I suspect that I would have enjoyed this book a little more had I read some of Mary Karr’s earlier memoirs first, in chronological order. As it was, this work had a sort of disconnected feel to it: preceded by childhood and her teenage years, followed by an adulthood into what I guess would be her fame as an accomplished memoirist.

In large part this book is structured by Karr’s alcoholism; the plot is essentially a slow descent into the depths of addiction, a few moments of bottoming out, and eventually a grueling recovery. It’s possible to read this book as essentially a very elaborate promotion for Alcoholics Anonymous, which I can appreciate on a certain level - it appears to have really turned her life around, so that is her truth. Before we get to that part, the narrative does sort of drag on in a way - I got a bit tired of her continuing to trash her life over and over. The latter part of the book, which goes in to a lot of depth about her recovery, and the power of prayer and surrender - I actually found pretty fascinating, even though I didn’t completely connect with it. (But on the flip side, I didn’t find it nearly as didactic as it might have been.)

Probably the most fascinating character here is Karr’s mother, or more precisely, Karr’s relationship with her mother. Her mother, Charlie, is a pretty messed-up person who really seems to have done a lot of damage to her daughters and others; some of that you could put down to struggles with mental illness and other forces a bit beyond Charlie’s control. But there’s a limit to how much you can excuse away Charlie’s actions - some of her behavior is plain mean-spirited and nasty, and at some point she bears responsibility for it. Still and all, she’s Mary’s mother, and the relationship is just as complicated as you’d imagine. On the one hand Mary tries to escape the fate of reliving her mother’s life; on the other she is afflicted by the same basic illnesses; and finally her greatest test in life is to move past all the anger and hurt she feels towards her childhood and her mother, and that is something she struggles with her entire life.

On a certain level this is a work which can be hard to relate to - many of us, thankfully, are not suffering from mental illness or alcoholism - but even so there is a lot here to sympathize with. Escaping one’s fate, even while suffering through it and eventually overcoming it, is in some way one of the greatest challenges for any of us.