The Liars' Club: A Memoir (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Mary Karr's memoir is an honest tale of the gritty , dark truth of her childhood. A child of imperfect parent's who lived the ghosts and haunts of their own imperfect childhoods, passing on the guilt, regrets and angers. Makes you appreciate your own parent's who were less crazy, less haunted and doing the best they could with what they knew. What impressed me is that she emerged with good memories, love of family, and the ability to see who her parents were with unfiltered lenses and a heart filled with love.

So written such that I would like to know the author and her sister. I was influenced to buy this because of the cover picture of the child among men sitting on a barstool. It is a picture from my own past; grampa "babysitting" me while mom worked and dad was in school after the war. Mom told me about it. I am so glad I did read this memoir even though the rest, after the cover, was not my story at all. This story reaffirmed my belief that everyone has a history and, mostly, they are worth listening to.

I must be one of the last people on earth to read this book. I also have to say I didn’t much care for it. There’s some interesting and poignant sections to this book but overall I found it very sad and tragic. I really had to struggle to get through it and I read an average four books per week. The title centered around her father’s friends who get together and spin lies to entertain each other was not terribly interesting. I know the author tried very hard to make it seem terribly quaint but for me it just came across this pathetic. The stories of her alcoholic mother and her problems may for some people be poignant, but I lived through that myself and I wasn’t very interested in being reminded of it. I can’t say I can recommend it but then most of the planet has already read it.

This will keep you reading until the end, and you'll feel it was time well spent. I've read that this is the memoir that set the bar for others; I'm not sure that's true, but you could make a case for it. After reading this book, I ordered her next memoir. You really feel for Karr as a girl growing up in Texas, and admire her as well. This book is a good use of your time.

I finished it a minute and a half ago. I haven’t processed it yet at all. But the very things that irritated me through the first half, brought me to tears by the end. Like the relationships in Mary Karr’s family, reading their story was a complex exercise in sorting out our past and living our story as it unfolds.

I love Southern memoirs and this one is a doozy. The author grew up in a pretty dysfunctional family, to say the least. Somehow, she was able to write about it and tell you the gritty details. You learn to care about every person in the book, good and bad.I admire her honestly and hope she’s had a wonderful adult life . She deserves it.

I read this because my book club suggested it. I didn't find much about this book that was funny. It's interesting but fairly depressing.

This is absolutely one of my favorite books and at least the last five years. If anyone ever asked me about a book that I recommend this is always the one that comes to mind first. I read her most recent memoir and one of the things that you discover in reading her is what an interesting and at times both tragic and numerous writer she is. I marvel at how she comes up with some of these phrases. The story is fascinating - though better read than lived.

If you like really really reaaaaaaaaaaallllllyyyyyy slow stories... this one's for you. It put me to sleep. I don't mean to offend those who like this book but it wasn't for me.