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Summary: Just wonderful!
Review: Mary Karr is a writer of extraordinary talent and humor, with a deeply ingrained comprehension of "outsiderdom"--that place where children of differentness, intelligence, alienation and sensitivity go to live (sometimes forever.) She has the ability to incorporate the cadence of Texas slang into prose that floods the senses with its simple-seeming narrative structure.Everything about this book--from the sullen heat of endlesslessly boring, too-long summer days, to the drug-induced distortions and lassitude of her sixteenth summer--rings with truth. The author's unflinching look at her young self and at her friends, at her anything-but-ordinary family is to be applauded. Cherry is the epitome of taking a lemon and making not merely lemonade but a lemon chiffon cake. I loved every word of it.
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Summary: I couldn't pick it back up
Review: I heard wonderful things about this book... so I ran out and got it. I read a lot... on average probably a book or two (or three)every month. Sometimes when I buy a bad book, I'll still read it... just to combat boredom at work sometimes! This book was just not captivating for me, I made myself read it half way through, and now it sits on my nightstand with a book mark in it. It's not that Ms. Karr isn't eloquent, she's got a definate talent for prose... which is how I got even half way through, just by enjoying the sentence structure. I can't even tell you what this book is about, because I still don't really know. I know it's about some white (trash) family... her's I assume... in some town... and she did drugs or something. It just didn't hold my attention
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Summary: After "Liar's Club"--Hippie Teenhood Humorously Revisted
Review: Great expectations preceded "Cherry", Karr's second memoir. After all, its predecessor, 1995's dazzling "The Liars' Club", an account of her hardscrabble Texas childhood, virtually jump-started the latest memoir craze. Happily, "Cherry" delivers. Karr still has her delicious knack for making you guffaw through horrible events, but this volume, which focuses on her adolescence in the late '60s and early '70s, is decidedly sunnier than its predecessor. There are vivid evocations of young desire -- at one vulnerable moment, her whole body starts to hum like a "locust singing inside its husk" -- and memorable characters. The rememberances begin to get hazy and drag a bit as Karr becomes increasingly drug-addled in her teen years. Is "Cherry" as good as "The Liars' Club"? Not quite, but its humor, warmth and crackling language should keep Karr's fans hungering for another round.
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Summary: Not The Liar's Club, But Still Excellent
Review: I make this review with perceived inside information of the true identity of at least one of the characters, Clarice Fontenot, as I believe I know this woman (who grew up with Mary Karr and is mentioned in the dedication). I worked closely with her for a time at a construction company in Houston. Depictions of this woman are so accurate that I could not help but laugh at loud and marvel at how Ms. Karr describes her to a T. The very phrase "F**k you and come back." is one that she delighted me with on more than one occassion. As for the book as a whole, I must admit that I found myself lost in a few of her more drugged out passages, but perhaps that is the point. There seems to be a distancing of Mary from the actions in this book that was not there in Club. The haze with which she recalls some of this time in her life is no doubt a product of the pharmaceuticals and such of which she partook. This memoir is a much darker one than Club, yet it is much more revelatory. For anyone who has ever felt like they didn't belong, I recommend this book.
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Summary: Life in Pt Neches, Texas
Review: I grew up with Mary Karr, she graduated from PNG HS a year ahead of me. In fact, Dooney was one of my brother's best friends. A lot of us experienced the same adolescence as Mary, not much to do in that town,except get into trouble!!!However, not many could be as eloquent as Mary's words. I enjoyed the book, esp trying to figure out who some of the characters really were. Liar's Club was definitely a much better book, however, this one is funny, too.
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Summary: Nothing better than a smart "bad girl"
Review: This book is like sitting and listening to your friend's "fast" big sister spill the details of her last weekend. You hang on every word, half apalled, half entranced....would you, could you? Mary Karr has given voice to life in small town Texas in the late 60's and early 70's. We all thought we were destined for something other than small town life. Meandering into casual drug use, slipping into casual sex, and the constant battle to find something "more". The language is clear and true and unsparing and alive. This was a worthy folowup to "Liars' Club" the memior focused more on the younger years of Karr, and the havoc wrecked by her parent's alcohol abuse. As Karr grows older, her parents as less in the story, a telling example of her ability to survive and to move away from dependence on them...and to somehow block or ignore their chaotic interference in her life. This is a great book.
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Summary: Mary Karr:70s Soul Survivor
Review: Remember the wacked out 70s? If the answer is "barely, I was really stoned back then," this book will chill you to the bone. Mary Karr's memoir of her high school days is an honest remembrance of a very dark period of our history, when high school kids all over the country experimented with marijuana and psychedelic drugs. The social earthquake of the times wreaked havoc on many lives and families. The survivors understand this, and Mary Karr is definitely a survivor. This may be the best book ever written about these difficult times. "Cherry" is a must read.
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Summary: Can't wait to read about how she gets out of this mess!
Review: Mary Karr is a fabulous writer, and I can't wait to see how the rest of her life unfolds. Seems to me that nature must surely win out over nuture since she is now a professor. But nuture still has a strong grip in Book 2 of this autobiography. And the author is right on the mark in capturing preteen angst and teenage rebellion. Molly Ivins says it best on the back jacket: "To have a poet's precision of language and a poet's insight into people applied to one of the roughest, toughest, ugliest places in America is an astounding event." If you haven't read Liar's Club, do so first. And in her next book, I would love to hear something about Ms. Karr's mother's parents.
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Summary: Angst of adolescence with a hard-edged sense of humor
Review: Mary Karr is a fine writer. When I read her memoir, "The Liar'sClub" about her rough and tumble childhood in a working classTexas town, I loved every word. That's why I was so anxious to readthis sequel, which deals with her adolescence. There are definitelysome differences between the two books, but I wasn'tdisappointed.The voice of the young Mary Karr comes through loudand clear. It's honest and foul-mouthed and disrespectful. It's asharp-tongued blade that dares to illuminate the angst of adolescencewith a hard-edged sense of humor. And yet it brings the bittersweetsadness of disappointments and awakenings to the page. The readercannot help but love her.This book tells her story from age 11through 17. It's about her friendships and boyfriends and coming ofage. As it takes place in the 1970s, there are a lot of drugs. Maryis sent to the principal's office for not wearing a bra. Mary hangsout with long-haired surfers and does drugs. Mary gets arrested.Mary's sister takes a different path than Mary.In this book, Mary'sparents take a back seat to the peer group. The story of theirtumultuous marriage, psychological breakdowns and heavy drinking hasbeen explored in "The Liar's Club". By this book theireccentricities and foibles are already accepted as givens. Again,their love shines through.I'm glad that Ms. Karr decided tocontinue her story. It might have been a little more episodic thanthe first book and the events not as traumatic. But the strength ofher writing is not in the events, but in her view of them. And thatis why I enjoyed this book so much.The book ends when Mary is 17.Hopefully, they'll be yet another book that will follow her throughthe years.
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Summary: THIS is the same author of "Liars Club" ???
Review: Based on how much I liked "Liars Club" I was eager to read this book. However, I didn't like it at all. Most of the content is just plain old boring. After nearly every page one could say "so what?" This seems to me a failed example of an author trying to expand their range.
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