Mary Karr can't help writing well. It's the poet in her. But not only that, she also wants to tell us how it was for her. She really wants to reveal it, not to titillate us, but to be seen.

We've all read lots of stories already with the same plot outline. The conversion story. Or the "here's how I was saved" story. A lesser writer would have done it the same old way but she made it new.