LIT: Life Ignition Tools: Use Nature's Playbook to Energize Your Brain, Spark Ideas, and Ignite Action

Written by Jeff Karp and Teresa Barker

Narrated by Fred Sanders

Radically simple experimental tools to help anyone tap into a high-energy brain state to fire up innovative potential and shape their lives with intention—by the founder of a Harvard biomedical engineering innovation lab.

In an age of convenience and information overload, it’s easy to go through the motions, pressured, distracted, and seeking instant gratification rather than harnessing our potential for meaningful and impactful lives. When we’re accustomed to a low energy brain state and lulled by the comfort zone it creates, it’s difficult to rouse ourselves to act with intention and create the lives we truly want to lead. 

In LIT, Jeff Karp, Ph.D., professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and biotech innovator, helps us look to nature as a vital source of humankind’s best wisdom, most inspired action, and greatest good.

Diagnosed with learning differences at a young age, he persisted through nearly insurmountable struggles with support from his mom in developing ways to achieve hyper-awareness and maximize decisions based on his curiosity, passion, creativity, and connection to nature. As a student at McGill University and at the University of Toronto, as a researcher at MIT, and as a professor at Harvard Medical School, he evolved these approaches into LIT (Life Ignition Tools) —and road-tested these tools daily in his own personal life and with his lab team to innovate medical discoveries inspired by the “problem solving” process they find throughout the natural world

LIT teaches us to:

• turn inward and connect with what is truly important to us
• turn outward to act on that, connecting with others and different ways of knowing
• question assumptions—break out of habitual thinking and other patterns to discover what really serves you best
• navigate multiple streams of sensory input and manage information overload
• recognize manipulative messaging that can throw us off course
• explore, experiment and discover fresh approaches to old challenges
• intercept routine patterns to actively think and decide versus just jumping in with habitual responses

LIT takes us off autopilot and helps us stay alert, present, and fully engaged in our lives. 

Dr. Karp also shares insights from some of the world’s most accomplished people, including Nobel Prize winners, the founder of an Indigenous wellness center, a visionary photographer, a social justice activist, a five-time US memory champion, an Olympic medalist, a neurosurgeon who founded a center for compassion, and numerous professors, inventors, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and members of his laboratory—all creatives in their own ways.

Using Dr. Karp’s principles, anyone can redirect their lives with energy, focus, creativity, motivation, intention, and impact to create the lives they truly want to lead. Learning to be lit is the ultimate renewable energy and is accessible to everyone, anytime, wherever you are.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9780063010765

Jeff Karp

Jeff Karp, Ph.D., is an acclaimed mentor and biomedical engineering professor at Harvard Medical School and MIT, a Distinguished Chair at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He has dedicated his research to bioinspired medical problem-solving, and his lab’s technologies have led to the formation of twelve companies. The technologies they have developed include a tissue glue that can seal holes inside a beating heart; targeted therapy for osteoarthritis, Crohn’s disease, and brain disorders; “smart needles” that automatically stop when they reach their target; a nasal spray that neutralizes pathogens; and immunotherapy approaches to annihilate cancer. Dr. Karp is also head of innovation at Geoversity, Nature’s University, a rainforest conservancy located in one of the top biodiversity hotspots in the world. He was selected as the Outstanding Faculty Undergraduate Mentor among all faculty at MIT and the top graduate student mentor of Harvard-MIT students. Dr. Karp lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife, children, and two Cavalier King Charles spaniels.

Reviews for LIT

[kropferama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The hird in the trilogy of Mary Karr's memoirs. Her writing is as honest about her family and personal struggles--perhaps as honest a writer as you will hope to ever read. She is a genius at memoir and infuses her story with poetic descriptions that are force you to slow down and appreciate. Her poetic descriptions are pleasing even when she is describing some horror of her history. An inspirational writer with an inspirational story.

[captainsunbeam · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Karr found God and lost her fire. Read The Liars' Club and Cherry, skip this one.

[nancyjean19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love her strong, no nonsense writing and powerful honesty. It seems like this memoir really captures the strength of character, and support system, it takes to quit.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two memoirs. One poetry book. One writing book. Yes, it was a Mary Karr week.



