The Liars' Club: A Memoir
Mary Karr
📚 Genre
Memoir, Biography, Literary Non-fiction
🏢 Publisher
Penguin Books
📅 Publication Year
1996
🔢 ISBN
9780140179835
About This Book
A searingly honest and darkly funny memoir of the author's volatile childhood in a small Texas oil town in the 1960s. The narrative explores her complex relationship with her hard-drinking parents, family secrets, and the resilience of a young girl navigating a dysfunctional environment. The cover features a red background framed in gold, with a central black-and-white photograph of a young girl.
Book Details
Language
English
Pages
320 pages
Edition
Trade Paperback Reprint
Series
First book in a loose trilogy of memoirs, followed by 'Cherry' and 'Lit'
Target Audience
Adult, Literary Readers
Collector Information
Condition
Fair to Good. Visible edge wear and scuffing on the cover. Significant detraction due to large adhesive price stickers and barcode labels applied directly to the front cover.
Estimated Value
$3.00 - $8.00
Rarity
Common. This is a very widely printed mass-market/trade paperback edition with millions of copies in circulation.
Historical Significance
Credited with sparking the modern memoir boom of the 1990s. It was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list.
Collector Notes
This specific copy has low collectibility due to the heavy presence of retail stickers and general wear. For collectors, seek an original 1995 Viking hardcover first edition in fine condition. To preserve this copy, careful removal of stickers with a solvent like Goo Gone is possible but risky for the matte finish.
Similar Books
'The Glass Castle' by Jeannette Walls, 'Educated' by Tara Westover, 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt, 'This Boy's Life' by Tobias Wolff
Notable Features
Features a quote from Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times; notes of being a National Book Critics Circle Finalist.