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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Angst of adolescence with a hard-edged sense of humor, November 11, 2000
Mary Karr is a fine writer. When I read her memoir, "The Liar's
Club" about her rough and tumble childhood in a working class
Texas town, I loved every word. That's why I was so anxious to read
this sequel, which deals with her adolescence. There are definitely
some differences between the two books, but I wasn't
disappointed.The voice of the young Mary Karr comes through loud
and clear. It's honest and foul-mouthed and disrespectful. It's a
sharp-tongued blade that dares to illuminate the angst of adolescence
with a hard-edged sense of humor. And yet it brings the bittersweet
sadness of disappointments and awakenings to the page. The reader
cannot help but love her. This book tells her story from age 11
through 17. It's about her friendships and boyfriends and coming of
age. As it takes place in the 1970s, there are a lot of drugs. Mary
is sent to the principal's office for not wearing a bra. Mary hangs
out with long-haired surfers and does drugs. Mary gets arrested.
Mary's sister takes a different path than Mary. In this book, Mary's
parents take a back seat to the peer group. The story of their
tumultuous marriage, psychological breakdowns and heavy drinking has
been explored in "The Liar's Club". By this book their
eccentricities and foibles are already accepted as givens. Again,
their love shines through. I'm glad that Ms. Karr decided to
continue her story. It might have been a little more episodic than
the first book and the events not as traumatic. But the strength of
her writing is not in the events, but in her view of them. And that
is 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 through
the years.
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35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a sequel to The Liar's Club, October 11, 2000
"The Liars' Club" is such a beautiful, touching, and profound memoir that it takes your breath away. Clearly, such a work is a hard "act" to follow. Unfortunately, this has been represented as a sequel to "The Liars' Club" setting the expectations bar very high. While this book is ok, it comes as a disappointment in light of the expectations that have been established by the hype.First, it is important to note that this really isn't a sequel. "The Liars' Club" was a poignant description of her parents tumultuous marriage as viewed through the eyes of a child, and a heart wrenching tribute to her father. Her parents are decidedly in the background in "Cherry" with her father being no more than a footnote. However, Karr's mother plays a sympathetic supporting role as a farsighted, sensitive and progressive, albeit eccentric, mother for an adolescent girl. Unlike her former memoir, "Cherry" is primarily about Mary Karr and about her angst as a teenager and her distinctive transformation as an adolescent in light of a highly untraditional and unorthodox upbringing in a decidedly traditional blue collar town. I found Karr's depiction of the town's relative tolerance of individual idiosyncracies particularly gratifying in light of the erroneous stereotypes often attributed to working class communities and Texas as a whole. Karr offers important, albeit subtle, socioeconomic observations on the disenfranchisement of the working class, particularly in light of the disillusionment and subsequent changes in social mores which arose during the Vietnam War era (though those social structures were more important to the middle class as Karr's representation of the working class suggests). However, some of the recollections seemed disjointed, or out of focus, perhaps intentionally in her depiction of the search for purpose in an often drug induced haze. I think the reaction to this book will definitely be mixed. It would probably have been better received if it preceded "The Liars' Club" or if the reader didn't know they were written by the same author.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
iconoclastic, defiant and gritty teen discerns true self, November 28, 2001
Both the cover and title of Mary Karr's second memoir, "Cherry," are deceptive. Although her scathingly witty and powerfully realized descriptions of coming-of-age in the environmentally and spiritually polluted town of Leechfield, Texas, during the late 1960s and early 70s treat her sexual awakening, her memoir is much more a sarcastic, self-deprecating, but liberating analysis of how Mary came to understand her essence. Her knowledge of what she would come to refer to as her "Same Self" is hard earned, the author having travelled through the seas of family dysfunction, alienation and rejection of her social mileu, and a bizarre and frightening absorbtion into the drug-culture and the nascent counterculture of her adolescence. Ms. Karr is an exquisite writer; the compelling narrative of her life augments the marvelous capturing of Texan patois and the absolutely captivating characterizations she renders of the men, women and children who help provide defintion to her life.Now a professor of English at Syracuse University, Mary Karr was a hellion as a child and a rebel as a teenager. Resentful of the restrictions imposed upon her by a town dedicated to spewing toxic waste into the atmosphere and reared by an alcoholic father and a desperately brilliant but fiercely independent mother, Mary determines not to follow the footsteps of her voluptuous (and right wing) older sister. At eleven, envious of her boyfriends' freedom and captivated by her initial sexual stirrings towards one of them, Mary determines to ride her bike bare-chested. This foray into inarticulated feminist rebellion backfires, of course; the humiliated Mary retreats into her home, bewildered by her mother's bland acquiesence and determined even more to find her place in the world. Her eventual understanding of her place as a woman -- of its power, its fragility and its vulnerability -- evolves in a powerful and frightening description of an aborted sexual assualt on her mother. That place would not be in school. Some of the memoir's best writing captures the tumultuous years Mary survived high school. A self-described screw-up, Mary constantly challenged authorities, ridiculing their perceived stupidity and rigidity, wantonly defying traditional convention and eagerly embracing a personality which glorified lassitude, disenchantment and disengagement. Her eventual involvement (perhaps devolution into) with the world of drugs causes her to remember many events in a fragmented, near kaleidescopic manner. Although a bit repetitious at times, her colorful, caustic and critical analaysis of the impact of drugs on her consciousness remind the reader of how much this young woman actually forced upon herself in her quest for self understanding. The brutal truth is that Mary Karr was lucky to escape Leechfield. "The slope of boredom there is steep enough to cast the shadow of an astonishingly high suicide rate." Despite the "crushing tedium" of life, this profoundly brilliant, angry, ironic and self-deprecating poet found not only courage, but voice. It is this unbridled tension and strength that gives "Cherry" its power. Its author is neither seeking approval nor indictment; she is merely attempting to demonstrate that the explosive impact of her environment did not destroy her. Indeed, it is that defiant, open-faced grit that gives "Cherry" its capacity to instruct.
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