My Mary Karr reading frenzy all started quite innocently. I took a writing class last summer at Inprint in Houston. Our teacher told us Mary Karr was coming to Houston in September. I spontaneously decided to buy a ticket, vaguely remembering that I'd read her first memoir, Liar's Club, back twenty years ago or so. When the date of Karr's reading approached, I was exhausted by all the beginning-of-the-year stuff we teachers experience but I remembered a book was included in the price of the reading, and I didn't want to miss out on picking up that book. So I reluctantly decided to go. When I googled the address of the reading, I was surprised to see that it was being held in a church. Must not have been able to book the Wortham for that night, I thought.



I was wrong. It was no accident that Mary Karr was at Christ Church Cathedral, an Episcopal Church in downtown Houston, built in 1839; all her readings were being held in churches.

I was intrigued. An author in a church. Imagine that.

Mary Karr was fascinating. "I was a strange child," she told her audience at the reading. "I was not a happy child. But there was something about reading memoirs that made me feel less lonely." Karr shared her new book, The Art of Memoir, and suggested that through our stories we manufacture a self. "Writing a memoir is like knocking yourself out with your own fist," she told us.

All her books, Karr explained, could be summed up: "I am sad. The end."

In her life, Karr survived her alcoholic and dysfunctional parents to become an alcoholic and dysfunctional parent herself. And somehow she broke free of all that, mysteriously embracing both writing and the Catholic Church.



Mary Karr is a little older, a little less functional Texas-rooted me. Like me, she has both the redneck-storytelling people and the salvation-through-reading people in her family tree.

That was enough. I raced home from the reading and put everything I could find of Mary Karr's on hold at the library. I was amazed to find that not only were all three of her memoirs at the library, but that I could also check out and read one of her books of poetry.

I'll just tell you that her books are mostly "I am sad." But, happily, there is a little more there before "The end."

Beautiful writing. Sad stories. And redemption. Mary Karr.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mary Karr's memoir of alcoholism and recovery is beautifully written, so much so that it has inspired me to read her poetry. It is also a brutally honest and very powerful story.

[hope_h-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lit is poet Mary Karr's third memoir. It is her story of her alcohol-fueled early career. Longing for a stable family, she thinks she and her husband Warren can build one. After she gives birth to her son Dev, she begins to realize the gaps in their relationship and how alcohol is filling in those gaps.

When I started reading this, I didn't realize it was the author's third memoir. I felt like I was walking into the play right before intermission. Now I know why - this is one set that should be read in order. Never having read any of Karr's poetry, I can see why she is a successful poet. Her gift for using language is rich and inspiring. I appreciated her honesty about her alcoholism and depression.

[chrisway · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I hated this book even though it was clearly well written.

[dele2451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a sequel, but "lit" is the first work I have read by this offer. I'd say this book is a lot like the hard liquor she battled so hard to kick. It looks pretty in the package, but burns when you first try to ingest it. Soon you're over the initial shock and a warmth spreads over you. I definitely recommend this book, but I couldn't read too many like this in a row.

[micalhut · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hard to put down. Everything I like in a book chocked into every page. Honest, compelling and deeply heroic.

[judithrs · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lit. Mary Karr. 2009. This title concludes the trilogy of memoirs, The Liar’s Club and Cherry. In this book Karr basically describes her life when she went to college, got married, had a child and became established as a poet. Karr spent these years getting drunk and trying to deal with her mother and the scars of her dysfunctional childhood. The book reminds me of The Glass Castle. Karr relates the events of these years with brutal honesty and wit. With the help of AA, her AA friends, and her discovery of faith, Karr pulls herself through this nightmare. If you liked the previous memoirs you’ll like this. Interviews with Karr can be found on YouTube.

[erickibler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the third of poet Mary Karr's memoirs, covering her college days through her success as a writer. Though in the first half of the book she seems whiny, that's the point. The book details her journey from bottomed-out alcoholic mom to AA supplicant trying to find her "higher power". She shops for a church to belong to, finally settling on Catholicism. Her trials include an irresponsible "taker" of a mother (also a recovering alcoholic), and a set of in-laws who, although they're among the most affluent families in America, are hard-wired for only coldness and frugality when it comes to aiding their proud, struggling poet son and his family. I don't want to suggest that this book is depressing. Far from it. Karr's native sense of humor never fails her even in her darkest moments. The final chapters are beautiful and inspiring, tempting even one such as myself, who has given up on faith in a higher power, to give it another go.

