The Liars' Club is the childhood memoir of American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author Mary Karr

Mary Karr

Mary Karr is an American poet, essayist and memoirist. She rose to fame in 1995 with the publication of her bestselling memoir The Liars' Club...

. Published in 1995 and a New York Times bestseller for over a year it tells the story of Mary Karr's childhood in the 1960s in a small industrial town in Southeast Texas

Southeast Texas

Southeast Texas is a subregion of East Texas located in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The subregion is geographically centered around the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown and Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan areas...

. The title refers to her father and his friends who would gather to drink and tell stories when not working at the oil refinery or the chemical plant.

Plot

The book tells the story of Karr's troubled childhood in a small Texan town in the early 1960s. Using a non-linear storyline she describes the troubles of growing up in a family and town where heavy alcohol abuse and psychological problems are common issues.