The Liar's Club,
Mary Karr, 1995 *** The Liar's Club,
Mary Karr, 1995 ***
This award winning book and long-time best seller is for readers who enjoy a style of writing that describes circumstances so vividly that you begin to feel that you are in the story. The author is better known as a poet--and it shows. This is a memoir, mostly of childhood years in a small East Texas oil refinery town in the 1960's. Her family is a dysfunctional mix of an older sister with a passion for order, an oft-married mother who is also an artist, and a hard drinking father with a kind heart who works hard (when he's not out on the picket line), is quick to fight, and meets regularly with his cronies, the liar's club.
You see all of this from a child's viewpoint, a child who is at times bewildered by it all and at times shows great insight and courage. Her descriptions of people and events are marvelous. A grandmother you're not likely to soon forget. A hurricane that nearly took their lives. Family fights that occurred so often the two young sisters assigned them numbers. Conflict with neighbors and officials. And story-telling sessions which young Mary was allowed to attend, where her father spun yarns with a conviction that made believers out of folks who knew better.
For all the tragedy in this family, the story is told with humor and love and you'll find yourself liking these people and admiring this spunky kid who was raised in the midst of chaos and somehow emerged with insight and sensitivity as well as a major talent with words. There's no particular plot, no grand finale. But the people and places are so vivid that you'll remember them. It's a hard book to put down.