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Cherry
 
 

Cherry (Paperback)

~ (Author) "NO ROAD OFFERS MORE MYSTERY than that first one you mount from the town you were born to, the first time you mount it of..." (more)
Key Phrases: John Cleary, Miss Gacy, Robert Cook (more...)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As a girl idling her way through long, toxically boring summer afternoons in Leechfield, Texas, Mary Karr dreamed up an unusual career for herself, "to write one-half poetry and one-half autobiography." She has since done both, and even when she's recounting a dirty joke, she can't help but employ a poet's precise and musical vision. Her first memoir, The Liar's Club, was as searing a chronicle of family life as can be imagined--tough, funny, and crackling with sorrow and wit. Against all odds, its sequel doesn't disappoint. Cherry finds the teenage Mary still marooned in a family whose behavior ranges from charmingly eccentric to dangerously crazy. (This, for instance, is the Karr version of a note from home: "Lecia Karr's leprosy kicked in, and I had to wrap her limbs in balm and hyssop. Please excuse her.") But here the focus has shifted to Mary herself, furiously engaged in pissing off authority at every turn: flouting the dress code, dropping acid, running from the cops, falling in love.

First love, you may say, heart sinking in chest: what more can possibly be said about such a subject? Actually, a great deal. To read Cherry is to realize how rare it is to find a teenage girl portrayed on her own terms. As a chronicle of female adolescence with all its longings, fantasies, cruelties, and fears, Karr's memoir goes darker and deeper than any book in which the protagonist doesn't end up dead. She turns a savage eye on her own hypocrisies and failings, and we like her all the more for them. We even end up fond of Leechfield, easily the toughest, smelliest, nastiest little burg ever to appear between the covers of a book--"a town too ugly not to love," her father called it in The Liar's Club. Growing up in such a place is necessarily about getting the hell out, but it's also about inventing a new identity with which to make your escape. That's the blessing Karr's wise friend Meredith bestows after a particularly harrowing (and harrowingly funny) acid trip: "I see big adventures for Mary. Big adventures, long roads, great oceans: same self." Cherry is the story of how Karr begins to acquire that self, however fumblingly--a big adventure for Mary, as it is for all of us, and one we never finish as long as we live. Perhaps that's the book's greatest pleasure of all: it hints there's more to come. --Mary Park --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.



From Publishers Weekly

Readers seduced by Karr's canny memoir of a childhood spent under the spell of a volatile, defiantly loving family in the Liar's Club can look forward to more exquisite writing in this sequel focusing on her adolescence in a dusty Texas town. Karr struggles as the talented child of a sullen, dismissive father and an ethereal, unstable mother who studies art and disappears from time to time, functioning more as an ally than as a mother to young Mary, who she encourages to be sexually active. When Mary is locked up in a drug raid, her mother rescues her by charming the judge, an old admirer. Writing in the second person, Karr recounts with disarming immediacy her tenuous childhood friendships, her rocky move into adolescence and sexual experimentation (she describes teenage kisses as "delicate as origami in their folds and bendings"); her troubles with school authority and her early escape into books and language. In one funny and poignant episode, Mary despairs over her dysfunctional family life in a dull town and, influence by the literature she is reading, makes a half-hearted attempt at suicide, before she resolves to live "as long as there are plums to eat and somebody - anybody who gives enough of a damn to haul them for you." Moving effortlessly from breathtaking to heart stabbing to laugh out loud raucous, the precision and sheer beauty of Karr's writing remains astounding. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (September 4, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0141002077
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141002071
  • Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,441 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #12 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Single Women
    #13 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Comic
    #13 in  Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Authors

More About the Author

Mary Karr
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
NO ROAD OFFERS MORE MYSTERY than that first one you mount from the town you were born to, the first time you mount it of your own volition, on a trip funded by your own coffee tin of wrinkled up dollars-bills you've saved and scrounged for, worked the all-night switch-board for, missed the Rolling Stones for, sold fragrant pot with smashed flowers going brown inside twist-tie plastic baggies for. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
John Cleary, Miss Gacy, Robert Cook, Adam Phaelen, Miss Baird, Davie Ray Hawks, Miss Karr, Augustus Maurice, Miss Ann, Ruth Ann, Los Angeles, Mary Ferrell, Towne House, Miz Deets, Wally Ray, Becky Smedley, Mary Karr, Hogaboom Road
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This book cites 5 books:
 
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Customer Reviews

73 Reviews
5 star:
 (33)
4 star:
 (13)
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 (8)
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 (6)
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (73 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
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
By Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Cherry: A Memoir (Hardcover)
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
By Michael K. McKeon (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Cherry: A Memoir (Hardcover)
"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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars WTF?
After reading, and loving, The Liar's Club for the second time, I thought I'd give Cherry a try. I knew the reviews weren't as favorable, but given the caliber of TLC I figured... Read more
Published 1 month ago by KC

2.0 out of 5 stars An interesting story written in such boring prose
I am so disappointed with the way in which Karr chose to write this memoir. I was tempted to put it down more than once while I was reading it, but her subject matter kept me... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Heather White

5.0 out of 5 stars function in dysfunction
I enjoyed both books by Ms. Karr. She speaks of happiness hidden in a dysfunctional childhood. I believe more young adults should read her books and realize that happiness comes... Read more
Published 20 months ago by SunViolet

4.0 out of 5 stars Great High School Memories
I read Liar's Club when first published & Cherry when it was first published, so, it's been many years since I have read either one. I grew up w/Mary Karr. Read more
Published 20 months ago by pambrad

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is soooooooooo bad
I will 100% agree with the person who says in their review is this the same author of The Liar's Club? I REALLY, REALLY liked that memoir. Read more
Published 20 months ago by B. Flatt

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible
This is my absolute favorite book in the past few years. Karr is outstanding at description. I've never read anything as precise and beautiful and inventive. Read more
Published 22 months ago by jessi_books

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
I bought this book because I loved her first one "The Liars' Club" so much. To be honest, had I started with "Cherry" I probably would not have been interested enough to read... Read more
Published on March 26, 2007 by B. Myers

5.0 out of 5 stars I hate poetry
...yet I halfway want to buy Mary Karr's entire body of work out of sheer gratitude for her having written this, and Liar's Club. Read more
Published on September 12, 2006 by porkchop

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional, Coming-Of-Age Memoir
Mary Karr relives her teenage years in a small, working class town in Texas. The book is wonderful as Karr hits all the right notes while focusing on familiar, universal... Read more
Published on August 14, 2006 by Anthony J Novak

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegiac bittersweet poetry
Mary Karr's Cherry is a fantastic remembrance of an adolescence which her parents had very little influence over during the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s in the Port Arthur,... Read more
Published on June 23, 2006 by CantStopWontStop

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