[satyridae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The third volume in Karr's series of memoirs covers her adulthood, her addictions, her marriage and motherhood and her eventual conversion to Christianity. Her sardonic powers of observation remain unscathed by any of this, thankfully. It's very raw and funny and well worth reading if you are a fan of her earlier works.

[tuke_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Meh. About 1/2 way, and losing interest . . .

Really annoying that you can only "finish" a book. This one I abandoned.

[pagewright · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant and moving. Life-altering. Makes me want to write memoir, and I don't do memoir.

[vivalaerin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Her first two memoirs are really my favorites, but this one is one of the best examples of her style. Even when she is discussing the worst parts of her adult life, Karr is poignant and clever. I like her immensely, and I can almost see myself in her son, Dev. There is an excellent circularity to this book; beginning with her letter to Dev as a mom and ending with her own mother. She went through a lot, and I applaud her ability to write it out and remain an entertaining writer.

[dgmlrhodes · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a wonderful memoir showing the origins and downward spiral of addiction and addictive personalities. I loved reading about Mary Karr's emotional and spiritual growth throughout the course of the book. I wish I had read Liar's Club first, but I am definitely ready to read it soon!

[katherinegregg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lit is the third memoir by poet Mary Karr covering the dissolution of her marriage, her battle with alcoholism, recovery and conversion to Catholicism. It was well written and enjoyable to read, not as gut wrenching as some of the other getting sober books I've read like Dry by Augustan Burroughs and A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. I'm looking forward to reading Karr's two prior memoirs, The Liar's Club and Cherry.

[rvolenti · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really disliked this book for the first half. I was constantly wondering why I was reading this and why someone felt she needed to write about it. Basically, I wondered, "who cares?" But towards the end, while the story didn't change, I started to like the story. It's not great. It's not really worth reading, but its not terrible. People who can relate to her struggle may enjoy it more.

[ccayne_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was my first ebook and I liked the experience more than I though I would. I've read Karr's previous memoirs but didn't remember the details. As with the previous works, she writes from quite a distance from when these events took place. Ultimately, this is about Mary facing her life and her decisions, namely her drinking, her reasons and biology for drinking and her marriage. It's also about her ability to keep the artistic part of herself throught all the turmoil in her life. Religion figures heavily into her success with sobriety and life. My favorite parts were her descriptions of her relationship with her mother and my least favorite were the religious pieces.

[2chances · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"At the end of my drinking, the kingdom I longed for, slaved for, and at the end of each day lunged at, was a rickety slab of unreal estate about four foot square - a back stair landing off my colonial outside Cambridge, Mass. I'd sit hunched against the door guzzling whiskey and smoking Marlboros while wires from a tinny walkman piped blues into my head. Though hours there were frequently spent howling inwardly about the melting ice floe of my marriage, this spate of hours was the highlight of my day...My sole link to reality was the hard plastic baby monitor. Should a cough or cry start, its signal light stabbed into my wide pupils like an ice pick."

That's Mary Karr. With just a handful of words, she snatches you into the bleak world of her alcoholism, the images of the alcohol melting her icy marriage, washing her away, the only thing tethering her to the world her intense guilt over the damage she is doing to her son. She uses language like a poet, her images gripping yet subtle, darkly comic at times, gut-wrenching at others. I read her previous memoir, THE LIAR'S CLUB, a few years back; it's much funnier than LIT, but it does not have the humanity and vulnerability that illumines LIT.

Perhaps that is due to the story itself. THE LIAR'S CLUB is the story of a younger, feistier Mary; LIT is the story of a mature woman, one who has finally confronted the demons that an earlier Mary merely mocked and taunted. The Mary Karr of LIT is a more disciplined, insightful, and spiritual woman; she can't help being funny, bless her, but this time her wit is not directed outward, to shore up bravado, but is instead self-deprecating and realistic, as if to say: "This is the flawed world I live in, and I too am flawed; but flaws are not what define me." I found the story of her fight with alcoholism often painful and bleak to read, but unlike her earlier memoirs, these dark times are lightened with her burgeoning spirituality and ultimate conversion. Her stories of the wisdom she found in her AA meetings are some of the most powerful in the book, and - does this sound naive? - I felt genuinely inspired by them. LIT reveals a much more open and vulnerable Mary ; this time I felt I actually got to know her, and I truly liked the person I was meeting.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved the Glass Castle and expected to like this more than I did. The writing wasn't as crisp, and the alcoholism and the God stuff just got tiresome after a while. Still, she's a better writer than most.

