In the beginning of the novel The Liars Club (A Memoir) by Mary Karr, we are instantly thrown into a chaotic string of memories that is shrouded in mystery. The main character Mary changes dramatically throughout the book by the horrific experiences that she is forced to endure. In the beginning we are introduced to seven year old Mary and are conveyed her experiences and memories through her eyes at age seven. By the end of the book Mary has matured at age seventeen and she sees the world through a new perspective. Only then is she able to understand and handle the final piece of uncovered truth surrounding her childhood. After finishing the book from cover to cover are we able to fully understand the brilliance and intricate design of the
…show more content…
This is exactly what happens to Mary and her sister Lucia. What makes this memory/experience so hard to swallow is it was Mary and Lucia’s mother (Charlie) who held them at knife point. Leading up to their mother’s mental breakdown we are given some episodic precursors that the mother experiences. Alcoholism, the death of her mother, and constant fighting between Charlie and her husband (Pete) were all factors in pushing her over the edge. On Mary’s eighth birthday, after celebrating at a local restaurant, they were in the car together journeying back home, and the unthinkable happened. Pete was driving the car with Charlie in the passenger seat while Mary and Lucia were in the backseat. Charlie during a mental episode struggles with Pete for the wheel of the car and tries to veer them off the bridge they were traveling on into the depths bellow. Luckily Pete is able to correct the wheel and incapacitates Charlie. After that incident the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Charlie had gotten drunk and started piling the girls’ clothes, toys, and belongings in the backyard. She then sets everything on fire with gasoline, holds Mary and Lucia at knifepoint, and calls the authorities to tell them that she has killed them both. Luckily the authorities arrive with the two children unharmed and the mother is taken to a mental hospital. This was the first tragic event that forced Mary …show more content…
Mary had to experience this and it became the literary climax of the novel that definitely made me appreciate the book fully. Pete at age seventy had a stroke that incapacitated him. Mary lives in Boston and comes back to Texas to help Charlie take care of her father. During her sojourn with her parents one day she goes into the attic to look for medical records only to find a number of wedding rings. When she inquiries about the wedding rings to her mother she is given a critical piece of her mother’s backstory. When Charlie married for the first time she had two children, Tex and Belinda, shortly after the birth of Belinda the husband took the children. Years after searching for the adolescents she found them in Reno, Nevada and had a court order that gave her full custody of the kids. After arriving though she realized that they were in better hands with the father. Following that was a series of marriages that all were to try and gain back custody of the kids again. With every attempt of trying to get them back having failed she blamed herself and thus why she had begun to have nervous
This is exactly what happens to Mary and her sister Lucia. What makes this memory/experience so hard to swallow is it was Mary and Lucia’s mother (Charlie) who held them at knife point. Leading up to their mother’s mental breakdown we are given some episodic precursors that the mother experiences. Alcoholism, the death of her mother, and constant fighting between Charlie and her husband (Pete) were all factors in pushing her over the edge. On Mary’s eighth birthday, after celebrating at a local restaurant, they were in the car together journeying back home, and the unthinkable happened. Pete was driving the car with Charlie in the passenger seat while Mary and Lucia were in the backseat. Charlie during a mental episode struggles with Pete for the wheel of the car and tries to veer them off the bridge they were traveling on into the depths bellow. Luckily Pete is able to correct the wheel and incapacitates Charlie. After that incident the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Charlie had gotten drunk and started piling the girls’ clothes, toys, and belongings in the backyard. She then sets everything on fire with gasoline, holds Mary and Lucia at knifepoint, and calls the authorities to tell them that she has killed them both. Luckily the authorities arrive with the two children unharmed and the mother is taken to a mental hospital. This was the first tragic event that forced Mary …show more content…
Mary had to experience this and it became the literary climax of the novel that definitely made me appreciate the book fully. Pete at age seventy had a stroke that incapacitated him. Mary lives in Boston and comes back to Texas to help Charlie take care of her father. During her sojourn with her parents one day she goes into the attic to look for medical records only to find a number of wedding rings. When she inquiries about the wedding rings to her mother she is given a critical piece of her mother’s backstory. When Charlie married for the first time she had two children, Tex and Belinda, shortly after the birth of Belinda the husband took the children. Years after searching for the adolescents she found them in Reno, Nevada and had a court order that gave her full custody of the kids. After arriving though she realized that they were in better hands with the father. Following that was a series of marriages that all were to try and gain back custody of the kids again. With every attempt of trying to get them back having failed she blamed herself and thus why she had begun to have nervous