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A review by maryehavens
Lit by Mary Karr
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!