Trisha D. (lectio) reviewed on 1/8/2010 + 88 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

For some reason I've been reading more and more memoirs recently.(What is it, I wonder, about looking into the often shocking details of another person's life that is so intriguing?) This particular book follows a familiar trajectory -- beginning with a perfectly ghastly account of something horrendous that happened in the author's childhood and taking us on from there through what certainly appears to be a rather unusual (to put it mildly) childhood and adolescence. Along the way we encounter a series of harrowing episodes involving a neurotic mother whose seven previous marriages never seemed to work out; a tough dad whose talent for spinning tall tales has won him the admiration of his beer drinking pals, and a completely loony grandma with a penchant for real cruelty. Mental illness, alcoholism, rape, guns, a squandered family inheritance, and lots of fistfights feature prominently in this book. What amazes me about families like this one is that while it's tempting to apply the "dysfunctional" label to them, it's pretty obvious that from their perspective it's all pretty normal because there's something that seems to transcend all the pain and havoc they put one another through. Despite what it may look like, everyone in Mary Karr's family was staunchly and heartbreakingly loyal to one another. Not just loyal. They loved one another - although to actually come out and say so was pretty much out of the question - unless they were drunk. At least that's what she would have us believe. Nevertheless, by the end of the book I kept wondering if everything I'd been reading actually happened the way she described it. After all, the title of her book is The Liar's Club!

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