Author’s memoir on becoming Catholic
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (CNS) – Mary Karr’s newest memoir, “Lit,” takes the reader on a ride navigated by a true drunk driver. Karr spent her youth in a Texas oil town with an older sister and parents who drank like every day was Saturday night.
This is Karr’s third memoir – the first two being the best-sellers “Liar’s Club” and “Cherry.” This latest one is different though.
In “Lit,” published Nov. 3 by Harper Collins, Karr not only describes her descent into the same alcoholism she ran from as a teenager, but also her awakening on the other side of that sepia rainbow. The book also enlightens with Karr’s newfound love: Catholicism.
A professor in the English department at Syracuse University for 17 years, Karr is a skilled storyteller. In “Lit,” Karr takes the reader through her college experience which was tinged with drinking binges. It describes her marriage to an academic, which might have survived were it not for her alcoholism and the changes brought about by her recovery.
The birth of their son is an obvious bright spot. Karr tells the reader about her first feelings of motherhood after her son, Dev, was born: “Joy it is, which I’ve never known before, only pleasure or excitement. Joy is a different thing, because its focus exists outside the self – delight in something external, not satisfaction of some inner craving.”
Karr described her own descent into alcoholism, which included a close call in her car while driving drunk and a stint in a hospital where she found solace in prayers even though she had no confidence regarding their outcome.
After she and her husband moved from Cambridge, Mass., to Syracuse, Karr renewed her acquaintance with writers Tobias Wolff and his brother Geoffrey and found a new circle of friends to help keep her head clear.
After a friendly divorce from her husband, Karr and her son went on what she describes as “God-o-rama,” searching for a church to belong to. Dev asked if she’d take him to church and when Karr asked him why, his childlike answer was “To see if God’s there.” They visited all types of places of worship in search of the God Dev wanted to find.
Finally, Tobias Wolff invited them to his Catholic church. It wasn’t so much the Mass and the prayers that attracted Karr at first, but the people there who she describes as “real.” Karr was as surprised as anyone else to find herself and her son becoming part of the now-closed St. Andrew the Apostle Church, with Tobias Wolff as her godfather.
“I saw the faith of the people at that church,” Karr said. “They worked with the poor and gave of themselves and I found that very moving. If you would’ve told me I’d be saying the rosary and going to Mass, I would have laughed myself cockeyed.”
Now, she has written “Lit” and a significant part of the book concerns her faith and finally the Catholic Church. She followed the Ignatian spiritual exercises and shared her spiritual life with her director, Franciscan Sister Marise May. Karr is grateful to her spiritual guides for their help and steering as she is still traveling. She listens to downloads from www.pray-as-you-go.org on her iPod while she exercises on her treadmill.
The days of worrying over mortgage payments while riding the bus to work are over. Karr’s faith has brought her mercy and forgiveness, as well as a firm commitment to pray before making major decisions, including which book to write first even though one may offer a nice, juicy advance.
Karr chose to publish a book of poetry titled “Sinners Welcome,” before she launched into producing her latest memoir. She doesn’t regret that decision even though Dev’s tuition was looming and the advance for a memoir would have been nice.
“I figured if it was my money, it would come back to me,” Karr said in a recent interview with The Catholic Sun, Syracuse diocesan newspaper.
Karr labels her early connection with Jesus “dubious,” but these days she is devout in terms of her prayer life.
“I pray for a lot of intentions, for people living and dead,” Karr said. “In the morning I ask for God’s help. I practice some breathing and try to get into the presence of God, meditate on the liturgy of the day. I say the Our Father, the prayer of St. Francis and the rosary, sometimes the Divine Mercy chaplet. At night, I review my day and present myself to Christ.”
Karr knows delving into her Catholic faith in her latest book might not be a crowd pleaser. “Lit” is not always a tidy story with all the loose ends tied up, but it is a compelling one.
“I’ve been saying that writing about faith for a secular audience is like performing a card trick over the radio,” she said.
“LIT” by Mary Karr, Harper (San Francisco, 2009), 400 pp., $25.99
By Connie Berry
From November 13, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
