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Cherry (Abridged) Audiobook
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Mary Karr told the prize-winning tale of her hardscrabble Texas childhood with enough literary verve to spark a renaissance in memoir. The Liar's Club rode the top of The New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, and publications ranging from The New Yorker to People picked it as one of the best books of the year. But it left people wondering: How'd that scrappy kid make it outta there? Cherry dares to tell that story. Karr picks up the trail and dashes off into her teen years with customary sass, only to run up against the paralyzing self-doubt of a girl in bloom. In this long-awaited sequel, we see Karr ultimately trying to run from the thrills and terrors of her sexual awakwening by butting against authority in all its forms. She lands all too often in the principal's office and—in one instance—a jail cell. Looking for a lover or heart's companion who'll make her feel whole, she hooks up with an outrageous band of surfers and heads, wannabe yogis and bona fide geniuses. Karr's edgy, brilliant prose careens between hilarity and tragedy, and Cherry takes readers to a place never truly explored—deep inside a girl's stormy, ardent adolescence. Parts will leave you gasping with laughter. But its soaring close proves that from even the smokiest beginnings a solid self can form, one capable of facing down all manner of monsters.
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"Summary: Karr's highly-anticipated follow-up memoir, covers her life up to the age of seventeen: through deep and abiding friendships, through early and touchingly hilarious experiments with sex, through the process of self-creation a young girl goes through when there's nobody around to show her the way. The book is divided into three parts: "Elementary's End", about the summer when Mary was between the fifth and sixth grade; "Midway", about her junior high school years,and "High", about her tumultuous high school years in the early 1970s. Mary's focus in this book is on her sexual coming of age."
— Joyce (5 out of 5 stars)
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Karr captures, exactly, what it’s like for a girl to kiss the first boy she loves….She captures, exactly, what it’s like to start high school….She captures, exactly, what it’s like to be a book-hungry teenager, enraptured by the words and heady ideas that offer transport from the banalities of small-town life….As she did in The Liars’ Club, Ms. Karr combines a poet’s lyricism and a Texan’s down-home vernacular with her natural storytelling gift.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times“A compelling ride through [Karr’s] adolescence….What distinguishes Karr is the ability to serve up her experiences in a way that packs the wallop of immediacy with the salty tang of adult reflection…her descriptions of the bruised-lip, druggy wonder of teenage love are precise, unsentimental, and lovely.” —Chicago Tribune“The Liars’ Club left no doubt that Mary Karr could flat out write…the one question everyone had upon finishing her story was, could she do it again? Cherry lays that question to rest once and for all….It never lacks for those trademark Karr details, but it’s about all of us. —Newsweek“A smart, searing memoir….Romance, in all of its wondrous and heartbreaking incarnations, is Karr’s great subterranean subject, the ground upon which her wily, whip-smart writing catches root.” —Lisa Shea, ElleStunning…If The Liars’ Club succeeded partly because of its riveting particularity, Cherry succeeds because of its universality. The first book is about one harrowing childhood, the second about every adolescence. She can turn even the most mundane events into gorgeous prose.” —The New York Times Book Review“Cherry is the kind of book a brave parent could do a lot worse than to give to a teenager….Teenage girls might come away from it knowing that they’re not freaks, that mistakes aren’t fatal, and that good writing kisses just about everything better. And for teenage boys, reading Cherry would be like stealing the other team’s playbook….Mary Karr gives memoir back its good name.” —San Francisco Chronicle“Here, intact, is the smart, sassy, wickedly observant voice first met in The Liars’ Club, a voice that knows how to tell a story in a crackling vernacular that feels exactly true to its setting.” —The Washington Post“Cherry delivers. Karr still has her delicious knack for making you guffaw through horrible events…its humor, warmth, and crackling language should keep Karr’s fans hungering for another round.” —People Magazine“Karr writes about adolescence with the same emotional precision that illuminated her account of childhood…[she] nails with wonderful specificity the complex way adolescents bond intellectually and emotionally. Her descriptions of her early sexual experiences are also original. Her language is frank without becoming clinical, and she captures the swooning tenderness of a kiss without sounding sentimental…firmly rooted though it is in a particular time and place, Cherry, like all serious autobiographies, is about something much more universal: the construction of a satisfying identity or, more precisely, the discovery of a fundamental self that was there all along.