Critical Praise

“Karr is a national treasure --- that rare genius who’s also a brilliant teacher. This joyful celebration of memoir packs transcendent insights with trademark hilarity. Anyone yearning to write will be inspired, and anyone passionate to live an examined life will fall in love with language and literature all over again.” 

—George Saunders

“THE ART OF MEMOIR is passionate and irreverent-and reminds us why we love a good memoir.” 

—Elle

“Mary Karr has written another astonishingly perceptive, wildly entertaining and profoundly honest book-funny, fascinating, necessary. THE ART OF MEMOIR will be the definitive book on reading and writing memoir for years to come.” 

—Cheryl Strayed

“Mary Karr strikes a vein in THE ART OF MEMOIR.” 

—Vanity Fair

“Enlightening…. Fresh and heartfelt…. Instructs and inspires through example and a love for the art of memoir.” 

—Library Journal, starred review

“Karr write[s] exquisitely…and without pretense, often with raw authenticity.... A must-read.” 

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Snappy and witty, humorous just when it needs to be, yet plainspoken in the best way.” 

—Shelf Awareness

“Karr’s sassy Texas wit and her down-to-earth observations about both the memoir form and how to approach it combine to make for lively and inspiring reading. A generous and singularly insightful examination of memoir.”

—Kirkus Reviews