false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172523283m/184756.jpg 217402 13 As a girl idling her way through long, toxically boring summer afternoons in Leechfield, Texas, Mary Karr dreamed up an unusual career for herself, "to write one-half poetry and one-half autobiography." She has since done both, and even when she's recounting a dirty joke, she can't help but employ a poet's precise and musical vision. Her first memoir, <I>The Liar's Club</I>, was as searing a chronicle of family life as can be imagined--tough, funny, and crackling with sorrow and wit. Against all odds, its sequel doesn't disappoint. <I>Cherry</I> finds the teenage Mary still marooned in a family whose behavior ranges from charmingly eccentric to dangerously crazy. (This, for instance, is the Karr version of a note from home: "Lecia Karr's leprosy kicked in, and I had to wrap her limbs in balm and hyssop. Please excuse her.") But here the focus has shifted to Mary herself, furiously engaged in pissing off authority at every turn: flouting the dress code, dropping acid, running from the cops, falling in love. <p> First love, you may say, heart sinking in chest: what more can possibly be said about such a subject? Actually, a great deal. To read <I>Cherry</I> is to realize how rare it is to find a teenage girl portrayed on her own terms. As a chronicle of female adolescence with all its longings, fantasies, cruelties, and fears, Karr's memoir goes darker and deeper than any book in which the protagonist doesn't end up dead. She turns a savage eye on her own hypocrisies and failings, and we like her all the more for them. We even end up fond of Leechfield, easily the toughest, smelliest, nastiest little burg ever to appear between the covers of a book--"a town too ugly not to love," her father called it in <I>The Liar's Club</I>. Growing up in such a place is necessarily about getting the hell out, but it's also about inventing a new identity with which to make your escape. That's the blessing Karr's wise friend Meredith bestows after a particularly harrowing (and harrowingly funny) acid trip: "I see big adventures for Mary. Big adventures, long roads, great oceans: same self." <I>Cherry</I> is the story of how Karr begins to acquire that self, however fumblingly--a big adventure for Mary, as it is for all of us, and one we never finish as long as we live. Perhaps that's the book's greatest pleasure of all: it hints there's more to come. <I>--Mary Park</I> 1254561 2000 Cherry total:1263|5:231|4:428|3:447|2:137|1:20| 1263 4502 1722 125 2 2 false false Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Mon Nov 24 12:07:15 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 12:15:25 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 2 2 false false Sat Oct 11 12:08:21 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 11 12:09:36 -0700 2008 2 0 true false Wed Jan 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 17:07:16 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 11:56:10 -0800 2009
The reality of this me...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 17:52:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 18:02:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 07:34:28 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 14:45:13 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 06:43:02 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 06:46:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Feb 26 17:04:14 -0800 2008 Sun Apr 06 06:42:56 -0700 2008
So this is a follow up to the Liars Club, her memoir of growing up with a dysfunctional family in Texas. This time around, she focuses on her coming of age years with a fantastic precision and recollection.

What I most admired about this book is the way ...more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Aug 23 16:45:19 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 21:11:21 -0700 2007
The basic problem is that, like...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 06 21:12:16 -0700 2009 Wed May 06 21:18:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 10:54:09 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 10:57:11 -0700 2009
It was nice to see what happened after Karr's years from "The Liar's Club" in this coming of age memoir...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 11 18:35:23 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 18:43:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 20:32:00 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 21 20:16:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Fri Apr 03 13:37:04 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 13:41:35 -0700 2009 This book is rich, and picturesque and beautiful-- but in a damaged way. Mary Karr, is a smart ass, and (at first) an innocent bystander in a corrupted, but loving world. If there ever was a book that...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 06 11:33:17 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 11:37:41 -0800 2009 I wanted to like this more, a sex and drug-induced coming of age story, but it just left me flat. I enjoyed early parts, and descriptions of her conflict between her good-girl self and her bored, suburban teenager looking for outlets. However I just didn't end up caring that much what happened...more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Jul 03 12:17:40 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 12:19:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Nov 10 08:43:45 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 08:51:04 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 05:44:51 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 05:46:52 -0800 2008 dust on the Texas road where we grew up the forbidden taste of Froot Loops the shameful smell of pee in the sleeping bag our parents'alcoholic descent into despair.
I think it was actually a good book, and I'm just burned out on memo...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Oct 15 07:27:37 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 10 20:01:13 -0800 2009
"That my being smarter than everybody would have fallen into dispute is a shock that shuts off my tears. I feel deep conviction that I am, in fact, smarter t...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 18:50:09 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 18:52:14 -0800 2009 1 2 0 false false Sat Nov 24 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Mar 11 01:58:20 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 02:04:45 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=184756