Helpful Score: 4
Weird book. Not what I expected even from reading the back of it. Was not happy with the odd ending either. I did continue reading it because I kept looking for the point...looking for what this book was "about". I mean, why the publisher liked it...would not recommend it.
Helpful Score: 1
Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2012/03/carry-one.html
Carry The One follows a set of siblings and friends over a course of twenty five years. The book begins with a wedding, and in the aftermath of the wedding, friends traveling together hit and accidentally kill a young girl. The book is meant to look at how one tragic moment impacts these individuals throughout their lives.
Unfortunately I did not enjoy the book at all. The book starts off with a wedding. The characters introduced sadly are not very likable ones. The description of the wedding includes descriptions of casual drug use, casual relationships, and the fact that even the wedding itself is precipitated by an unplanned pregnancy. Following this is the fact that these individuals in an alcohol and drug haze get in a car and drive. All that in the first few pages of the books. Not a positive start.
Given these circumstances, it is unclear that what transpires in the characters' lives is due to one tragic moment or a series of unfortunate choices. The premise of the book does not follow through because even in the first few pages, the accident is not a surprise and is a result of decisions made. To then turn around and present that accident as the cause in all that follows lacks conviction and makes for poor reading.
Carry The One follows a set of siblings and friends over a course of twenty five years. The book begins with a wedding, and in the aftermath of the wedding, friends traveling together hit and accidentally kill a young girl. The book is meant to look at how one tragic moment impacts these individuals throughout their lives.
Unfortunately I did not enjoy the book at all. The book starts off with a wedding. The characters introduced sadly are not very likable ones. The description of the wedding includes descriptions of casual drug use, casual relationships, and the fact that even the wedding itself is precipitated by an unplanned pregnancy. Following this is the fact that these individuals in an alcohol and drug haze get in a car and drive. All that in the first few pages of the books. Not a positive start.
Given these circumstances, it is unclear that what transpires in the characters' lives is due to one tragic moment or a series of unfortunate choices. The premise of the book does not follow through because even in the first few pages, the accident is not a surprise and is a result of decisions made. To then turn around and present that accident as the cause in all that follows lacks conviction and makes for poor reading.
How does one horrible incident redirect the trajectory of our lives? How is our character reshaped by tragedy? These are the questions that Carol Anshaw explores in Carry the One, a stunning novel about how a drunk driving incident influences the lives of the characters.
The novel begins on the night of Matt and Carmens wedding, when a car filled with sleepy and stoned wedding guests crashes into a young girl, Casey, on a dark country road. The girl dies instantly, and the specter of her memory haunts those involved in the accident.
Alice, Carmens sister, responds by fearing emotional commitment and drifts from relationship to relationship, including a volatile on-again-off-again affair with Maude, who was also in the car on the night of the crash. Alice is a painter who becomes increasingly well known in the art world as the story unfolds. Her best work, though, is portraits of Casey living the life she never had a chance to experience. These paintings torment Alice and she refuses to place them on exhibit. Withholding that which would bring her the most fame is her atonement for the girls death.
Carmen and Alices brother Nick, whose girlfriend Olivia was driving, is tortured by guilt - he saw the girl but was too stoned to do anything to prevent the accident. He descends further and further into drug addiction and alcoholism. His guilt prevents him from allowing himself any form of happiness and he destroys a promising career in astronomy and his relationship with Olivia. And in his awkward junkie way, he tries to make amends to Casey's parents.
Carmens reaction to the accident is a compulsion to save the world; she is a militant social worker and a crusading political activist. But she is helpless to save those she most wants to rescue - her sister, her brother, and the young girl who died.
Carry the One is subtle and understated, yet incredibly powerful. Anshaw knows just what to say and what to leave unsaid. The writing is compelling and beautiful. Every word, every phrase is perfect. The world the author creates becomes something real. The characters are complex and utterly believable. Their pain and their emotional battles are perfectly conveyed.
I was completely captivated by this novel. Even after Ive finished, I feel the lingering presence of the characters, and my mind resounds with the questions Anshaw posed: why is my life what is it and what has made me who I am?
The novel begins on the night of Matt and Carmens wedding, when a car filled with sleepy and stoned wedding guests crashes into a young girl, Casey, on a dark country road. The girl dies instantly, and the specter of her memory haunts those involved in the accident.
Alice, Carmens sister, responds by fearing emotional commitment and drifts from relationship to relationship, including a volatile on-again-off-again affair with Maude, who was also in the car on the night of the crash. Alice is a painter who becomes increasingly well known in the art world as the story unfolds. Her best work, though, is portraits of Casey living the life she never had a chance to experience. These paintings torment Alice and she refuses to place them on exhibit. Withholding that which would bring her the most fame is her atonement for the girls death.
Carmen and Alices brother Nick, whose girlfriend Olivia was driving, is tortured by guilt - he saw the girl but was too stoned to do anything to prevent the accident. He descends further and further into drug addiction and alcoholism. His guilt prevents him from allowing himself any form of happiness and he destroys a promising career in astronomy and his relationship with Olivia. And in his awkward junkie way, he tries to make amends to Casey's parents.
Carmens reaction to the accident is a compulsion to save the world; she is a militant social worker and a crusading political activist. But she is helpless to save those she most wants to rescue - her sister, her brother, and the young girl who died.
Carry the One is subtle and understated, yet incredibly powerful. Anshaw knows just what to say and what to leave unsaid. The writing is compelling and beautiful. Every word, every phrase is perfect. The world the author creates becomes something real. The characters are complex and utterly believable. Their pain and their emotional battles are perfectly conveyed.
I was completely captivated by this novel. Even after Ive finished, I feel the lingering presence of the characters, and my mind resounds with the questions Anshaw posed: why is my life what is it and what has made me who I am?
I found this book to be rather shallow and the characters undeveloped. I could not finish it, I was just too bored.
Does the death of a child haunt those involved? In this case, when the characters of the novel leave a wedding, stoned and inebriated, the car in which they are riding, hits and kills a young girl walking along the road. The driver is indicted and spends a few years in prison but the young girl's death affects the lives of all who were in the car in different ways. The reader follows these individuals through their lives until, in one way or another, their memories of the accident begin to fade or cease. It's sad story and similar to one I read earlier this year which was not fiction. I enjoyed that one much more.
