The Memoir and Club

After reading both The Memoir and the Memoirist and The Liar's Club, I've noticed a few similarities between the two so far. Mary Karr is a professor of Literature at Syracuse University as Thomas Larson taught how to write memoirs for a small, interested class (as far as I know). It's very evident that they are highly educated by the vocabulary that is used such as Karr's words of "pseudo-demonic" and "segue", and Larson's "monolithic" and "elan." But Karr used much more intriguing vocabulary that is more relatable to how people may have talked in Texas like "mulligrubs" and "guarangoddamntee," especially; the words are amusing and get the reader into the story.

Focusing on The Liar's Club, this is the actual memoir of a time in Mary's life. She uses incredible detail to conveigh the experience as she remembers it. As Daddy tells his story of running away from home there's a point that she calls "the turning point. Daddy cocks his head at everybody to savor it. . . The domino tiles stop their endless clicking. The cigar smoke might even seem to quit winding around on itself for a minute. Nobody so much as takes a drink." Karr looks up to her father at that young age, saying that he was a talented storyteller and the other men of the so called Liar's Club thought so to when they would all turn to silence as he started a story.

Karr was always "spoiled" by her father as Larson was by his own father when he was young. It was interesting to me because I'm the only daughter amongst three brothers, so I definitely was spoiled myself. Thomas focused more on the psychological aspect of writing about real life, which was interesting. He talked about Julie who was "surprised by what she didn't know or half-remembered" which was related to Karr's one memory that she thought so crystal clear that she had to write in present tense; only that one memory.