Cherry

Sequel to 'The Liars' Club: A Memoir'.

Mary Karr told the prize-winning tale of her hardscrabble Texas childhood with enough literary verve to spark a renaissance in memoir. But it left people wondering: How'd that scrappy kid make it out of there? 'Cherry' dares to tell that story. Karr picks a up the trail and dashes off into her teen years with customary sass, only to run up against the paralysing self-doubt of a girl in bloom.

In this long-awaited sequel, we see Karr ultimately trying to run from the thrills and terrors of her sexual awakening by butting up against authority in all its forms. She lands all too often in the principal's office and, in one instance, a jail cell. Looking for a lover or heart's companion who'll make her feel whole, she hooks up with an outrageous band of surfers and heads, wanna-be yogis and bona fide geniuses.

Karr's edgy, brilliant prose careens between hilarity and tragedy, and 'Cherry' takes readers to a place never truly explored - deep inside a girl's stormy, ardent adolescence. Parts will leave you gasping with laughter. But its soaring close proves that from even the smokiest beginnings a solid self can form, one capable of facing down all manner of monsters.