[zibilee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this third memoir by famed author Mary Karr, the author explores in vivid detail her slow crawl out of alcoholism, the abandonment of her past and her evolution into a modern spiritual being. As a young woman, Mary longs to be a poet. A free spirit, Mary chafes at the strictures of society and finds herself moving far from home in her quest for an enriching and fulfilling life. Subsisting on meager cash, Mary finds herself working at a string of semi-serious jobs, gradually upping her alcohol consumption in response to the difficulties in her life. During a stint as a student, Mary meets the impossibly intelligent and handsome Warren and discovers in him a kindred spirit. As Mary runs forward to her future with Warren, she makes conscious decisions to leave her past behind: a past that is filled with distant alcoholic parents, mental illness and neglect. But the past doesn't fit neatly into a box, and as Mary runs from one set of circumstances, she ends up straight in the arms of another variation of the life she is trying so hard to leave behind. As Mary and Warren make a life for themselves, she discovers that they are not evenly matched. Mary is as temperamental and volatile as Warren is quiet and uncommunicative. After the birth of her son Dev, Mary finds herself slowly sliding into the realm of serious alcoholism. One night after the unthinkable almost happens, Mary takes the steps to leave alcohol behind. Though it is not easy for her, Mary's biggest difficulties lie in the acceptance of a higher power she does not believe exists. Struggling against poverty, alcoholism and the spiritual nadir, she relates the circumstances of her life that have brought her to this point, realizing with gradual clarity that the God she is so struggling against has her right in the palm of His hand. Funny, honest, and at times very sad, Lit is the memoir that fans of Mary Carr have been waiting for: a glimpse into the heart and soul of one of America's most compelling authors.

This is my first time reading a memoir by Mary Karr. Though I have heard a lot about both her and her books and even have her other two on my wish list, I had never had the experience of sitting down and getting to know this praised author through her writing before. At about the halfway point in this book, I wanted to stop reading and go back and read both of her previous books, The Liar's Club and Cherry. I found myself wanting to know so much more about her and the things that led up to this final book, and though I will be reading them out of order, I went out and got a copy of each of her other memoirs. Just knowing that they are patiently waiting for me makes me happy.

Mary Karr has the ability to render her memories in clear detail, without overdoing it, and one of the things I most appreciated about this book was the way that she, at times, allows for flaws in her interpretation of the things she is chronicling. She relates her story clearly but also tells the reader in no uncertain terms that the emotional slant she puts to some events may have only been her feelings in the heat of the moment and does not reflect what time does to alter these memories. I liked this a lot. Too often, I read memoirs that rely on past interpretation to be infallible and sometimes I wonder how much of the anger and disappointment of the past colors the perceptions of the author's tale. In order to avoid this, Mary comes at things from several angles, interjecting in her own story the traits and emotional states of the others she comes into contact with. This makes her tale much more informed and well rounded and creates a certain trust between the reader and herself.

I also liked the fact that she doesn't fall into the trap of villainizing everyone but herself. Often, Mary admits that she could be a beastly companion and mother, and that although she tried to be as altruistic as she could, she sometimes failed miserably. That she was honest enough to admit this made her appear to me more human and fallible and made me realize that often the way we see ourselves is just as important as the stories we tell. She freely admits that had this story been told from the pen of her husband, the reader would probably not like her very much at all, but for the most part, I felt that she was able to see herself and her actions without the rose colored glasses that often hang on the nose of authors telling their life stories.

I felt a real affinity for Mary's spiritual search because, in essence, a lot of it mirrored my own problems with spirituality. She speaks of not being able to find the God that is right in front of her face and talks at length about her antipathy towards humbling herself in prayer. Mary is a free thinker and somehow feels that religion is the opiate of the masses, a phrase that I have uttered on many occasions. Her gradual involvement in worship felt very real and heartfelt to me and I loved the fact that she learned that to embrace God was not the same as erasing her sense of self and her individuality. It made me joyous to see her embrace prayer and for her to realize that her prayers were being answered.

