The paperback edition of her searing, beautifully reviewed memoir, Lit, has hit the shelves, and Karr is striking out to stoke the sales buzz for a book that should be flying out the door all on its own.

Mary Karr will not take the rap. “It's not my fault,” she complained over breakfast earlier this month in Chicago. “People are always saying to me, 'You started this memoir craze and blah, blah, blah.' Everybody is blaming me for every ...