Preview
  • The Liars' Club

  • A Memoir
  • By: Mary Karr
  • Narrated by: Mary Karr
  • Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (85 ratings)

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The Liars' Club

By: Mary Karr
Narrated by: Mary Karr
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Publisher's summary

“Wickedly funny and always movingly illuminating, thanks to kick-ass storytelling and a poet's ear.”–Oprah.com

The New York Times bestselling, hilarious tale of Mary Karr’s hardscrabble Texas childhood that Oprah.com calls the best memoir of a generation.

The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger’s—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at age twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. This unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as “funny, lively, and un-put-downable” (USA Today) today as it ever was.

©1995 Mary Karr (P)2023 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

PEN/Martha Albrand Award, Winner

"Astonishing ... one of the most dazzling and moving memoirs to come along in years."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"This book is so good I thought about sending it out for a backup opinion...it's like finding Beethoven in Hoboken. To have a poet's precision of language and a poet's insight into people applied to one of the roughest, toughest, ugliest places in America is an astonishing event."—Molly Ivins, The Nation

"The essential American story ... a beauty."—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

Featured Article: The top 100 memoirs of all time


All genres considered, the memoir is among the most difficult and complex for a writer to pull off. After all, giving voice to your own lived experience and recounting deeply painful or uncomfortable memories in a way that still engages and entertains is a remarkable feat. These autobiographies, often narrated by the authors themselves, shine with raw, unfiltered emotion sure to resonate with any listener. But don't just take our word for it—queue up any one of these listens, and you'll hear exactly what we mean.

What listeners say about The Liars' Club

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
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Poignant and engrossing.

Thrilled Audible finally has the unabridged memoir. It’s one of my all-time favorites, wonderful to listen to it narrated by Mary Karr!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Texas Size Story

A professor of English and also a nice neighbor gifted me this book. It was really fun to read and a catharsis in fact.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

Excellent story. Looking forward to the next book. I think the author inherited her father’s ability to really pull you into a story.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Lovely memoir and the author’s voice seals the deal

I love the easy narrative style that allows the reader/listen to read with ease and get comfortable. And just as you get comfortable, Karr hits you with a depth that engages your soul and hooks you into her life and forces you to reflect on your own. Will read this one again.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The intense honesty.

Loved the entire book. So poignant and yet greatly forgiving. An excellent example of reconciliation. A lot to be learned about rising out of dysfunction.

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What a writer.

This wasn’t in my radar- but wow. I am so glad I found it. She is a heck of a writer. I don’t understand how she remembers so many details of her childhood, but she does, and we are all better for it. Don’t let the more monotone voice fool you- this is an essential memoir for all memoir lovers.

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Mary Karr is the Queen of Memoir

Read this book many moons ago, and loved it. Revisited it in audio form and had a whole new experience, listening to Ms Karr herself narrate. Wow. Moving and funny and scary and profound. Humans make good stories. The end.

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Honest story with great details

I liked how this story was told . Would recommend! I think that others will find at least one part that speaks to them.

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I grew up one town over in Port Arthur at the exact same time.

That was a very real trip back in time. It was like the whole thing could have been written about the neighborhood I grew up in.

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Amazing memoir

Crazy entertaining book with happy ending, gifted writer and great narration, I was hooked the whole story,

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