This is a story of a wild adolescence in Texas. The most interesting part was about sex. Perhaps this is unsurprising. But what surprised me was that it was about a girl wanting to have sex. There was a lot of crushes, and dates, and deflowering. It made me realise how rarely one reads about women wanting sex. I have read so very very many books about male desire (Roth’s PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT; Miller’s appalling TROPIC OF CANCER); and suddenly reading this one I was aware of how little I’d read about women. I can’t believe i never really noticed this before. No wonder men so often think we’re not up for it.
Less interesting was the extensive drug experimentation. Writing about tripping is as dull as writing about your dreams, but druggies rarely seem aware of this. Even recovering addicts, whose books are all about how drugs destroyed their lives, often have the idea that it is interesting for you to hear about this time a kitten turned into a flower. This book has lots of that, so I mostly skipped those bits. I felt a bit bad; I always feel bad when I find memoirs boring, because they are the actual story of someone’s life. No doubt, we all think we are interesting.
I was also a little annoyed by the author’s clear conviction that she had a tough childhood. There is lots in here about how awful small town Texas was, which is a little hard to take. She had two parents and a car and a free public school to go to. It’s not exactly Darfur.
I did find one great piece of wisdom in this book. I do on some level read to learn, and I didn’t exactly expect this book to be a source of profound insight. But here it is; the advice of the girl’s mother on competing with other girls: YOU JUST HAVE TO BE SMARTER THAN THOSE WHO ARE PRETTIER, AND PRETTIER THAN THOSE WHO ARE SMARTER.
If I ever have a daughter, I’m giving that to her as a crossstitch sampler the year she turns thirteen.
(If interested, I recall I have also read another book by Karr, about her descent into alcoholism – LIT)