x dismiss this message
Did you know you can edit this page?
-
Sign Into Shelfari
-
Choose something to edit
-
Save your contributions
see page history
Description edit
Mary Karr was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry in 2005 and has won Pushcart prizes for both her poetry and her essays. She has also published two bestselling memoirs: The Liars' Club , which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award, and Cherry . She has received the Whiting Award and the Bunting... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Warren Whitbread: Husband to Mary, and father to Dev, he could be classified as an enabler to Mary's drinking.
- Lecia: Add a description of this character.
- Joan
- David
- Mary Karr
- Harold
- Mrs. Whitbread
- Toby Wolff
- Doonie
- Tina
- Jack
- Etheridge Knight
- Tom
- James
- Deb
- Sam
- Kelley
- Gerry
- Quinn
- Patti
- Pam
- Liz
- Mare
- Joe
- Father Kane
- Betty
- Chris
- Richard
- Thomas Lux
- Katie Butke
- Dan
- Jonathan
- John
- Robert Lowell
- Wilbur Fred Bailey
- Shirley Mink
- Bill Knott
- Garfield
- Forsythe
- Curtis
- Papa
- Tex
- Marion Pinski
- Margaret
- Stooge
- Vladimir Nabokov
- Shakespeare
- Brother Francis
- Dr. Alice
- Mr. Whitbread
- James Laughlin
- Willy
- Tom Sawyer
- Evan
- Jenny
- Dave
- Odysseus
- Geoffrey Wolff
- Janice
- Beethoven
- Flora
- Pablo Neruda
- Kitty Stanley
- Virgil
- John Keats
- Mother
- Sammy
- St. Paul
- Beverly
- Walt Mink
- Huck Finn
- Freud
- Tiger Three
- Daddy
- Marlon Brando
- Emily Dickinson
- Mr. Loud
- Sweet
- Seamus Heaney
- Ernst Cassirer
- Wallace Stevens
- Dev
Setting & Locations edit
Show all 11 settingsFirst Sentence edit
Any way I tell this story is a lie, so I ask you to disconnect the device in your head that repeats at intervals how ancient and addled I am.
Table of Contents edit
Epigraph
Prologue: Open Letter to My Son
Side A: Now
Side B: Then
I Escape from the Tropic of Squalor
1 Lost in the Golden State
2 The Mother of Invention
3 Lackluster College Coed
4 There’s No Biz Like Po-Biz
5 Never Mind
II Flashdance
6 Inheritance Tax Summer
7 The Constant Lovers
8 Temporary Help
9 There Went the Bride
10 Bound
11 In Search of Incompetence
12 Bent Bender
13 Homesick
14 The Inconceivable Meets the Conceivable
15 Journey of the Magi
16 Postal Partum
17 No Mom Is an Island
III Self Help
18 Ivy Beleaguered
19 The Mokus Squirreliness of the Unmet Mind
20 My Concept of Commitment
21 The Grinning Skull
22 Mass Eye
23 Lather, Rinse, Repeat
24 Affliction
25 Reprieve
26 The Reluctantly Baptized
27 The Untuned Instrument
28 Halfway Home
29 Ceremony (Nonbelievers, Read at Your Own Risk: Prayer and God Ahead)
30 Hour of Lead
IV Being Who You Are Is Not a Disorder
31 A Short History of My Stupidity
32 The Nervous Hospital
33 Waking in the Blue
34 The Sweet Hereafter
35 I Accept a Position
36 Lake-Effect Humor
37 The Death of Date-o-Rama or the Romance of the Prose
38 Lord of the Flies
39 God Shopping
40 Dysfunctional Family Sweepstakes
41 It Makes a Body Wonder
42 On the Road
43 The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
44 The Bog Queen
45 My Sinfulness in All Its Ugliness
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Harper
Country: New York, USA
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 9780061939006
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Harper
Country: New York, USA
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 9780061939006
Page Count: 386
Awards edit
- National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist, 2009: Autobiography)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3561.A6929 Z4683 2009
- Dewey: 811.54
Subjects edit
Popular Tags
See all 50 tags
We’re hiding the errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.
