Mary Karr, who is impossibly thin and good looking despite her despotic lifestyle of yore, has written a book where it is possible to laugh out loud at some of the saddest revelations about a life revolving around alcohol until it is almost too late to rescue the good parts of it. In her defense, her parents saddles her with addictive genes and a childhood where she never once managed to feature in their top ten most important things in their lives. Her mother is the very picture of narcissism, wrapped in an alcoholic stupor with the bow of entitlement to finish off the package. Her father is going going gone, leaving his off spring to pick up the pieces of their lives and then to cope with their mother.
That said, the author started in a hole and kept on digging. For quite awhile. And she was an excellent digger. As noted above, she was born with good genes in the natural beauty arena, which she does not dwell on, but she also was bright enough and charming enough to have a good education, a good job, and a good man. She didn't spend enough time working on herself in a serious way--despite lots of therapy, which really entailed her running the show rather than the therapist.
It is not until she has a child and is getting up and drinking one to nine drinks to get up and out that she begins to call it a problem. From start to finish this is a gritty, ribald, hilarious, heart-breaking, hopeful tale of crawling out of that hole and back into the world of those who think life is worth living. Don't miss it. Ignore the swearin, or get into it, but this is a good one.
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