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer“It’s the powerful spiked punch of Karr’s writing that amazes…Cherry is about the dizzy funk of female teen sexuality, and Karr captures the innocence and dirt of it, the hunger and the thrill, with exquisite pitch. Karr’s connection to her younger sexual self is profound with mercy or nostalgia….Karr identifies the vulnerable, frightening gap between most girls’ night thoughts and those in the day….Right now, in this remembrance of blooming, Karr continues to set the literary standard for making the personal universal.” —Entertainment Weekly“This book is best when it portrays things common to all of us in adolescence. The woeful sense of isolation. The fierce desire to have friends. The agitated, wondrous discovery of things sexual. Those awkward kisses in the dark. And the risks.” —USA Today“This book is about being a female adolescent, a horrible fate; the best that can be said of it is that one does recover. The extraordinary thing about Karr, in addition to the poetry of her writing, is her stunning honesty.” —Molly Ivins, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram“Awesomely written…Cherry is beautifully wrought and tart in its angst-wrangling….Karr can render sentences so powerful as to make you bow your head in reverence.” —The Village Voice“Cherry is beautifully written, without a single word wasted. Karr’s poetic yet tensile language creates exceptional landscapes, both physical and emotional…her broad but precise descriptions, coupled with piercing insights into the sometimes agonizing trials of growing up, create fully realized characters with whom the reader can immediately empathize….Hardly a soul alive hasn’t felt exiled in the dark territory of adolescence; Karr maps this landscape expertly and candidly.” —The San Diego Union“Step aside, J. D. Salinger, and take your alter ego Holden Caulfield with you. Mary Karr has staked out your turf, the upended land of adolescence. And she is just smart, angry, sensitive and self-mocking enough to defe
Cherry Listener Reviews
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" I found this more difficult to love than The Liar's Club. Not as engaging. "
— Michelle, 12/15/2013 -
" My sister Terry sent this book to me many years ago. She stuck a post-it on the cover explaining why she wanted me to read it, one of the few pieces of her handwriting in my possession. I didn't like the book and never finished it until now, a year after her death from cancer. I still could not relate to the memoir in the way Terry did. Even so, it is a tale well-told, a scrapbook of events in fluid narrative which drags the reader through adolescent mishap, mistake, and misery. My discomfort in the company of this wayward teen was overshadowed by the engaging conversational writing. "
— Tina, 12/14/2013 -
" One of my favorite books! "
— Emily, 11/25/2013 -
" I found the use of the second person in the majority of the book to be distracting and not as compelling. "
— Fran, 11/21/2013 -
" I really enjoyed this book a lot, but I found off-putting the shift to second person narration in the latter half of the book. It made the reading experience somewhat less enjoyable to me as I felt disconnected from the protagonist/writer. "
— Lauren, 11/12/2013 -
" I loved The Liar's Club so I figured it would be a hard act to follow. But this book kept the tone and the humor and the outrage so I'm satisfied. I envy the characters abilities to process painful life lessons. How is it the daughters got enough from their limited parents and chaotic childhood to become these fully realized adults? Maybe this is why we keep reading coming of age books, to me this is one of the compelling mysteries of life. "
— Robyn, 11/6/2013 -
" i got halfway through this one, but didn't have time to finish it because it was due back at the library. i may check it out again sometime, but it didn't really hold my attention too much. "
— Kerri, 11/4/2013 -
" not quite the liar's club, but mary karr, oh mary karr. "
— Amity, 11/1/2013 -
" Not quite as fantastic as The Liars' Club, but pretty darned close, and certainly a memoir worth reading, particularly if you don't plan on reading many memoirs at all. This and its predecessor should surely be at the top of even a very short list. "
— Elizabeth, 10/29/2013 -
" This is a beautifully frank, open foray into adolescence, which is what makes it sometimes tedious to read. Adolescence is not all that interesting once you're --thank goodness!! -- out of it. Lit and Liar Liar are more engaging. "
— Carla, 10/21/2013 -
" I was expecting much more from this. "
— Courtney, 10/21/2013 -
" Memoir by Mary Karr of her pre-teen and teen years. Unstable house, alcohol, and then as she got older, sex and drugs. Well-written and honest, but not that great a read. "
— Kathy, 10/17/2013 -
