Lit - a memoir by Mary Karr

2009 - Harper Perennial

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An insatiable text that will not let you go, Mary Karr has taken memoir to a new level in “Lit”.   I first heard Mary reading a section of her book on NPR’s “The Writer’s Block”.   Her revelation on that podcast that she had had a spiritual experience that drove her to write it led me to the work, and it paid off.  I bought the book on that interview alone, well, to be honest along with it being a national best seller.  I have not regretted taking it on in my precious reading time, the little of it that I do have.  I finished tonight, and was completely satisfied with this story of a life. 
She is unabashedly self-abasing and honest.  Let’s see, other synonyms come to mind; transparent, brazen, surgically reliable and the real thing.  Her assessment of her life is painfully awake and alive with moments of clarity that one cannot escape from applying to your own self.  I could see my own self in many of these moments, making decisions based on my own perspectives, bungling through relationships without a guide, prayer-less, hopeless, lost.  Mary carefully and convincingly dissects her journey for us from one of atheistic self-envelopment to transcendent belief and reliance.  For the 12-stepper, this is a hopeful work.  For the would-be addict, it is a warning and guide.  For the so-called “normal” of us, we find that there is no such thing, and in one way or another we are all caught up in chasing some kind of ghost that must be gotten rid of in order to have peace, and meaning.
As for her prose, I had heard it said that Mary never wastes a sentence.  This is true.  I found her work to be funny at times, and inspiring to me as a writer, to be better, and more succinct, and more circumspect.  She certainly is accomplished and deserves praise for the work, as well as an admonition to continue to work at reflecting back to us who we truly are.  This is the perfect work of an author, to shine light in our dark places and make plain those things we so wish we could say ourselves and at times have trouble articulating.  I am now looking forward to going back in time and reading her other works that led her here in “The Liars’ Club” and “Cherry”.
5 stars