Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable memories, but Lacks the Sizzle of Liar's Club
Review: Mary Karr's second autobiography brought back many memories of growing up. I especially enjoyed the earlier part of the book, where she relates her relationship with the neighbor-boy she had a crush on, and the joys, pains and nuances of adolescent girl friendships. The latter part of the book, with the drugged-out hazes and strange look-what-the-cat-dragged-in friends, I just could not relate to. One is not sure what it is all supposed to mean, if anything, or what Mary herself makes of her teen rebelliousness. Still I enjoyed the book and her lyrical language, and I look forward to more from her.
Rating: 
Summary: Cherry How it really was!
Review: Cherry brings life back to the women who lost identity because of a patriarchal society (1950-1966). She composes the most intimates thoughts of a teenager fumbling through a time frame of true (distorted) sexual identity. A first kiss and the introduction of drugs was the begining and end of a world and that was what flavored the rest of our history through high school. Those who lived through those days are the only ones who could relate...anyone else out there is without a clue! Thanks Mary Carr for the diary of real life! Krisan Steiger!
Rating:
Summary: Smart, Cute, and Dangerous
Review: I grew up in the same area as Mary but didn't cross paths with her till the season in our lives when we were leaving "Easy Riderville" after high school. She's smart as a whip, cute as a bug's ear, and mean as a snake. Admire her all you want, but give her plenty of room. Cherry? Of course, it's not the smash hit that Liar's Club was, but it's d*mned well worth twenty bucks. Just buy it and read it. It reads best after two beers.
Rating: 
Summary: sorry Mary!
Review: I loved, loved, loved THE LIAR'S CLUB so I could hardly wait to read CHERRY. However, I felt it missed the mark in a big way. Karr's writing wasn't quite as good, but more than that, her story didn't hit the mark in the same fine, but funky, fashion as THE L. CLUB. In fact, this book was almost disjointed as it followed her lousy teenage choices through some terribly uninteresting scenes. I just couldn't care... But perhaps Ms. Karr will come back to lead us on to California (hinted to at the onset of CHERRY) and back to some of her cutting-edge writing and just-plain-cutting memories.
Rating: 
Summary: Born to be Riled
Review: If you want to spend hours with a self-centered, angry, conceited teenager, you've found the right book. Otherwise, your time would be better spent sorting your socks. Too much "me" in this memoir.
Rating:
Summary: The Big Whine
Review: I was trapped into reading this for a book club. My God, I thought it would never end. When it did, however, it was a tremendous relief to escape from Mary's self-centered adolescence -- like slipping off a shoe that tortures you. My advice: Resign from the club if you must, but don't subject yourself to "Cherry."
Rating:
Summary: Cherry stone
Review: Reading this book took me back to my own early adolescence, reading Judy Blume books and coming across, mid-book, words such as "breasts" or "period", prurient pearls for the training-bra set. Now I'm grown up, the words are "Cherry" and "p***y" and they're in the title and on the first page--no oyster shell or snotlike oyster goo to wade through HERE. The titillating sensation is gone, but I still get a scuffling feeling reading about the insecurities of the novel's central character. I would probably not have subjected myself to these flashbacks, if it were not for the true pearls in this book, some funny descriptions. The whole reason I bought the book in the first place was when I read in a Newsweek excerpt about pre-puberty Mary having a pimple so big on her forehead that she thought a boy could see her pulse in it. Unfortunately, that type of creative descriptive writing seems to be as rare as the word masturbation in a Blume book. Most of the literary devices are not particularly inventive, and Karr has an irritating literary tic of overusing parenthetical phrases, in a mock-confidant manner. The drugged-out descriptions toward the end of the book are about as interesting as hearing a friend relate a weird dream. Still, the book was entertaining enough to warrant finishing; there was a faint pulse in its pearl tissue.
Rating:
Summary: Memories in search of a story.
Review: I loved The Liar's Club, and anticipated an equally strong reaction to Mary Karr's second autobiography. However, this book never engaged me. Even though it was an autobiography, The Liar's Club had a clear plot and theme. This book does not. The first 70 pages read as a series of vignettes, with no coherent story emerging from the compilation. I finally gave up and didn't finish the book - a rarity for me. It's not that the writing was affirmatively bad. Karr's poetic prose is still very clever, and her ability to potently describe her characters is as strong as ever. I just never could get interested in the story.
Rating:
Summary: cherry pits
Review: I haven't read the acclaimed "Liar's Club" but from all the hype was expecting a lot better from its sequel. At first I was impressed and engaged, but then became irritated and distracted. Particularly after she began describing her adolecence, Karr came off as a hyperactive kid at the dinner table desperate for attention, giving us a suicide attempt here, a drug overdose there, but never once speaking plainly and honestly about the pain that these events must have entailed. I found it disturbing that someone who attended an elementary school where three students passed away from cancer and was a regular witness to poverty and hardship, could become narcisstic enough as a teenager to believe that because she was smart, she and her genius friend were the only ones to ever have suffered. Maybe she was smart, but she sure lacked compassion. Such indifference made it impossible for me to sympathize with her. Beatifully written, but with a protagonist only a few degrees less self-centered than the one in Prozac Nation.
Rating:
Summary: I Was There To Read.
Review: I finished this outstanding book a few days ago, and Mary Karr's eloquent words are still dancing in my mind. I want to write a review that will make a future reader understand the brilliance that this writer holds, but any words that I use to describe the poetry that falls off of the pages of "Cherry" will be simply that, mere words. It is not the gripping plot or suspense that makes "Cherry" so remarkable, since there isn't either of these elements. Simply put, this is the story of a skinny, teenage girl who grew up in a boring town and the many situations that she found herself in - it's all in the telling. I admire the courage with which this book was written - there is candor, zero pity, and respect and devotion for a family that often times drove her mad. Mary is proof that with enough love in your house, you can come out okay - Charlie and Pete did pretty well despite their faults. Together they gave Mary a plentiful basket of juicy plums which she ate, believed in and understood their value, and is now spinning into her own form of gold. After reading "Liar's Club", there was no question that I would read "Cherry" too. I am anxiously looking forward to Mary Karr's next book, and any others that follow.
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