Blythe's Book 18: The Liar's Club

I finished reading Mary Karr's memoir, The Liar's Club, this weekend. Even though it is the chosen selection this month for the book club I'm a part of, I almost didn't read it just out of sheer laziness. However, when I watched two of my favorite readers, Trish and Pam, almost get in a knock-down-drag-out last week over whether or not it was a good read (Pam: no way, Trish: hell yes), I ran over to the library to check it out just as fast as my Mazda would carry me. (When I said ran you didn't actually think I meant on foot, did you?) I was kind of relishing the thought of coming to my own conclusions and then being part of a teachers' lounge book brawl. Much to my disappointment, I'm not ready to take off my earrings and start throwing punches on either side.

I can totally understand why Pam didn't like the writing. Karr is a poet first, and at times I discovered her inventing verbs, and leaving out words that I expected to see (like an article preceding a noun). At first, I found this infuriating because I kept having to reread sentences. However, by memoir's end, I kinda liked this aspect of her writing. Oh, and in the beginning, Karr totally overuses this metaphor about seeing life like a movie reel, with the pictures fading in and out. Happily, she drops this midway through.

On the other hand, I thought, much like Trish, that the storyline itself was compelling. Don't get me wrong-- if someone asks me to recommend a memoir about childhood in an F'd up family, I'm still endorsing The Glass Castle (if you haven't read it, go get it NOW!!). But, I still really liked Karr's story and found myself connected to the characters. This girl lived through some sh*t, which may be reason enough to get a book deal, but is not necessarily enough to entertain me; for me, the winning combination was learning about the connection between Karr and her sister, and about her father, and the town they lived in. This family lived with such fury, chaos, and grit! Mary is constantly telling neighborhoos children off, using colorful phrases that she doesn't even fully understand-- and on the one hand I'm busy admiring the heck out of her for being so ballsy, and on the other I'm thinking, "My God... where does a child learn that?" Mary lived a rough life, but if nothing else, her parents prepared her to handle herself. There's no doubt at memoir's end that, no matter how psychologically battered Mary and Leisa may be, they will come through in one piece-- they've been forged in the fire and will endure.