The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
#26 (half way to my goal!)
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Back to the child hood memoir genre. The story is told through the eyes of the author Mary Karr mostly while she is 7-9 years old. More than the story of her own life, it is really the tale of her mother’s life as seen through her eyes and the eventual revelations of the secrets from her life before Mary which end up driving her mother literally to insanity and alcohol. There is a wry, matter of fact way about young Mary that gets her through this truly troubling childhood. The telling of how she and her old sister come up with their self defense mechanisms is fascinating.
But, of course, no real life memoir is worth writing if the life tale it is telling is not fraught with heartache, anger, upheaval & things which small children just should *never* have to bear. So, yes, it was a very hard read. And frankly after going in to so much detail of particular chunks of time, it was a bit anti-climactic to fast forward to the point where All Is Revealed. It seemed almost as an after thought. I had honestly forgotten about the snippet of mystery that was introduced in those early year, but then dropped out of sight as their mother put them through one disaster after another.
Still, when I think back through all they endured, it’s quite amazing to read this knowing that both girls end up just fine. Perhaps remarkably so. Proving the theory: That which does not kill you makes you stronger.
Trees & Flowers & Birds! 
This is another book on my Amazon wish list. I think I should be careful to space out the memoirs as it sounds like those on my list might be hard read.
Congrats on making it half way to your goal!
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Yeah, depends on the author of course but I’m about to follow up up this one with Frank McCourt’s follow up to Angela’s Ashes – so I’m not too bright! OTOH, I want to read ‘Tis while the first is still fresh in my mind. After this I’m picking something lighter for sure!
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