Lit

From Strand Bookstore

As a self-described 'blackbelt sinner,' award-winning author Mary Karr has already exposed much of soul in an earlier sequence of outstanding memoirs. Though, perhaps nothing will prepare readers for the brutal honesty and sparkling sincerity of Karr's 'Lit.' In this haunting memoir of alcoholism and redemption, readers discover a young woman hell-bent on self-destruction & free life, who is introduced to a poet who takes her heart & together with whom creates an adorable son. But when Karr's drinking begins to threaten her relationships and call to question the responsibility and weight of living as an adult, she is met by the realization that the only way to grow up is to embrace life's trials.

From the Publisher

The best-selling author of The Liar's Club reveals a new piece of her life during which, shortly after giving birth to a child she adored, she drank herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide before a surprising spiritual awakening led her to sobriety. 100,000 first printing.9780060722913 n expert on early Christianity reveals the historical Paul, not as the founder of a new Christian religion, but as a devout Jew who believed Jesus was the Christ who would unite Jews and Gentiles and fulfill God's universal plan for humanity. 25,000 first printing.

From the Publisher

The best-selling author of The Liar's Club reveals a new piece of her life during which, shortly after giving birth to a child she adored, she drank herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide before a surprising spiritual awakening led her to sobriety. 100,000 first printing.

Review

Rebecca Steinitz - Boston Globe
"[D]azzling....LIT reminds us not only how compelling personal stories can be, but how, in the hands of a master, they can transmute into the highest art."

Review

Kirkus Reviews
"[A]n absolute gem that secures Karr's place as one of the best memoirists of her generation" (starred review)

Review

Samantha Dunn - Los Angeles Times
"[I]n terms of memoirs it's not exactly high-octane, which her first was. The drama is mild if put against...[some other] recovery narrative[s]....But thankfully the unusual and the extreme aren't essential ingredients for a good memoir. Karr could tell you what's on her grocery list, and its humor would make you bust a gut, its unexpected insights would make you think and her pitch-perfect command of our American vernacular might even take your breath away."

Review

Ken Tucker - Entertainment Weekly
"[A] radiant, rueful, rip-roaring book....Karr writes about her binge drinking and her long struggle to accept the methods of Alcoholics Anonymous with a rare vividness, humor, and candor."

Review

Susan Cheever - New York Times Book Review
"In a gravelly, ground-glass-under-your-heel voice that can take you from laughter to awe in a few sentences, Karr has written the best book about being a woman in America I have read in years."

More about the book

Mary Karr's brilliant debut, THE LIARS' CLUB, provided a parade of imitators with the courage that they needed to transform the harrowing anguish of their troubled childhood into literature. With LIT, her third memoir, Karr surges ahead of the pack, displaying the sensibility she has acquired in maturation, even as she documents the process. Having assessed the damage of her childhood and adolescence in her first two books, Karr turns to her recovery, as she charts the healing process which gradually transformed her from a 17-year-old alcoholic masochist into a 50-year-old dutiful Catholic mother. The young Karr tosses in the turbulent wake of her traumatic upbringing, struggling to convince herself of the significance of education even as she drinks herself into an emotional collapse. She describes her religious conversion without resorting to sermons, and finally accepts that redemption may be held in the process of literary confession. LIT was named a finalist for the 2009 National Books Critics Circle Award for autobiography and selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the 10 Best Books of 2009.