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meghan111's review against another edition
4.0
The best thing about this, and it's something that's really hard to do well, is the epigraphs. An epigraph is the "apposite quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter, etc". This has them at the beginning of every chapter and they are all great. Maybe because she also writes poetry?
lavoiture's review against another edition
3.0
I think I'd give it 3.5 stars, but I didn't love it, so I'm bumping it down instead of bumping it up. I don't think Karr's style of writing is really my thing. I actually like quotation marks to tell me when somebody is talking, for one thing, but that's kind of petty. Anyway, it was a decent read. I'd recommend it, but not like for the top of your to-read list.
arielamandah's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like this SO much more than I did. I had such high hopes and found it instead pretty tedious. :-/ With a smattering of exceptions, I did not find the poetry or beautiful language that others call out. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more having read Liar's Club first?
thebookenjoyer's review
5.0
Very, very hard to read early on before she gets sober, and then this ending, written with stark clarity and an insight that I don't think I've ever seen achieved anywhere else, where she turns to prayer and religion. Throughout honest in a way that occasionally shocked me in sadness or joy.
maryehavens's review against another edition
5.0
It's going to take me a while to digest this one too.
Things Mary Karr and I have in common: small town Texas upbringing, our first names, mental breakdowns (although everyone's breakdown is their own experience), religious awakenings in adulthood, fight responses when cornered (I have also been known to freeze and fly depending on the circumstances).
Things we don't have in common: alcoholism, abusive pasts, brilliant literary careers, devil may care attitudes that occurred during the alcoholism.
I wondered if I should have read her previous memoirs before this one but I don't think it would have mattered - I fell in love with her in this memoir and I would hate to think I would have built her up on a pedestal or avoided this book after reading the previous ones.
I loved her kick-ass Texas-ness! It's such a Texas thing and she described it brilliantly. She definitely doesn't romanticize the life of a professor and writer and both careers have a sort of romanticism, I think, in popular culture. My heart broke for her marriage and divorce as well as the people she encountered in the Mental Marriott and AA that didn't make it. She didn't romanticize that either.
I was no expecting her religious awakening at all and I loved that she included it. It would be easy to not include it but she listened to God and knew she had to.
This memoir is one of the few where I never tired of the author. Usually I get to a point where I wish for them to wake up and change their life or stop talking about themselves but Karr could tell me any story and I would be rapt. That's her gift and I'm glad she's sharing it!
Things Mary Karr and I have in common: small town Texas upbringing, our first names, mental breakdowns (although everyone's breakdown is their own experience), religious awakenings in adulthood, fight responses when cornered (I have also been known to freeze and fly depending on the circumstances).
Things we don't have in common: alcoholism, abusive pasts, brilliant literary careers, devil may care attitudes that occurred during the alcoholism.
I wondered if I should have read her previous memoirs before this one but I don't think it would have mattered - I fell in love with her in this memoir and I would hate to think I would have built her up on a pedestal or avoided this book after reading the previous ones.
I loved her kick-ass Texas-ness! It's such a Texas thing and she described it brilliantly. She definitely doesn't romanticize the life of a professor and writer and both careers have a sort of romanticism, I think, in popular culture. My heart broke for her marriage and divorce as well as the people she encountered in the Mental Marriott and AA that didn't make it. She didn't romanticize that either.
I was no expecting her religious awakening at all and I loved that she included it. It would be easy to not include it but she listened to God and knew she had to.
This memoir is one of the few where I never tired of the author. Usually I get to a point where I wish for them to wake up and change their life or stop talking about themselves but Karr could tell me any story and I would be rapt. That's her gift and I'm glad she's sharing it!
emiliefox's review against another edition
5.0
I loved thsi book! I can't recommend it enough. . . the author is a poet, originally a poor girl from Texas, now--or as of the memoir writing--teaching at Syracuse. Tells the story of her life through the lens of struggle with alcohol, finding faith and hanging on. Each chapter is titled & has an opening quote/poem that is so spot on. From the opening prologue messages to her son, and the first chapter describing her teen-age experience in being on the road in CA in the 70's, through college and marriage, taking care of her dying father and aging mother, the dust jacket promise of this being one of the most important books about being a woman in our day & age, rang true for me. I savored and was inspired by this book. She wrote two prior memoirs ~ presumably life as seen through other lenses, that I will be sure to check out!
kait_unicorn's review against another edition
3.0
A solid memoir from Mary Kate. Liar’s Club is a hard one to beat though.
balletbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
I'd been reading Karr's new Art of Memoir and realized that I hadn't read any of her previous books. So I borrowed Lit from the library. Great style and voice.