I just finished this excellent memoir by Mary Karr, mostly about her childhood, mostly in east Texas. It’s not explicitly geological but it does feature an oil town economy and a hurricane, as well as some consideration of the Rocky Mountain Front Range in Colorado. I didn’t read it out of any illusions it would be geological, though – I selected it from the library shelf more from a desire to broaden the diversity of the authors in the books on my nightstand. I’m so glad I picked it – it’s exquisitely written with a unique voice, snarky and deep in turns, describing experiences that run from the prosaic (but the way Karr writes about them, they seem profound and insightful) to the traumatic. There’s a lot of alcoholism described, serious family dysfunction, social friction, and two episodes of rape. It’s real, this stuff – and Karr writes so, so, so well about it all. She writes in a way that makes me envious; it’s so extraordinarily well done. She’s awesomely talented, and she has an incredible story to share. Recommended.