There were also a lot of sections about her love of poetry and her struggles to become a poet of acclaim, her struggles to be a good mother to her son, and her heartache over the dissolution of her family. In these sections the book became like a prism that reflected the secret parts of her heart. Karr has a way of opening herself onto the page and becoming someone that you can deeply care for, both in her brokenness and in her healing. I think the sections that dealt with her early family life were those that resonated with me the most. It is a mighty thing to see a child's unswerving love for parents who have consistently done her wrong. Her spirit of forgiveness was mammoth, and although she did a much better job raising her son than her parents did with her, she never shot forth with recrimination and bitterness for all she had suffered.

This was an amazing read that had both spirit and flavor, and Mary Karr surely knows how to tell a story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats and frantically flipping pages. The book had a remarkable feel of both a confessional and an accounting, and in the author's very capable hands she takes readers right along with her in her journey through life. I would definitely recommend this book both to readers who relish a good memoir and to those who are interested in matters of spirituality. I know that I will be enjoying more from this author, for she has won me over with both her candidness and forthright writing style.

[clif_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the third memoir that Karr has written about her life. Since she has not been President or a great military general, we know she must describe her life in considerable detail in order to fill three books. We learn from this book that she's had a lot of experience telling her life's story and dredging through the depths of her feelings because she has spent considerable time doing both in counseling sessions with mental health therapists. A book based on this kind of material is not the sort of stuff that would normally interest me. However, this book has been praised by many reviewers as being the ultimate example of good memoir writing. So I wanted to see for myself, and yes I found her to be a good writer. The book kept my interest even though I may not be predisposed to appreciate this type of story.

Her story recounts her painful journey to overcome her compulsion to consume alcohol. Before this victory is achieved the story is one of slow disintegration. One would think that once sobriety is achieved that everything would be better. But ironically, once she's free from liquor she experiences suicidal depression. A story such as this of an adult drinking their life into ruin and misery is not as satisfying as other memoirs where a talented young person overcomes the handicap of bad parents to become a successful adult (e.g. The Glass House, Angela's Ashes or perhaps Karr's first memoir, which I haven't read, Liars' Club).

One thing I did appreciate about this book is that it comes about as close as is possible to explaining the motivations behind self-destructive behavior (but it's still irrational). However, I want to acknowledge, and I'm thankful, that she checked herself into a hospital prior to doing physical harm to herself when she felt driven to suicide. So the book can serve as a positive and inspirational guide to those suffering similar trials.

One interesting thing about this book is that she spends considerable time debating with herself, as a confirmed atheist, about her seeking help from a "higher power" to overcoming her alcoholism. It's a dialog filled with humor, irony and pathos. (UNBELIEVERS BEWARE! This book may threaten your faith.)

I have to admire her willingness to say some unflattering things about herself that, frankly, most of us wouldn't put into our own memoirs. She also refrains from bad-mouthing her ex's (hubby or boy-friends) which I presume she could have. She reflects enough on her childhood in this book to make it clear that it was a dozy. The irony is that if she had been spared from her horrible upbringing, she wouldn't have been able to write her best-selling memoir of her childhood, The Liars' Club. And if she didn't have ghosts from her past to conquer, she wouldn't have been able to write this book.

So where does this title come from? From various reviews I have learned that it is a triple pun: lit as in literature, lit as in intoxicated, and lit as in spiritual enlightenment.

