A review by johndiconsiglio
Lit by Mary Karr

3.0

The priceless Karr gets credit for kicking off the memoir boom with her brilliant Liars Club. In the finale (?) of her life’s trainwreck trilogy, her virtuoso voice shifts sentence-by-sentence from smart-alecky to emotional depths. (She can’t write about her laconic cowboy dad without bringing on tears.) Lit is less rich in the surgical details that made Liars & Cherry an almost visual feast. Is that why there’s a disappointing aftertaste? Am I weary of her drama-magnet mom? Does her Christian-awakening feel flighty? Or does this chapter’s roadmap—marriage, motherhood, alcoholism—seem like a trip I’ve taken before?