"The Liars' Club" brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. "Cherry," her account of her adolescence, "continu... read full description
reviews
Oct 20, 2010
Jen
rated it: 
Karr's hard-edged poetic voice made The Liars' Club one of my favorite books. In Lit, I found the voice just as searing and lovely, perhaps not as consistent. For me, the childhood digressions--nods to her previous works--were the weakest portions of the narrative, but they were brief, and moreover, they were easily forgiven when bookmarking transcendent scenes such as one in which a group of illiterate women in a group home remind the author the universality of good poetry. I highly recommend
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Dec 12, 2011
Julie
rated it: 
Reading this for my book club.
O.M.G.
If there is a genre I hate, it is that of addicts telling their life stories ... yes, even when they come out Christian at the other end. Just like a bad movie made for Christian ends, an angsty book told for Christian ends does nothing for me. First give me good art (story) I say, then worry about what else is in it.
It isn't that I don't have sympathy for the people themselves, it is that their books inevitably seem to be all abo More...
O.M.G.
If there is a genre I hate, it is that of addicts telling their life stories ... yes, even when they come out Christian at the other end. Just like a bad movie made for Christian ends, an angsty book told for Christian ends does nothing for me. First give me good art (story) I say, then worry about what else is in it.
It isn't that I don't have sympathy for the people themselves, it is that their books inevitably seem to be all abo More...
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Aug 08, 2011
Ruth
rated it:
Okay - I know this author has won awards and I am supposed to have thought this book was wonderful, but I didn't. I swear I could hear her thumbing through the thesaurus to find words we do not use in normal conversation. Keep in mind she is a poet by trade, not a nonfiction writer, so the disjointed nature of her autobiography is to be somewhat expected. Yes, she did have a hard life as a child and her alcohol abuse made her less than a great mom but I had a hard time not telling to her to grow
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May 13, 2011
Mike
rated it: 
On its funniest and its most harrowing pages, Mary Karr's Lit reminds me of Augusten Burroughs's Dry; both sarcastic, heartbroken protagonists are helplessly addicted to alcohol, romantically incapacitated, and surrounded by saccharine morons. In moron-land, Karr escapes mental institution bureaucracy in time to attend a literary reception in her honor by using guile. The institute's Nurse Ratchett "has a tendency to bring up penis envy every session, and I swear that this time, when she do
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Sep 14, 2010
Cherylann
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I read a lot of memoirs. There's something about peering into someone else's life that gives me a chance to pause and reflect on mine. Lit was no exception. It appears to be brutually honest, although it may not be since it's based on the recollections of an alcoholic. However, Karr does not paint herself to be a saint for having gotten herself into recovery or blame her past for her descent into alcoholism and depression. There were times as I read that I didn't want to read anymore. I wanted t
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Dec 21, 2010
Becky
rated it:
Karr follows up her adolescent memoirs Liar's Club and Cherry with her memoir of alcholism and recovery. Karr writes with such self-deprecating wit and Southern charm that it's hard to believe we aren't good, long friends. There's plenty to admire here, but I was often irritated by her fairly superficial religious views. Her conversion feels real and necessary and very much part of the reason why she's not currently in an alcoholic coma or dead. Still, her version of faith is a wee bit too cl
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Jul 11, 2011
Jean
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This felt hastily written and not well edited. Maybe the author just ran out of good material. In large part, it’s a recollection of alcoholism and/or depression and recovery that isn’t that different or more inspiring than many other so-so examples of this genre.
The author describes many of her fellow mentally troubled fellow patients in Maclean hospital, or in her AA group, but reducing each person to a few paragraphs and without developing much connection to her story makes it More...
The author describes many of her fellow mentally troubled fellow patients in Maclean hospital, or in her AA group, but reducing each person to a few paragraphs and without developing much connection to her story makes it More...
