Adolescence and the teenage years
can be excruciating. Despite the myth that these are
supposed to be 'the best years' of our lives, peer
pressure, a strained family life and the awkwardness
of raging hormones create a reality far from the
ideal for many.
Author Mary Karr, chronicles such
a journey in her memoir, "Cherry". Desperate for
acceptance, she finds herself slowly abandoned by
childhood friends. Peer pressure mounts as friends
form exclusive cliques where the right clothes, the
right boyfriend and the right behavior eclipse
existing friendships.
In a world and era where a girl's
intelligence served no purpose beyond family meal
planning, Ms. Karr struggles to find her 'place'.
Starting with a her family; a mother prone to
departure and drinking, an emotionally absent father
and critical sister, she cannot ignore that she
doesn't fit the mold. Realizing the futility of
pretending to be the model girl of the 1960's, she
turns to the counter culture.
Through a haze of drug
experimentation, she struggles to find her
intellectual, sexual and personal identity. This
search eventually leads her away from her home in
Texas towards the promise of California.
"Cherry" is painfully honest in
its examination of the reality of growing up in
America. Ms. Karr makes no qualms about exposing the
hypocrisy of the of the happy, popular American
teen. She has powerfully documented how great the
difference between the ideal and the reality
actually is in "Cherry".
 By Mary Karr
reviewed by Catie Gosselin of WomanLinks.com
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