The following excerpt will be based off the memoir titled “LIT,” by Mary Karr published in 2010 by Harper Perennial Publishers. I will be sharing a brief background on the author’s story and purpose. I will also give criticisms and opinions of the memoir.
Excluding the fact that I was demanded to pick a text to read, analysis, and report on, I chose Mary Karr’s memoir “LIT” simply because the titled sparked my attention—and I’m glad it did. The text captures my attention firstly by being so detailed in each event and Karr manages to make each scene seem like some kind of alternative indie film. Each sentence she writes is never boring and brings a tasteful use of dark humor. I find this quite interesting. In the beginning of the book, and …show more content…
Compared to Augustines own “memoir,” and his blatant skepticism of God, Karr’s story is tame. People have gone and come out of far worse situations and shrug it off. As for Karr, I felt like she was just growing up. Not to say her alcoholism wasn’t an issue, but she dealt with it through utter honesty that I find absolutely…well sobering. As honest as the story seems, “[a]nyway I tell this story is a lie,” is how Karr chooses to open the story of her life (1). You may start to notice the “lies” when Karr recalls details that are so picture perfect you know theres no way she could possibly remember them. I think this is punchline of the story. This line also shows how this story is for Dev, about Karr, and nobody else. In the prologue she also writes to Dev that “[m]aybe by telling you my story, you can better tell your, which is the only way to get home, by which I mean to get free of us” (Karr 6). This quote here really tells it all. In terms of her mother, she never wanted to hurt Dev and darken his childhood like her mother did to her. She doesn't want the cycle to come full circle with him. She wants Dev to be real with himself, because it’s the only way he can become free from the stigma of his
Excluding the fact that I was demanded to pick a text to read, analysis, and report on, I chose Mary Karr’s memoir “LIT” simply because the titled sparked my attention—and I’m glad it did. The text captures my attention firstly by being so detailed in each event and Karr manages to make each scene seem like some kind of alternative indie film. Each sentence she writes is never boring and brings a tasteful use of dark humor. I find this quite interesting. In the beginning of the book, and …show more content…
Compared to Augustines own “memoir,” and his blatant skepticism of God, Karr’s story is tame. People have gone and come out of far worse situations and shrug it off. As for Karr, I felt like she was just growing up. Not to say her alcoholism wasn’t an issue, but she dealt with it through utter honesty that I find absolutely…well sobering. As honest as the story seems, “[a]nyway I tell this story is a lie,” is how Karr chooses to open the story of her life (1). You may start to notice the “lies” when Karr recalls details that are so picture perfect you know theres no way she could possibly remember them. I think this is punchline of the story. This line also shows how this story is for Dev, about Karr, and nobody else. In the prologue she also writes to Dev that “[m]aybe by telling you my story, you can better tell your, which is the only way to get home, by which I mean to get free of us” (Karr 6). This quote here really tells it all. In terms of her mother, she never wanted to hurt Dev and darken his childhood like her mother did to her. She doesn't want the cycle to come full circle with him. She wants Dev to be real with himself, because it’s the only way he can become free from the stigma of his