The Liars' Club brought to vivid, indelible life Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood. Cherry, her account of her adolescence, "continued to set the literary standard for making the personal universal" (Entertainment Weekly). Now Lit follows the self-professed blackbelt sinner's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness- and to her astonishing resurrection. Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting blueblood poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott," with an oddball tribe of gurus and saviors, awakens her to the possibility of joy and leads her to an unlikely faith. Not since Saint Augustine cried, "Give me chastity, Lord- but not yet!" has a conversion story rung with such dark hilarity. Lit is about getting drunk and getting sober; becoming a mother by letting go of a mother; learning to write by learning to live. Written with Karr's relentless honesty, unflinching self-scrutiny, and irreverent, lacerating humor, it is a truly electrifying story of how to grow up- as only Mary Karr can tell it. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Karr performs her brave memoir about alcoholism, getting sober, and getting God in a confident Texas drawl. Readers familiar with The Liar's Club, Karr's account of her childhood will find parallels-her descent into alcoholism differs from her mother's addiction only in the details. Karr revisits her past with rare candor and humor, recounting her role in the disintegration of her marriage to "Warren Whitbread," the reserved scion of a fabulously wealthy family (whose other members are deliciously skewered here), and her most shameful moments (leaving her feverish toddler to take a long swig from the bottle of Jack Daniels stashed in the oven). When Karr undergoes a hard-won spiritual awakening through the combined efforts of AA; her spiritual director, Joan the Bone; and a stay in the "Mental Marriott," listeners will be cheering. A Harper hardcover. (Mar.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Currently an award-winning, best-selling memoirist who described herself as an "on-my-knees [Catholic] spouter of praise" in a 2007 New York Times blog interview, Karr (The Liars' Club; Cherry) narrowly escaped a troubled upbringing and early adulthood that included alcoholic, psychotic parents, being raped as a child, and her own descent into alcoholism. She describes hitting rock bottom-an event that marked her transformation into the mother she was trying to escape-and her subsequent conversion to Catholicism in addition to the maturation of her writing style. The writing here sometimes seems affected, but her tale is riveting, her style clear-eyed and frank. That Karr survived the emotional and physical journey she regales her readers with to become the evenhanded, self-disciplined writer she is today is arguably nothing short of a miracle, and readers of her previous two books won't be disappointed. Verdict This latest installment of Karr's autobiographical saga is essential for fans of lurid, meaty memoirs. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/09.]-Megan Hodge, Randolph-Macon Coll. Lib., Ashland, VA Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Mary Karr's memoir, "The Liars' Club," won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award. A poet & essayist, she has won Pushcart prizes in both genres. Her other grants & awards include the prestigious Whiting Award & the Bunting Fellowship from Radcliffe College. Her previous poetry collections are "Abacus," "The Devil's Tour," & "Viper Rum." She is a full professor at Syracuse University.

(Publisher Provided) Mary Karr was born in Groves, Texas on January 16, 1955. She received an M.F.A. from Goddard College in 1979. Before becoming a poet and memoirist, she held various jobs in the computer and telecommunications industries. Her works include Lit, The Liars' Club and Cherry. She has also published four volumes of poetry: Abacus, The Devil's Tour, Viper, and Sinners Welcome. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry in 2005 and has won Pushcart prizes for both her poetry and her essays. She was an assistant professor at numerous colleges and universities including Tufts University, Emerson College, Harvard University, and Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently the Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.