Editorial Review:
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Read by the author
4 cassettes/ 6 hours
Mary Karr told the prize-winning tale of her hardscrabble Texas childhood with enough literary verve to spark a renaissance in memoir. The Liar's Club rode the top of The New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, and publications ranging from The New Yorker to People picked it as one of the best books of the year. But it left people wondering: How'd that scrappy kid make it outta there? Cherry dares to tell that story. Karr picks up the trail and dashes off into her teen years with customary sass, only to run up against the paralyzing self-doubt of a girl in bloom.
In this long-awaited sequel, we see Karr ultimately trying to run from the thrills and terrors of her sexual awakwening by butting against authority in all its forms. She lands all too often in the principal's office and--in one instance--a jail cell. Looking for a lover or heart's companion who'll make her feel whole, she hooks up with an outrageous band of surfers and heads, wannabe yogis and bona fide geniuses.
Karr's edgy, brilliant prose careens between hilarity and tragedy, and Cherry takes readers to a place never truly explored--deep inside a girl's stormy, ardent adolescence. Parts will leave you gasping with laughter. But its soaring close proves that from even the smokiest beginnings a solid self can form, one capable of facing down all manner of monsters.
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Reader Reviews for Cherry:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Another excellent memoir from Mary Karr
Comment: Those who enjoyed The Liar's Club will enjoy this follow-up, focusing more on Karr's teen years.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Well Written, But Not Nearly As Good As Liars Club
Comment: I often choose to read books that show up on Amazon's "Recommended for Me" list - and since Lit: A Memoir is one of them, I decided to read Mary Karr's first two memoirs beforehand. Since I *loved* The Liars' Club (to which I will henceforth refer as Book One), I looked forward to reading _Cherry_ (Book Two). What a disappointment. Book One felt incredibly honest - the product of many conversations, much introspection, and hard work. I loved the way Karr linked her past experiences to the present and especially appreciated the inclusion of her therapist's injunction to challenge herself vis-a-vis her mother (something along the lines of "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten"), as well as the immediate results of that self-challenge. I loved Karr's approach, actually felt that I'd learned something when I finished, and imagined that Book Two would be more of the same. It is not. Between the poetic reminiscences and extensive use of the second person, _Cherry_ feels much more like a work in progress, more a roster of veiled excuses than like a life story. Although the writing is undeniably lovely, this book is just a published journal. A journal in which Karr is still wrestling with unresolved issues. I'm feeling doubtful about Karr's most recent memoir installment (Lit: A Memoir) -- but I'll still be giving it a try.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Why, oh why, didn't someone stop her from writing this whole book in second person?
Comment: Mary Karr is a fine writer and a compelling story teller. I don't know why she thought writing practically the whole book in second person was a good idea, but what amazes me is that no one else stopped her and the book went to publication this way.
Maybe she was trying to portray something about the alienation of adolescence, I don't know. But in effect, it was just distracting and annoying to read.
Disappointing after the brilliance of The Liar's Club.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cherry by Mary Karr
Comment: Mary Karr's memoir, Cherry, is a continuation of her life, begun in the book The Liar's Club. In this extension Ms. Karr is now a teenager leaving the small town in Texas she has long despised for California. The book is an account of what it was like for a young girl growing up in the drug-induced '70's. Mary's descriptions of drugs, beach parties, and getting busted are vivid and well written. Her raw depictions of adolescent life are no holds barred in language or content, laying the times out in a raw-boned fashion for the reader to witness.
A frank, adventurous story of coming of age romances many readers will relate to. Mary Karr has a poetic style of grunge, chronicling this era of baby boomer life with sex and drugs. I found her descriptions of these influences as adept and on point as any I have previously read. There is a boldness embodied necessary to bare your soul without reserve for others to inspect and judge.
I am also writing this as a baby boomer who gives account of similar times in my next book, KING BONE, which will further enlighten those who read, about the time travels of a period in history when human wildness became psychodellic....charged with hedonistic lust.
Charles Hamilton Sr, Former Executive Director Northwest Teen Challenge and author of From Darkness To Light and A Step of Faith.
From Darkness To Light
Customer Rating:
Summary: LOVED IT!
Comment: Picking this up in a bargain section I did not know how much I was going to love this book. It definitely kept me entertained. She is a poet and I think she writes beautifully with poetry.
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