The Liars' Club brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. Cherry, her account of her adolescence, "continued to set the literary standard for making the personal universal" (Entertainment Weekly). Now Lit follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness—and to her astonishing resurrection.
Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-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 charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott," with an oddball tribe of gurus and saviors, awakens her to the possibility of joy and leads her to an unlikely faith. Not since Saint Augustine cried, "Give me chastity, Lord—but not yet!" has a conversion story rung with such dark hilarity.
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.
âeoeA redemptive, painfully funny story.âe
-Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today
âeoeKarr movingly depicts her halting journey into AA, making it clear her grit and spirit remain intact.âe
-Michelle Green, People (3 ½ out of 4 stars)
âeoeMary Karr restores memoir formâe(TM)s dignity with Lit.âe
-Vanity Fair
âeoeSearing. . . . A book that lassos you, hogties your emotions and wonâe(TM)t let you go. . . . Chronicles with searching intelligence, humor and grace the authorâe(TM)s slow, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes painful discovery of her vocation and her voice as a poet and writer.âe
-Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
âeoeMary Karr sparked a memoir revival with The Liarsâe(TM) Club-now sheâe(TM)s back with Lit to describe how she turned those early troubles into literary gold.âe
-Body + Soul
âeoeHer tale is riveting, her style clear-eyed and frank. That Karr survived the emotional and physical journey she regales her readers with to become the evenhanded, self-disciplined writer she is today is arguably nothing short of a miracle, and readers of her previous two books wonâe(TM)t be disappointed.âe
-Library Journal
âeoeLit matches its predecessors in candor and outstrips them in insight.âe
-Commonweal
âeoeKarrâe(TM)s sharp and funny sensibility won me over to her previous two volumes, but what wins me over to Lit is the way her acute self-awareness conquers any hint that hers is the only version of this storyâe¦. Karr is as funny as ever.âe
-Valery Sayers, Washington Post
âeoeWith this third book Karr has managed to raise the bar higher still on the genre of memoir.âe
-Steve Ross, Huffington Post
âeoeA brutally honest, sparkling story.âe
-Glamour
âeoe[Karrâe(TM)s] poetic sensibility infuses every sentence of her story with an alliterative and symbolic energy, conjuring echoes of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, and occasionally, Sylvia Plath.âe
-Publishers Weekly
âeoeMary Karr restores memoir formâe(TM)s dignity with Lit.âe
-Vanity Fair
âeoe[A] radiant, rueful, rip-roaring book. . . .Warm enough to burn a hole in your heart.âe
-Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly
âeoeScrappy, gut-wrenching. . . . Irresistible. . . . [Written] with trademark wit, precision, and unfailing courage.âe
-Pam Houston, O Magazine
âeoeAs irresistible as it is unflinchingly honest. . . . With grace, saltiness and profanity galore, Karr undeniably re-establishes herself as one of our finest memoirists and storytellers.âe
-Melanie Gideon, San Francisco Chronicle
âeoeDazzling. . . . Lit reminds us not only how compelling personal stories can be, but how, in the hands of a master, they can transmute into the highest art.âe
-Rebecca Steinitz, Boston Globe
âeoe[Karr] continues to delight with her signature dark humor and pitch-perfect metaphors delivering large doses of wit and painful insights. . . . There are plenty of memoirs about being drunk, but this one has Karrâe(TM)s voice-both sure-footed and breezy-behind it.âe
-Beth Greenfield, Time Out New York
âeoeThere isnâe(TM)t a single false note in Lit.âe
-Carmela Ciuraru, Christian Science Monitor
âeoeMary Karr has never lacked for material. But sheâe(TM)s always delivered on the craft side, too, with her poetâe(TM)s gift for show-and-tell.âe
-Elizabeth Foy Larsen, Minneapolis Star Tribune
âeoeRiveting.âe
-Redbook Magazine
âeoeIrresistible. . . . [Written] with trademark wit, precision, and unfailing courage.âe
-Pam Houston, O Magazine
âeoeA brutally honest, sparkling story.âe
-Glamour
âeoeAn absolute gem that secures Karrâe(TM)s place as one of the best memoirists of her generation. . . . [She] writes with a singular combination of poetic grace and Texan verve.âe
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
âeoeKarr could tell you whatâe(TM)s on her grocery list, and its humor would make you bust a gut, its unexpected insights would make you think and her pitch-perfect command of our American vernacular might even take your breath awayâe¦. [Karr] holds the position of grande dame memoirista.âe
-Samantha Dunn, Los Angeles Times
âeoeIn a gravelly, ground-glass-under-your-heel voice that can take you from laughter to awe in a few sentences, Karr has written the best book about being a woman in America I have read in years.âe
-Susan Cheever, New York Times Book Review