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Sep 07, 2010
Kaya
rated it: 
Suspect the world does not need another review of Mary Karr’s newest memoir, but I do have some scattered thoughts on it. I feel, however, that they must be prefaced by multiple caveats, which may be the scattered thoughts in disguise. Caveat one: I’ve not read any of her other books. Have seen occasional poems of hers in magazines. Caveat two: She studied with a poet I also studied with, who makes a couple of appearances in this book as she begins to ascend into the poetry firmament. Caveat thr
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(2 people liked it)
Sep 21, 2011
I'm not sure I am going to finish this one. Karr writes of her husband "If he hates a book on page one, he'll nonetheless finish it, for he's made the commitment." Well I decided to try to get to the 50% mark before I decided that I am not willing to commit to this book. It may just be that I'm really not into memoirs. I think it really came down to the fact that I did not like Karr or care what happened to her. But there were some laugh out loud moments. I could see why people w
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Feb 15, 2012
Richard
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In her 1995 bestseller The Liar’s Club, Karr wrote about her chaotic early life. Cherry, in 2000, dealt with her adolescence and high school years. Lit reprises the highlights of the earlier books and covers Karr’s early adulthood, marriage, motherhood, and early middle age, with her growing alcoholism and her slow, erratic and precarious recovery the through line.
Karr reluctantly turns to Alcoholics Anonymous and prayer as she tries to get sober. Almost immediately, good things begin More...
Karr reluctantly turns to Alcoholics Anonymous and prayer as she tries to get sober. Almost immediately, good things begin More...
Feb 10, 2012
Denise
rated it:
A book based on the inferno of alcoholism and madness. This summation says it all, "Lit is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live. Written with Karr's relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, it is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up--as only Mary Karr can tell it.
Karr is a great writer and tells the horror one goes through and she pours out her hea More...
Karr is a great writer and tells the horror one goes through and she pours out her hea More...
Feb 03, 2012
Nancy
rated it:
Well, now I know what happened to all the emotion I didn't hear in Mary Karr's voice in The Liars' Club, the story of her blighted childhood. She stuffed it all down until adulthood. This book is one long screech of pain.
To me, this Mary Karr is more genuine than the author of Liar's Club. That memoir was very stylized -- down-home Texas tall tale, outsized, but to me, antiseptic. In Lit, Mary Karr emotes. She italicizes, she all-caps, she streams exclamation points. She hisses, she More...
To me, this Mary Karr is more genuine than the author of Liar's Club. That memoir was very stylized -- down-home Texas tall tale, outsized, but to me, antiseptic. In Lit, Mary Karr emotes. She italicizes, she all-caps, she streams exclamation points. She hisses, she More...
Jan 19, 2012
Sylvia
rated it:
Lit is the first book I've read by Mary Karr and apparently should have begun with The Liar's Club. Apparently i'll be working backwards on her life story. I suppose that's what any of us who attempt to chronicle and make sense of our experiences do...we work backwards.
In some ways Karr works backwards and forwards and leaves large gaps. But still, I like memoir and honesty and found Karr to be raw honest and funny. It had glowing reviews while others fault her for be self-absorbed More...
In some ways Karr works backwards and forwards and leaves large gaps. But still, I like memoir and honesty and found Karr to be raw honest and funny. It had glowing reviews while others fault her for be self-absorbed More...
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Dec 07, 2011
Andy
rated it:
This memoir tells the story of the author's battle with alcohol addiction as an adult, especially as a young mother, through her successful recovery and literary success. Mary Karr is a great writer and tells a compelling story. She was especially sensitive but honest in her treatment of her ex-husband and father of her son during her struggle. The memoir also includes the reception to her first success, the publication of Liar's club and the resulting contrast to her earlier life with little mo
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Nov 24, 2011
Colleen
rated it:
As a memoir of alcoholism and a successful escape from it, Lit doesn’t lack for interesting details. However, it also doesn’t delve too much into the source of her alcoholism (sounds like previous memoirs addressed her tumultuous childhood, which likely contributed to her drinking), nor does it let the reader in too close. Overall, the book feels like the author is inviting us in to her life but then pulls a curtain to hide the mess in the backroom. The biggest drawback though is her constant
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Nov 05, 2011
David
rated it:
Among the confessions of the contemporary world, this book must rate above all others. It is as clear a case of self-rescue as we can find. The victim and the willful girl of The Liar's Club and Cherry grows into chronological adulthood carrying all the burdens of those books, and more. Lit might well be an exemplification of the truth I first read about in Alice Miller's books: our upbringing gives us more than we can bear, before we can know what is being done to us. And so Mary Karr write
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Sep 12, 2011
Mandy Jo
rated it:
This week’s headline? the demon alcohol
Why this book? online book club
Which book format? kindle (pre-highlighted?)
