I liked the way Mary Karr tells the story - for a while. I really enjoyed the tall tales her father made up in the first third or so of the book. After the second sexual abuse scene, however, I had thoroughly enough of the despicable characters. No need reading somebody else's nightmares stated as a fact.


I savored this book   December 17, 2000
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

It's not often that I read a book and hang on every word. This was one of those rare occassions. This book has been sitting on my shelves for a couple of years, when I purchased it based on a friend's recommendation. Admittedly, I was skeptical, as I am of just about any memoir that makes the bestseller list. I was afraid that it would be another one of those self-serving "victim of a bad childhood that has scarred me forever, but look how resilient I am" memoirs. And while it is true that Mary Karr had a frighteningly bad childhood, and while it is true that she was the victim of many awful situations, she never puts herself in that role. At times, it's absolutely terrifying to read, and I cringed at parts of it, but I was amazed throughout--amazed at the fact that she had lived through everything that happened and amazed at how clearly and precisely she was able to write about it. Karr has a way with description that puts the reader right in the middle of the story. The book is so well-written that I did not want to put it down, but I forced myself to put it down just so I could come back to it.


Beautiful use of imagery and perspective.   November 1, 1999
 10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Mary Karr deftly utilizes imagery and perspective to create an interesting piece of literature. As she drifts through her memories of a dysfunctional childhood in East Texas and Colorado, Karr often paints very vivid pictures that are almost poetic, describing many situations she encountered in fine detail. These intense images allow readers to feel like they are there, living vicariously through the words. Also, the perspective adds to the imagery. Each incident is remembered very clearly, as a child can be very observant, yet the incidents are described with a poet's precision, utilizing the perfect words for each description, as only a mature and well-read adult is capable. The language constructs universality that will instantly hook and draw any reader in. I strongly recommend this book, if only to admire the skillful use of words.


An author decides that we want to know everything about her   March 13, 2001
 10 out of 19 found this review helpful

I could not hear enough good things about this book, and so, I was so enthralled by the beginning of it that I couldn't wait to read some more. Unfortunately, Karr's style here is a bit jerky, and she too often goes off on long tangents (the opening scene is of something horrible that happened to her when she was 7, but then she will describe something that happened to her at 12, so you know that she survivd it and was able to move on.) Another aspect was just how sharp Karr's memory is. She seems to remember every nod of the head, every peanut shucking, until I really started to doubt the credibility of this story. Hampered by that is the fact that later on she describes the scene in Psycho when Norman swivels around in his mother's rocker and is dressed like her. As anybody who has seen Psycho knows... that is NOT how the famous scene goes. It's awfully hard to believe that Karr can remember all these moments from her childhood, but not the pivotal scene in one of the most famous films of all time. (She also later calls Elizabeth Taylors horse in "National Velvet", National Velvet. Velvet was Liz's character, the horse's name was Pi or Pye or Pie.) I also felt at times that Karr uses her unsuspecting readers as her therapist. Why else the rather disturbing depictions of sexual abuse. The first one is bad enough, but the second scene later on borders between abuse and pornography. It's disturbingly exact, and makes one feel like they will retch. However, Karr has a helpful habit of starting a section with a little glimpse of what's to come. (i.e, that was the night mom decided to shoot her husband) and then gets around to describing it. Granted, I am paraphrasing , but this thesis statement will work for those who don't want to read certain sections. I won't say anymore, but I do know that I am in no mood to run out and read "Cherry." This book was a good idea, but it never jells, and never lets the reader connect with the characters, mainly because we are so busy trying to figure out if it's real or fiction.