Karr's second memoir, Cherry: A Memoir (2000), describes her life as a rebellious adolescent. The memoir is written in the same style as The Liars' Club: by turns gritty, vulgar, and poetic. Karr goes through various adventures—many of them involving sex, romance, and drugs—in her quest to escape the confines of Leechfield, Texas. She turns a harsh light on her own follies as well as those of others.

Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1996) followed The Liars' Club onto bestseller lists. McCourt tells of his impoverished childhood and adolescence during the 1930s and 1940s in Limerick, Ireland. The story is a long catalog of deprivation and hardship, including his father's alcoholism and his mother's despair. McCourt describes the events without bitterness, anger, or blame, and many episodes are hilarious.

James Salter's Burning the Days: Recollection (1998) is a highly acclaimed...