who is mary karr today? >> well, it's really been uphill since all that. >> reporter: karr reveals the rest of her story in a new memoir, a story summed up in its title, "lit," as in lit from within by the literature she grew up with, by alcohol and drugs, and finally lit by a faith she found unexpectedly in the catholic church. >> no one in the catholic church hired me as a spokesperson, nor would they. i'm sure i'm not the pope's favorite catholic, nor is he mine. >> reporter: karr grew up amid the hardscrabble oil fields of east texas. her father drank himself to death. her mother was married seven times. >> i'm somebody who really does feel like i was snatched out of the fire and found something in myself that's luminous and gives me ballast. >> reporter: the road to faith was a long, hard climb for someone who once described herself as an "undiluted agnostic." by her mid-30s karr's life had begun to unravel. her marriage was failing. she drank heavily, wrecked the family car, was hospitalized for an emot