" Still as kickass as The Liars' Club with that same Karr spirit and verve, but is a little more special to me because it also manages to capture the youthful exuberance and awkwardness of first love. Plus, the inscription she wrote to me reads, "To Christin, who rules the universe..." "
— Christin, 10/8/2013 -
" This book is just as good as Liar's Club. A must read! "
— Sarah, 10/6/2013 -
" I didn't like this one as much as "Lit," but it was still pretty good. Maybe I'm missing something by reading them in reverse order. "
— Doneen, 9/6/2013 -
" Mary Karr is a master at writing about memory. She captures those odd and awkward feelings that I recall from when I was a teenager~how a person can feel so lonely, even though there are family members, teachers, friends, and other people around all the time. "
— Juliette, 6/24/2013 -
" Despite perfectly capturing feelings of desire and sexuality during adolescence, and what I would imagine teenage life during the 70s to be, it couldn't help but fall short of The Liar's Club. Plus, the second person narration gets incredibly tiresome after awhile. "
— Angie, 5/11/2013 -
" Mary Karr says it like it is and I love that about her! Sometimes a little too raw, but always real. What I like most about her is her persistence to be herself. I read Lit first, and now plan to read Liar's Club next. (yes, I know I'm reading in reverse order!) "
— Denise, 3/20/2013 -
" Great hippy memoir. Worth a read...I couldn't put it down. "
— Carly, 2/5/2013 -
" The proverbial "sexual coming of age"novel but this one set in a small Texas town with a dysfunctional family. Sequel to The Liar's Club, which is about her earlier childhood. "
— Lucy, 9/6/2012 -
" a valentine for your inner angst-ridden-teen, only dipped in grit, sprinkled with wit, and centered around a really hard nut. delicious prose. savory insight. feeds your bones. yum! "
— Missreb, 5/11/2012 -
" Enjoyed this coming of age memoir far more than LIT--less self-serving, more interesting world/subject, same gorgeous writing. "
— Keija, 9/15/2011 -
" I LOVE Mary Karr but this book didn't do it for me. Her teenage druggy years were boring to me and that was half the book. "
— Diana, 9/6/2011 -
" The heroine of Liars Club comes of age on her own terms within the druggy counter-culture in her East Texas homeland. This has very little to do with her Cherry and everything to do with (hilarious) mistakes we make in our teenage innocence. "
— Ka, 7/29/2011 -
" This is the second of three (so far) memoirs by Mary Karr who is a fine writer. I would say this is weaker than the other two, though still a really good book. I read them out of order with this one last, so that may have colored my perception of the book. "
— Leslie, 7/24/2011 -
" Of the three, I liked this least "
— Alisonleonard1, 7/3/2011 -
" From what I read, it wasn't all that bad. Thing is, I got around, oh, 1/4 or so through the book over the course of years. Never bothered to finish it, ended up giving it away. So, nothing terrible, but then again, it wasn't even memorable enough to hate. "
— Sasha, 6/25/2011 -
" Overall, not a good read. A big disappointment. "
— Brandy, 4/12/2011 -
" Phooie. I forgot to finish my afterword. Yet another messed-up-girl-grows-up memoir. I think it left me feeling sentimental and that Cherry is really mising the point (of life). I guess I find it hard to relate. Well-written. "
— Andrew, 3/18/2011 -
" The heroine of Liars Club comes of age on her own terms within the druggy counter-culture in her East Texas homeland. This has very little to do with her Cherry and everything to do with (hilarious) mistakes we make in our teenage innocence. "
— Ka, 2/19/2011 -
" Even better than The Liars Club. I loved it. "
— Megan, 2/12/2011 -
" there are not enough female coming of age novels. this is one, and though the second half wasn't as good as the first, i really liked it. "
— Karen, 2/2/2011 -
" I'm intrigued and challenged by each sentence in this book. Mary Karr knows how to tell a story that you'll get lost in. I've not read a writer more gifted in putting prose together. Plus, I grew up in the area she writes about, and her depiction is accurate to the T. "
— Emily, 2/1/2011 -
" I found this second of Karr's three memoirs less moving than #3, <em>Lit,</em> but her writing is still masterful. I look forward to reading #1 next: <em>The Liar's Club</em>. "
— Marcia, 1/3/2011
About Mary Karr
Mary Karr is an award-winning poet and the bestselling author of Lit, the sequel to her critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling memoirs The Liars’ Club and Cherry. A born raconteur, she brings to her lectures and talks the same wit, irreverence, joy, and sorrow found in her poetry and prose. A sought-after speaker, she has given distinguished talks at prestigious universities, libraries, and writers’ festivals, including Harvard, Oxford, Princeton, Brown, and Syracuse; the New York Public Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the Folger Library; the New Yorker Literary Festival, PEN/Faulkner, and the Festival of Faith and Writing. Karr welcomes conversation with her audience and she is known for her spirited, lively, and engaging Q&A sessions.