...yet I halfway want to buy Mary Karr's entire body of work out of sheer gratitude for her having written this, and Liar's Club.

While I agree that it's no sequel (did anyone imply it should have been?), the narrator was still herself, just as honest and affecting as ever. In fact, while each stands alone, Cherry refers to Liar's Club just enough to make you feel even closer to the story. Like, when John Cleary was riding his bike behind the pesticide truck, I was like, "Oh, I remember this! I wonder who's going to pass out?"

The Sex Club chapter! I would have read a hundred pages of the phone book if I thought something like that was waiting at the end. Then, just when I thought it couldn't get any better, her dad came out and started talking to the cat.

Mary Karr relives her teenage years in a small, working class town in Texas. The book is wonderful as Karr hits all the right notes while focusing on familiar, universal adolescent experiences--first loves, strained relationships with parents, friends growing apart, etc. Cherry is filled with great little truths, and Karr has a great voice.

I think this book would appeal to people who liked Tom Perrotta's Bad Haircut or the Rob Reiner movie Stand by Me.

Mary Karr's Cherry is a fantastic remembrance of an adolescence which her parents had very little influence over during the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s in the Port Arthur, Gulf region of Texas. This is the follow-up to her much lauded memoir The Liars' Club which chronicled her younger childhood and the family relationships which made The Liars Club so acclaimed for its frank take on youthful sexual experimentation. Cherry focuses more on the full range of experiences during her childhood rather than her sexual development or personal or development, or any particular aspect of her adolescence.

Karr is a fantastic writer, let it first be said. The detail which she recounts, perhaps from diaries chronicling these events, 25 to 30 years previously, but probably to some degree from her own memory, is astounding. She has the ability to plunge to the emotional core of things and elide the parts of that experience which might best allow her to connect with her readership. Karr captures, with bittersweet memories, the wistfulness and feelings that loom so large as youngsters and shape us as adults. She has a rare sensitivity but also, owing to her voracious literary appetite, the vocabulary to express her feelings with an ease most writers can not dream of.

Karr took many drugs during this time and spent much of her free time, during her sophomore and junior years (1972-1974), apparently, in an altered state. That being said, she was, it seems a very good student and also, shockingly for her milieu, rejected the opportunity to serve on the drill team. Her recitation of these memories and acknowledgment of her drug usage make only serve to ground her memoir in realism, as many have indeed used drugs, although perhaps not to the extent Karr did. Karr's honest accounting does not particularly glamorize drug usage. She is not depicted as particularly happy while she is taking drugs, and indeed her usage is not a broader developmental choice. She took drugs, it seems in part, because of her parents' absence in her life and her largely unfettered freedom. In addition, her mention of numerous friends who died too young or ended up in jail betrays regret and unhappiness about her naivety and the absence of positive role models. However, it is to Karr's credit that she does not shy away from drug use and acknowledges it, recognizing the attraction that it posed, while not endorsing its use at any time.

Overall, Karr recounts her experiences honestly and openly. What distinguishes Karr, as mentioned, is her articulateness and sensitivity to the shared feelings she might have with readers. She has many interesting experiences and never fails to link herself to the shared experiences she might have with others.

yet another 'messed up girl grows up' memoir. it's sentimental and well-written, but as a guy, i found it hard to relate.

i'm not a good critic of memoirs eventhough i have read about a dozen it seems. but i would have to say this seems just about like every memoir i've read about a young american growing up in the 60's - now. it's all sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. while i did find half the book entertaining to read, the other half was dull and unoriginal.

i don't think the book was properly titled. one of the following titles would have better suited this memoir: "young and naked in public"... "a tale of a smart girl and her hashpipe"... "mom likes to run off a lot and daddy's an alcoholic"...

well, you get the idea. like i said, it's a good read, but don't expect it to be life-changingly original.