[josephquinton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A book that ends on a different note.. Those who have read her other best-selling
previous memoirs: “Liars Poker” and “Cherry” will find many of the same characters, mother, sister, memories of her father. But this chapter of her life takes us beyond the Texas poor town where she was brought up into a completely different world, college in the upper Midwest, Cambridge, Syracuse, marriage and divorce, birth of a child, the vicissitudes of adult life with little money. All coupled with the trials of an addiction and mental disturbances. Told with the verve of an accomplished storyteller and the vocabulary of a poet. Both of which Karr
IS

[karenlisa_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lit By Mary Karr. Her third memoir, this book portrays the later years of Mary Karr's life. In detail she describes to her reader a childhood full of fear and isolation. Her adulthood leaned immediately toward the center of destruction. As her mother finally finds sobriety, she takes her place in a dangerous world of alcoholism (says the universe can only handle one drunk Karr at a time). Ms. Karr's memoir is real and honest and scary. She doesn't hold back at all to make a picture that is remotely pretty or happy. When she later is sober she searches for religion, god and some faith to hold onto. Ms. Karr's memoir is at times funny (believe it or not) her excellent writing is poetic and unique and her path is one that is taken everyday by many. It can be a depressing read as are most that deal with drugs, alcohol and abuse. She and her sister (seemingly her one and only rock and bright light through her life, bless her) set out to find normalcy, forgiveness and still deeply love their mother and father. While this can be a hard read, mystifying for some, too close to home for others, some books need to be read.

[maowangvater · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the prologue to her memoir Cherry, Karr describes herself leaving her childhood home, an oil refinery town on the East Texas Gulf Coast and striking out for the dream of California surf. When it quickly proves to be an impoverished and frightening nightmare, she heads for college and desperately tries to fit in. Unsuccessful at this, she tries drinking and running off. Fortunately she finds poetry and a mentor, and throws herself, reluctantly at first, into the literary life. A decade later however, marriage to another poet from a wealthy family, publication, academic success, and motherhood fail to bring her the escape she’s seeking. So she finds herself living for the anesthetic comfort of the bottle, but the bottle let her down.

“At the end of my drinking, the kingdom I longed for, slaved for, and a the end of each day lunged at was a rickety slab of unreal estate about four foot square—a back stair landing off my colonial outside Cambridge, Mass. I’d sit hunched against the door guzzling whisky and smoking Marlboros while wires from a tinny walkman piped blues into my head. Through hours there were frequently spent howling inwardly about the melting ice floe of my marriage, this spate of hours was the highlight of my day.” Page 7

Recovering alcoholics often say that there are only three possible outcomes of their addiction: You either end up locked-up, covered-up, or sober-up. Fortunately for American letters and herself, Karr sobered up.

[libsue · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Did you ever get part way through a book and wonder-Should I just walk away from this and then all of a sudden you can't put it down? That's what happened with Lit by Mary Karr. It's the story of her life as an alcoholic, parent, wife, daughter, writer, etc. The beginning chapters seemed wrapped in pretension so deep that I found it difficult to wade through the words. While the words were beautifully placed on the page I became entangled in them to the point that the story was swept away in a literary rip tide. Then out of nowhere the water cleared and I found Mary and her story, and what a story she has to tell. How much can you blame your parents for? How much of the mistakes that you make do you have to own? Thought provoking and enlightening for those of us with dysfunctional lives, but written so beautifully we could only dream of being able to convey these thoughts with such beautiful prose.

[blacksheepdances · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Confession is one of the main tenets of Catholicism, and this memoir by Mary Karr seems to be both the confession and the penance she pays in her late conversion to Catholicism at the final third of the book.

Is there such a thing as being too honest? Karr confesses to her lifelong addiction to alcohol, and all the ugly events that occurred during her life because of her alcoholism. She's brutally honest, which takes a ton of guts, because I really couldn't stand her as I read it. She wrote this as a form of atonement to her son for her years of poor mothering and distance.

Essentially she had a tragic childhood filled with ugliness and pain. She longs to be a poet, to find a way to make magic with words and leave her mark on the world. But given that, she spends very little time discussing her actual development of poetry, instead she professes her love for the 'look' of poets: the starving artist, the tortured soul who is misunderstood and unappreciated, almost like she's reaching for the costume. It seems like she wants to join the poet's club rather than actually be a poet. Maybe her real gift is in this form of writing, the memoir. It's her third. She has no trouble with words in this respect.

She writes well, in a witty, self-deprecating way. She doesn't ask for sympathy or pity, and in many ways that would be hard to give. Is it wrong to say she's selfish and rude, when she's gone so far to be this honest? Because that's the impression she gives. She does have her conversion at the end, which I found a little bit offputting, because again she seems to want to join a club rather than really feel a spiritual connection. And yet she points out the all people have a spiritual need, and I do agree with that. But her roller coaster ride with finding sobriety makes her unpleasant and irritating. No doubt some of it had to do with the alcohol.

