132 reviews for:

Cherry

Mary Karr

3.73 AVERAGE


One of the best stories of adolescence I've ever read. Unlike many reviewers, I liked "Cherry" even better than "The Liar's Club," which I also gave five stars.
reflective medium-paced
dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

"Our own features in youth have not yet been sharply carved. So in some way, we don't exist yet. Thus we mock ourselves for loving so easily and in the process choke the breath from our first darlings."

I've read some memoirs that read like essays and others that read like novels; Cherry fits in with the latter. Karr's prose is lyrical, and her mastery of descriptive detail is impressive -- so impressive, that I wonder if it isn't her memories per se she describes, but an embellished adult interpretation of her childhood. Regardless, it's a powerful and relatable coming-of-age-story.

Karr's life in small town Leechfield is at once unique and universal. Her retellings of her first crush, her first kiss, her first experience with desire, her estrangement from her peers, her realization as a child that "suddenly and deeply, these two boys are not like me" -- they all feel intimately familiar, as if she is describing your own memories back to you, finally finding words for the inexplicable. Her past traumas, family dysfunctions, and experiences with drugs belong to her alone, but even still, she manages to find truth in them that ring in you like a bell.

Karr is a sharp-witted and charming storyteller. I look forward to reading her other memoirs.
adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
challenging funny mysterious fast-paced
adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced
adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

En esta segunda parte de sus memorias, Mary Karr de supera y eso ya era difícil. Me gusta sobre todo la primera parte donde recorre su primera adolescencia con un climax precioso por la descripción poética que hace, de su primer beso. Es maravilloso acceder a una psicología tan bien definida en la protagonista, con esa complejidad, y donde se mezcla lo cotidiano y soez/oscuro con lo lírico. La segunda parte más centrada en su adicción a las drogas es también interesante porque te permite acceder a cómo ella vivía el mundo pesadillesco y deprimente y sus descripciones en pleno chute te hacen sentir como ella. Gran honestidad, gran creatividad y gran belleza.

This was very good but it was very difficult to read at times.