The first Mary Karr book I finished-- this picks up after Cherry and chronicles Mary's life from being a teenager to almost current. Much of it is her delving into alcoholism (the family illness) and how that impacts her relationships with those she loves. I admit this all seems self-serving and you get a little sick of Mary at her worst, a struggling mother, poet, and teacher, drinking cheap alcohol and drowning in her misery by driving in circles around Fresh Pond in Boston. But it is her saving grace-- getting into AA and getting sober-- that is a remarkable story of faith and transformation. Mary shows it isn't easy and she takes us through her ups and downs with sobriety. Her first observation of the first AA meeting she attends (the dingy gray chairs and her chastising herself for her inability to take only one mint) are spot-on and familiar to anyone who hesitantly enters a community for which they are relying to save them (you mean these people have it together?). A skeptic, she ends up becoming a Catholic (the Episcopalian church in her town was too cold-- literally, she had to run home and take a bath) and still is challenged by her turn to faith. A very touching memoir with many, many funny moments.