Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"That Karr survived...to become the evenhanded, self-disciplined writer she is today is arguably nothing short of a miracle, and readers of her previous two books won't be disappointed." Library Journal
Review
"In 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." New York Times
Review
"With her ability to tell a good story and her flair for written expression, Karr has found another way to...make peace with herself, her back story and those around her." Dallas Morning News
Review
"Karr narrates this new book with the same confessional, raw, urgent, vividly funny and blazing style.... In short, in Lit Karr continues to deliver the goods." Oregonian
Synopsis
The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback Mary Karr s sequel to the beloved and bestsellingThe Liars ClubandCherry lassos you, hogties your emotions and won t let you go (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).
Mary Karr s bestselling, unforgettable sequel to her beloved memoirs The Liars Club and Cherry and one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year Lit is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live.
The Boston Globe calls Lit a book that 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." The New York Times Book Review calls it a master class on the art of the memoir in its Top 10 Books of 2009 Citation. Michiko Kakutani calls it a book that lassos you, hogties your emotions and won t let you go in her New York Times review. And Susan Cheever states, simply, that Lit is the best book about being a woman in America I have read in years."
In addition to the New York Times, Lit was named a Best Book of 2009 by the New Yorker (Reviewer Favorite), Entertainment Weekly (Top 10), Time (Top 10), the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, Slate, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Seattle Times.
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Synopsis
Mary Karr's third memoir, Lit, tells her tale of 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 coming-of-age story. Karr, the self-professed blackbelt sinner, painstakingly reveals her descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness-and her astonishing resurrection.
" 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."-Rebecca Steinitz, Boston Globe
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Vanity FairSynopsis
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
New York Times Book Review - The New Yorker - Entertainment Weekly - Time - Washington Post - San Francisco Chronicle - Chicago Tribune - Christian Science Monitor - Slate - St. Louise Post-Dispatch - Cleveland Plain Dealer - Seattle Times - NBCC Award Finalist
Mary Karr's unforgettable sequel to her beloved and bestselling memoirs The Liars' Club and Cherry "lassos you, hogties your emotions and won't let you go" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times).
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.
The Boston Globe calls Lit a book that "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. The New York Times Book Review calls it "a master class on the art of the memoir" and Susan Cheever states, simply, that Lit is "the best book about being a woman in America I have read in years.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Mary Karr's first memoir, The Liars' Club, kick-started a memoir revolution and won nonfiction prizes from PEN and the Texas Institute of Letters. Also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, it rode high on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year, becoming an annual "best book" there and for The New Yorker, People, and Time. Recently Entertainment Weeklyrated it number four in the top one hundred books of the past twenty-five years. Her second memoir, Cherry, which was excerpted in The New Yorker, also hit bestseller and "notable book" lists at the New York Timesand dozens of other papers nationwide. A Guggenheim Fellow in poetry, Karr has won Pushcart Prizes for both verse and essays. Other grants include the Whiting Award and Radcliffe's Bunting Fellowship. She is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.