As a girl idling her way through long, toxically boring summer afternoons in Leechfield, Texas, Mary Karr dreamed up an unusual career for herself, "to write one-half poetry and one-half autobiography." She has since done both, and even when she's recounting a dirty joke, she can't help but employ a poet's precise and musical vision. Her first memoir, The Liar's Club, was as searing a chronicle of family life as can be imagined--tough, funny, and crackling with sorrow and wit. Against all odds, its sequel doesn't disappoint. Cherry finds the teenage Mary still marooned in a family whose behavior ranges from charmingly eccentric to dangerously crazy. (This, for instance, is the Karr version of a note from home: "Lecia Karr's leprosy kicked in, and I had to wrap her limbs in balm and hyssop. Please excuse her.") But here the focus has shifted to Mary herself, furiously engaged in pissing off authority at every turn: flouting the dress code, dropping acid, running from the cops, falling in love.

A young teenager in 1970's, Texas grows up in a small town bouncing from sex to drugs to anything to stop her boredom until she up and leaves as an adult. A worth while read with many comparible poetic comparisons to every day things we take for granted. Beautifully written and formed. I did however find it a little slow between the middle and end of the book and had to motivate myself to finish it (hence the rating).

Being sent to my exchange for the 2011 INT Womens Day event.

I got this book through an exchange. Looks like an interesting read.