Primary reading environment? at work some(!)
Any preconceived notions? don’t like memoirs
Identify most with? ladies in recovery
Three little words? “my truest review”
Goes well with? hot-fudge malted
There’s a joke one of my dad’s friends used to tell, about Jesus walking into a bar and blah b More...
Why this book? online book club
Which book format? kindle (pre-highlighted?)
Primary reading environment? at work some(!)
Any preconceived notions? don’t like memoirs
Identify most with? ladies in recovery
Three little words? “my truest review”
Goes well with? hot-fudge malted
There’s a joke one of my dad’s friends used to tell, about Jesus walking into a bar and blah b More...
Jul 25, 2011
Shaida
rated it:
So I didn't know that this novel was part of a ""triology"" when I started reading it, and then realized that I was reading the last book of the series. But since I didn't have the first two books I just continued reading it and hoped I would be able to follow along. Mary Karr has written The Liars' Club and Cherry. The Liars' Club was about her childhood; whereas, Cherry was about her adolescence. And Lit is about her adult struggles and battles, especially with following he
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Jul 12, 2011
Sara
rated it:
The experience of reading this book is one of being swept so effectively into someone else's experience that I have to give it a five. Pick it up, lie down on the couch, and if you've ever been an aspiring writer, a member of a psychotic family, a lover of poetry or even just an avid reader, you'll be as absorbed as ever you were in Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Jane Eyre. East Texas girl overcomes horrific childhood but has to kick her alcoholism to become best-selling memoirist is just a
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Jul 10, 2011
Brad
rated it: 
This was a tough book for me, in a lot of ways.
1.) As a person in recovery, I find most 'drunkalogues--> I went to AA--> I found God' narratives very tiring. There's parts of my own story (and every addict's) there, but Karr just doesn't have the chops of a David Foster Wallace or even an Augusten Burroughs.
2) As someone who went through a Creative Writing program in college, and dated more than a couple poetesses, this was like a nightmarish rewind of my poor d More...
1.) As a person in recovery, I find most 'drunkalogues--> I went to AA--> I found God' narratives very tiring. There's parts of my own story (and every addict's) there, but Karr just doesn't have the chops of a David Foster Wallace or even an Augusten Burroughs.
2) As someone who went through a Creative Writing program in college, and dated more than a couple poetesses, this was like a nightmarish rewind of my poor d More...
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Jul 02, 2011
Boyu
rated it:
Genre: Biography
Title: Lit
Author: Mary Karr
Recommendation: 2
ISBN: 978-0-06-059698-9
Publisher: HarperCollins
Number of pages: 386
Synopsis (from book jacket):
Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespear-quoting blueblood poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatc but troubled mother, reaching the brin More...
Title: Lit
Author: Mary Karr
Recommendation: 2
ISBN: 978-0-06-059698-9
Publisher: HarperCollins
Number of pages: 386
Synopsis (from book jacket):
Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespear-quoting blueblood poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatc but troubled mother, reaching the brin More...
Jun 07, 2011
Virginia
rated it:
Read it!!! Laugh and weep. It's rollicking, harrowing, and brings one to a deep respect for the sheer will of its heroine to keep moving onward and upward. That can only be accomplished by a terrific writer so I won't bore you with accolades for her turn of phrase.
I am new to this board-- how would anyone see my review, there are so many?!.. Hopefully they would not sort by star#: for me, 5* is for Ana Karenina; 4* is Lord of the Flies... Mary Karr's memoir is right up there with the More...
I am new to this board-- how would anyone see my review, there are so many?!.. Hopefully they would not sort by star#: for me, 5* is for Ana Karenina; 4* is Lord of the Flies... Mary Karr's memoir is right up there with the More...
Apr 06, 2011
Ekaterina
rated it:
Lit, Mary Karr. – 1st edition, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2009.
First of all, I just wanted to say that if person is not interested in someone else’s life experience then it might not be a very good book for him/her to read; however, if one is interested in reading and deriving from someone else’s knowledge and life situations than it is a great book . In my case, I love reading memoirs, which this book “Lit” is, because I could compare it to my life and think about certain thin More...