It's just very difficult to tolerate her reeling off stories of how often she drove drunk with her son in the car, how she avoided caring for her sick son, and how being alone with her child was boring and a chore. I don't get that, alcoholism or not. So many times she put him in danger, when she had the resources to get help and refused it. When counselors told her to count her blessings, she couldn't think of any: not the sweet little boy she had, nor the home, the loving husband, etc. When asked what she wanted in life, her answer was "more money". And while she complained about being judged unfairly, she was the most judgemental of all. It seems so out of touch.

In all, it was a good read in terms of learning about alcoholism and the recovery process. There were a few gems of wisdom in it, as when a counselor told her if she worries she will be judged, she should ask herself 'what do you base that on?' If she admits it's her own imagination and worry, than it has to be dismissed. She's repeatedly told to stop imagining what people think of her, and to realize that everyone is worrying about their own problems, not hers. All her worries about not measuring up or fitting in, which she used alcohol to mask, had to go in order for her to not feel the need for the alcohol.

I admire her candor, and respect her efforts to make amends. I don't agree with all her premises at the end, but I'm glad she got her life together.

[samsattler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Reading Mary Karr’s latest memoir, "Lit," is akin to catching up with an old friend over a cup of coffee or, perhaps in this case, over something a bit stronger than coffee. Karr’s earlier memoirs, "The Liars’ Club" (1995), which covered her childhood years, and "Cherry" (2000), the story of her adolescence and early adulthood, established for her a well deserved reputation as an exceptional memoirist. Now, some nine years after "Cherry," Karr completes her story, for now, by revealing how she managed to overcome the odds to escape both the insular little town in which she grew up and the quirky upbringing she endured there.

One thing is certain; Mary Karr has not had an easy time of it. Growing up in a muggy, mosquito ridden little East Texas refinery town, one in which its residents breathe polluted air no matter from which direction it blows (as I well remember), she was raped by a teenaged neighbor when she was eight years old. Her father, a heavy drinking refinery worker, loved her dearly but was not exactly a role model for his daughters. Her seven-times-married, artistic mother was a bit of a desperado in spirit who struggled with a tendency toward full-blown psychotic episodes throughout much of her life.

As she so frankly details in "Lit," Mary Karr is a combination of the good and the bad components of both her parents. Always a bit of a rebel at heart like her mother, she went into the world resenting those born to wealth as much as her father disliked them, taking pride that she could at least outdrink those who “had been born on third base” but who believed “they hit a home run.” And outdrink them, Mary did - all the way to the point of her own debilitating struggle with alcoholism, a struggle that would steal years of her life and ultimately destroy the marriage that produced her son.

It was a close thing, but Mary managed to save herself, and she accomplished it by doing something so completely out of character for her that it still surprises her. She turned to prayer and organized religion despite a lifetime spent scoffing at both. Despairing and suicidal, she committed herself to what she calls “The Mental Marriott” and the timeout there that would ultimately lead her to place her future in the hands of God, the possibility of whose existence she previously had not been able to take seriously. "Lit" is a word of several meanings when it comes to Mary Karr. It can be a reference to her success in the literary world or it can be used to describe the drunken state in which she spent so many of her waking hours for so many years. Finally, and most hopefully, it also describes the religious experience that saved Mary Karr’s life when she finally “saw the light.”

Fans of Karr’s previous memoirs will be pleased with this inspirational addition to her story, but "Lit" also works well for those reading her for the first time, so well that I suspect the new Karr readers will now want to turn to the first two books.

Rated at: 5.0

[sararush · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mary Karr’s Lit is magnificent. It completes her life story as began in The Liar’s Club and Cherry by detailing her marriage, motherhood, her battle with alcoholism and her rise as a literary talent. In this memoir Karr achieves a forceful honesty that holds nothing back in her self examination. Because she is a poet, one expects her writing to compel in story as much as language and will not be disappointed. Sometimes I felt as if I was actually experiencing Karr’s moments right beside her. Instead I felt lucky to be able to read a book that is certain to become a classic. And is sure to please faithful fans and transfix legions of new readers.