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Brilliant,
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Lit: A Memoir
by Mary Karr

Published: 2009-11-01
Hardcover : 400 pages
2 members reading this now
8 clubs reading this now
7 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 2 of 2 members

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 ...

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Introduction

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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.



Product Description

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.




Photos from Mary Karr
(Click to Enlarge)

Mary's much adored oil-worker Daddy Mary's artist mother, Charlie Karr Mary, at 22, meeting poet Howard Nemerov Mary one month before visiting the "Mental Marriott"

Mary, age 17, with sister Lecia, age 19 Mary and young son Dev Mary with family before her Leitchfield Liars' Club reading Mary celebrating the holidays with son Dev Mary's son, Dev Milburn, in 2009



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Excerpt

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Discussion Questions

Suggested by Members

Warren's role in the book. What is his addiction?
Narcissism within the characters
Why Catholocism?
by JenDavis (see profile) 10/05/12

Notes From the Author to the Bookclub

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Book Club Recommendations

Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
by Elizabeth F. (see profile) 07/23/14

 
  "Lit"by Jen D. (see profile) 10/05/12

One of the most challenging books we have read. The writing is so well done that you felt like you were with her on the road of life. She gives you a very realistic look at adiction and how it effects... (read more)

 
  "Well written, I liked it."by Kelsey W. (see profile) 11/19/10

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