First of all, I just wanted to say that if person is not interested in someone else’s life experience then it might not be a very good book for him/her to read; however, if one is interested in reading and deriving from someone else’s knowledge and life situations than it is a great book . In my case, I love reading memoirs, which this book “Lit” is, because I could compare it to my life and think about certain thin More...
Apr 06, 2011
Megan
rated it:
Lit by Mary Karr builds off of her other memoir, The Liar's Club as a successor. In it, she details the later portion of her life, from a post-high school age to the tenuous years of her marriage and childrearing.
The book opens with a letter to her son, apologizing for her inconsistencies throughout his life, and reveals a little about her relationship with her mother and how she feels that it has affected her own behavior. The timeline then jumps to her college-age self during a time More...
The book opens with a letter to her son, apologizing for her inconsistencies throughout his life, and reveals a little about her relationship with her mother and how she feels that it has affected her own behavior. The timeline then jumps to her college-age self during a time More...
Feb 19, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
This was a very emotional book for me. Throughout, I felt sympathy for Mary, but also anger. I agree that her life was hard, and can understand how she would struggle with alcoholism. But, for someone who went through what she went through, I cannot fathom choosing to follow in those footsteps and cause the same problems for your child. She made a lot of bad choices, and luckily she cleaned herself up. I also did not like that she credits her transformation solely to her discovering God. T
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Feb 10, 2011
Oceana9
rated it:
I always think it's strange when reviewers say they read a book again immediately after finishing it. I mean, isn't that kind of like keeping eating when you're already full? I'll read a book again a year or more later, when I've forgotten the good parts, but even then there's a sense of loss, like "I know how it ends."
That being said, for the first time in my life, I finished the last page of this book and immediately turned to the first page and started reading it again. More...
That being said, for the first time in my life, I finished the last page of this book and immediately turned to the first page and started reading it again. More...
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Feb 08, 2011
Paul
rated it:
The word "Lit" as used in this book title is not for Literature, but rather for "Lit" as lit up from the misuse of alcohol and drugs. Mary Karr tells her life story, and those of you who enjoy biographies and stories that show how one can overcome tremendous adversity, will enjoy this book.
After reading this book, I am of the opinion that life was a lot rougher for Mary Karr than she alludes to in the book. I feel she may have taken it a little easy on the reade More...
After reading this book, I am of the opinion that life was a lot rougher for Mary Karr than she alludes to in the book. I feel she may have taken it a little easy on the reade More...
Jan 08, 2011
Mary
rated it:
Highly recommend. After taking a bit to really get into it, once I gave it some time and slowed down to appreciate the prose, I was hooked. This is really well-written, and I loved her hard-assed Texas persona, and wacky family characters, although her husband and son, those closest to her during the majority of this memoir are mysteriously fuzzy and bland. The husband in particular, while she appears to try to be fair and respectful, ends up so drab and removed that his only redeeming quality
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Dec 30, 2010
Pam
rated it:
Drunk stories are always entertaining, but maybe Mary Karr's drunk stories are not as entertaining as she thinks they are. In the end, the stakes are relatively low and the property damage minimal. Karr's account of her slow conversion to Catholicism is at times moving and at times, again, not as dramatic or important as she seems to believe.
My real complaint with the book--and I freely admit it's an unfair one--is her account of her relationship with David Foster Wallace. Karr treats More...
My real complaint with the book--and I freely admit it's an unfair one--is her account of her relationship with David Foster Wallace. Karr treats More...
Dec 26, 2010
Ashley
rated it:
I loved Mary Karr's voice, which is funny, self-deprecating, sometimes raunchy. She reminds me of friends of mine from Texas, who also tend to be full of colorful language and know how to tell a story.
I was taken aback by the Christian element of this book, which got to be a bit much and seemed sneaked in. I get the impression that it was deliberately disguised in the marketing of the book, which says absolutely nothing about the conversion story that takes up way too many of the 4 More...
I was taken aback by the Christian element of this book, which got to be a bit much and seemed sneaked in. I get the impression that it was deliberately disguised in the marketing of the book, which says absolutely nothing about the conversion story that takes up way too many of the 4 More...
