Lit, by Mary Karr

from The New Yorker, November 23 2009, "Briefly Noted":

Lit, by Mary Karr

This affecting memoir—the third in a series that includes “The Liar’s Club” and “Cherry”—documents Karr’s alcoholism, the breakdown of her marriage, and the unlikely redemption she finds in the Catholic Church. Chased out of Texas by the memories of a horrific childhood, Karr establishes herself as a writer and in graduate school meets a patrician man who becomes her husband. But days spent home alone with their young son find her drinking as her mother once did, “as if our gene pool owed the universe at least one worthless drunk at a time.” Karr’s lurch toward faith is narrated with her familiar irreverence and humor, but this tone does not preclude a more heartfelt expression of the value of faith: “I’d feared surrender would sand me down to nothing. Now I’ve started believing it can bloom me more solidly into myself.”