuring out her relationship with her now sober but still off the wall mother, and exploring the past with her big sister. This book is not for everyone because Ms. Karr's early life was messy and uncomfortable. But she writes like she is having a conversation with the reader and she is a master story-teller.
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The Best Memoir I've Read Since "The Liar's Club" Oct 26, 2009 (17 of 18 found this helpful)
I have to admit that Ms. Karr's "The Liars' Club: A Memoir" is one of my favorite books of all time. Memoirs are one of my favorite genres and being able to see behind the scenes in the life of a poet/writer is intriguing. I enjoyed reading "Cherry" and was thrilled when I saw that Ms. Karr had "Lit" coming out, taking up where "Cherry" left off. What I enjoyed most about this book was her lyrical, moving language and her fierce honesty. This couldn't have been an easy book to write because she holds nothing back and is brutally candid about her alcoholism and how it almost destroyed her, but more importantly, how she overcame her inner demons to find sobriety and success. She has several stories about her experiences in AA that had me either rolling with laughter or crying. The story about the woman, the frozen turkey and the vodka was side-splitting funny. I won't share the details because you need to buy the book and read it for yourself. It's overflowing with wit, humor, love, angst and wisdom.
Each chapter begins with a quote, most from poems, (and a few from some literary masterpieces) and I've discovered some amazing new poets from them. I've highlighted and dog-eared pages to refer back to in nearly every chapter. I like that she included a 'Contents' page and titled each of the 45 short chapters. The book is divided into four major sections:
I. Escape From The Tropic of Squalor
II. Flashdance
III. Self Help
IV. Being Who You Are Is Not A Disorder
Ultimately, this is a dazzling tale of redemption, liberation, grace and survival. By all accounts, Mary Karr should not have survived her hardscrabble life, but thank God she did because we are all richer for her life and her stories.
I also highly recommend her poetry, "Viper Rum (Poets, Penguin)", Sinners Welcome: Poems", "Abacus", and "The Devil's Tour".
Thank you, Ms. Karr, from the bottom of my bookaholic, poet-heart, for having the guts to share your incredible, extraordinary journey with us.
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Honest Oct 28, 2009 (9 of 9 found this helpful)
I read The Liar's Club and Cherry several years ago and loved them both. When I saw that Mary Karr was continuing to tell her story with a new memoir, I just had to read it. Karr writes with an honesty that I only wish I could match, and reminds us all of what it means to be human, to make mistakes, and to blame yourself for things you can't change.
Her newest memoir, Lit, focuses mainly on her drinking and how she started drinking in the first place. It describes her struggle to become a published writer. Her mother was an alcoholic and her childhood was poor and unstable. Lit explores her late teens and college years, her early career, and her marriage, as well as motherhood, sisterhood, and being a daughter. Karr deals with the guilt she experienced as a result of not caring for her father as much as she would have liked when he was living out his last years. She deals with the disgust she feels toward her mother, and also the determination she felt to not become like her mother. If anything, this book proves that no matter how much you try to change where you came from, you are always the same person deep down inside.
If you enjoyed The Liar's Club and Cherry, you will enjoy Lit. I would recommend reading them first, but it's not necessary to enjoy this book. I had read them so long ago that I couldn't remember much from them anyway.
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Five stars with an exclamation point. Nov 9, 2009 (4 of 4 found this helpful)
Lit is my favorite book of the year. I have to admit up front that I am a Mary Karr fan. Years ago, a friend gave me The Liar's Club as a gift. It instantly became one of my all time favorite books. I then collected Karr's poetry, each published book and her memoir Cherry. When I heard that she was writing a "new" memoir I was skeptical. What more could Karr unearth from her life? The Liar's Club and Cherry are pretty complete and intense. Oh, was I naive. Lit is just over the top good. Karr employs a unique voice in this memoir; very poetic and often lyrical. The pictures Karr creates with words are second to none. This is the craft of memoir at its highest level. It's a 5-star book. And if there were 10-stars available, that's what I would have chosen. Treat yourself to this incredible adventure. Although I suppose it would be helpful to have read The Liar's Club and Cherry, this book stands alone very well. Premium quality stuff. It took her many years to write this one and that is evidenced in the top flight storytelling. Bravo! I'm standing and clapping for this one. Just the best. In closing, if you get a chance to check out Karr's poetry, you won't be disappointed. My favorite Mary Karr poetry book is Viper Rum. Enjoy.
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super memoir Nov 7, 2009 (3 of 3 found this helpful)
This is a fascinating memoir as writer Mary Karr obviously has come a long way. In Texas her parents were alcoholics who when sober were psychotic, but when drunk were beyond the fringe. However, much of that period is in her previous autobiographies The Liars' Club as a preadolescent and Cherry as a teen. Instead Ms. Karr picks up her saga in her late teens and takes it to her current age of fifty years old. She left for college on the west coast, but though bored tried to desperately to prove she belonged at school and with her boyfriend's affluent parents. Like her parents she turned to alcohol to numb her past so those demons would not harm her present. When she became a devout Catholic Ms. Karr feels that changed her emotionally so that she can feel good about living inside her skin as even Harvard failed to give her the inner confidence of belonging she desperately sought.
Well written with incredible insight and yet filled with self deprecating humor, Mary Karr explains her obsessive human need for self actualization and acceptance. Ms. Karr's third memoir looks deep at herself seemingly even more so than before; perhaps because this time the adult cannot use the unintended consequences of the shield of a child (The Liars' Club) or a teen (Cherry ) to garner empathy from her readers. This is a winner of a courageous person overcoming her roots to make it in her mind.
Harriet Klausner