The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
I often read two books at a time and I'm currently reading On Writing by Stephen King. He raved about The Liars' Club. Since I enjoy memoirs and the writing of them, I'm working on one of my own right now, I thought I'd give this one a spin.
I don't even know where to start to give this book a short recap. Mary Marlene and her sister, Lecia have the misfortune or fortune, depending on how you look at it, of having been born to highly dysfunctional and alcoholic parents. While I believe that the stories within this book are true, many of them seemed so unbelievable based on my personal frame of reference, that I couldn't place them in any kind of reality. This book contains tales of mental and physical abuse of every kind imaginable and then some.
No question, Mary Karr is a talented writer. The story telling is mesmerizing most of the time, but some parts dragged on and others seemed disconnected from the rest. A large portion of the book is Mary as a seven or eight year old. So much happened that I had the feeling more time should have passed and Mary has grown. But no, she was still only eight. For me, the timing was kind of off.
The one big mystery of The Liars' Club is how Mary and Lecia both found their way out with college educations and successful careers. Or maybe that's the life lesson to be learned from someone else's misery, anything is possible. Be prepared however, if you decide to take the plunge on The Liars' Club. It's one wild, disgusting and unbelievable ride.
I often read two books at a time and I'm currently reading On Writing by Stephen King. He raved about The Liars' Club. Since I enjoy memoirs and the writing of them, I'm working on one of my own right now, I thought I'd give this one a spin.
I don't even know where to start to give this book a short recap. Mary Marlene and her sister, Lecia have the misfortune or fortune, depending on how you look at it, of having been born to highly dysfunctional and alcoholic parents. While I believe that the stories within this book are true, many of them seemed so unbelievable based on my personal frame of reference, that I couldn't place them in any kind of reality. This book contains tales of mental and physical abuse of every kind imaginable and then some.
No question, Mary Karr is a talented writer. The story telling is mesmerizing most of the time, but some parts dragged on and others seemed disconnected from the rest. A large portion of the book is Mary as a seven or eight year old. So much happened that I had the feeling more time should have passed and Mary has grown. But no, she was still only eight. For me, the timing was kind of off.
The one big mystery of The Liars' Club is how Mary and Lecia both found their way out with college educations and successful careers. Or maybe that's the life lesson to be learned from someone else's misery, anything is possible. Be prepared however, if you decide to take the plunge on The Liars' Club. It's one wild, disgusting and unbelievable ride.
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