The Liars' Club
A Memoir
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4.1 • 238 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“Wickedly funny and always movingly illuminating, thanks to kick-ass storytelling and a poet's ear.” –Oprah.com
The New York Times bestselling, hilarious tale of Mary Karr’s hardscrabble Texas childhood that Oprah.com calls the best memoir of a generation.
The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger’s—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at age twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. This unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as “funny, lively, and un-put-downable” (USA Today) today as it ever was.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Reading poet Mary Karr’s memoir about her childhood in east Texas is a visceral experience: It’s lush, full of insight, and dark. Karr’s family stuck out in their churchgoing town: Her alcoholic parents had terrifying fights, and her mother—who considered herself a bohemian artist—often teetered on the edge of insanity. Karr herself was a tough little girl who’d curse out grown men and shoot BBs at the family next door. Her candid and bitingly funny account of those chaotic years makes it feel like she’s looking back at her childhood through a rearview mirror. She’s happy to be out of that phase of her life, but glad that it somehow got her where she is today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Although Karr, a prize-winning poet (The Devil's Tour) survived a nightmarish childhood with a violent father and an alcoholic mother who married six times, she bears neither parent any animosity in this candid and humorous memoir. Karr and her older sister grew up in an east Texas oil town where they learned to cope with their mother's psychotic episodes, the ostracism by neighbors and their father's frequent absences. Karr's happiest times were the afternoons she spent at the ``Liars' Club,'' where her father and a group of men drank and traded boastful stories. Raped by a teenager when she was eight and sexually abused by a male babysitter, she developed a fighting spirit and impressed schoolmates with her toughness. Karr vividly details her parents' divorce and eventual remarriage, as well as her father's deterioration after a stroke. It is evident that she views her parents with affection and an unusual understanding of their weaknesses. First serial to Esquire.
Customer Reviews
Her words explode into images from within your soul.
This book touched me in so many ways. Her writing is clear, brutal and achingly funny at times. Her childhood memories are more alive than today’s news. I found myself reading this aloud just to enjoy the twang of her accent. This is the best book I have read in years.