Mary Karr — Astonished by the Human Comedy

On Being : Mary Karr — Astonished by the Human Comedy Image
On Being : Mary Karr — Astonished by the Human Comedy Image

Mary Karr — Astonished by the Human Comedy

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

“A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it.” Mary Karr is beloved for her salty memoirs in which she traces her harrowing childhood in southeast Texas with a mother who once tried to kill her with a butcher’s knife and her own adult struggles with alcoholism and breakdown. She has a captivating ability to give voice to what is funny and wild in life’s most heartbreaking moments. Mary Karr embodies this wryness and wildness in her lesser-known spiritual practice as a devout Catholic — an unexpected move she made in mid-life.