“Wickedly funny and always movingly illuminating, thanks to kick-ass storytelling and a poet’s ear.” –Oprah.com The New York Times bestselling, hilarious tale of Mary Karr’s hardscrabble Texas childhood that Oprah.com calls the best memoir of a generation.The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, bringing about a dramatic revival of the … new level, bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger’s—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at age twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. This unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as “funny, lively, and un-put-downable” (USA Today) today as it ever was.
more
Very disappointed. I found I did not care about the characters – especially the author – at all!
Since its release, The Liar’s Club has become a classic in the memoir genre.
Unbelievable.
Loved it – but don’t believe it’s all true.
Read this quite awhile ago but remember enjoying it.
In this powerfully funny, razor’s edge tale of a fractured girlhood, prize-winning poet and critic Mary Karr conjures up the terrors and joys of growing up in a swampy East Texas refinery town, at the epicenter of a family full of passionate, volatile attachments. In a voice stripped of self-pity, in language reinvented with a raw authenticity and brilliant energy, Karr shows readers a “terrific family of liars and drunks . . . redeemed by a slow unearthing of truth.”
An excellent memoir about a crazy family and how Mary and her sister survived.
The book was funny and very entertaining. I enjoy her writing. There is honesty and passion in her words.
Slow developing, I couldn’t get interested enough to finish it. Didn’t seem to be going anywhere
Mary Karr started the genre of Dysfunctional Family Memoir. Who knew that crazy childhoods could be so funny? She has other memoirs that cover other chapters in her life that I also heartily recommend.
Funny, poignant, sweet, and sad. A very well written memoir.
History not accurate. She mixed up her hurricanes and their path and timing. Characterizations are broadly funny, but I lived in the area in the timeframe and worked in a refinery and found it difficult to agree with many of her viewpoints on refinery workers.
Excellent read that is very troubling and inspiring at the same time! Told with honesty and a sense of humor that we can all survive our crazy and sometimes troubled childhood.
Easy to read. Real emotions throughout.
A little too much information
The writing is more than clever, descriptively perfect.
A very hard but interesting memoir.
One of those books you’ll wish you’d written yourself. Very fine!
This book kept me engaged all the way through. The author described her family’s dysfunction with humor and introspection.
IT WAS SAD AND YET VERY MUCH A STORY OF TRUE LIFE EXPERIENCE WITH A THOUGHTFUL ENDING.