Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Simon & Schuster (2012), Edition: Reprint, 274 pages
Description
When a car of inebriated guests from Carmen's wedding hits and kills a girl on a country road, Carmen and the people involved in the accident connect, disconnect, and reconnect throughout twenty-five subsequent years of marriage, parenthood, holidays, and tragedies.
Media reviews
Carol Anshaw's superb Carry the One opens in 1983, with a wedding and a tragedy in quick succession. The wedding of Carmen and Matt is a pleasantly raucous affair, held outdoors at a bohemian farm in rural Wisconsin. Folk songs are loudly sung, and as a pleasant haze of alcohol and pot permeates
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the evening, Carmen hopes, with only a little apprehension, "to sit out this early phase of her marriage, the mortifying dances segment"..... Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Her_Royal_Orangeness
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
Alice, Carmen’s 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 girl’s death.
Carmen and Alice’s 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.
Carmen’s 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 I’ve 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?
Caution to potential readers: If you are at all homophobic, you will not be comfortable reading this book.
The novel begins on
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the night of Matt and Carmen’s 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, Carmen’s 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 girl’s death.
Carmen and Alice’s 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.
Carmen’s 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 I’ve 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?
Caution to potential readers: If you are at all homophobic, you will not be comfortable reading this book.
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LibraryThing member Laine-Cunningham
Very well done in terms of writing style and choices, and the concept was interesting. This book follows several people who all feel that they participated in the accidental death of a child. The single night of her death haunts them for twenty years; each handles that event in different ways.
It
It
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was very difficult over the first 100 pages and even at points later to remember who was who, though. I struggled to keep track of the individuals, their histories, and the tracks of their lives. That was particularly annoying as I got further into the book. But in the end, I was glad to have read this. Show Less
LibraryThing member smileydq
I was expecting this novel to move me in some way. I was expecting to read about a family coming to grips with a tragedy of their own making, seeking a way to move on with their lives in the wake of their poor choices that ultimately took an innocent life. Instead, I read a rather ho-hum tale of 3
The novel is structured rather bizarrely, with frenetic jumps among people, places and times. I didn't find the characters to be particularly moving, nor their lives or struggles to be realistic or thought-provoking. All in all, this book was a bit of a disappointment, despite Anshaw's occasionally exquisite use of language.
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siblings (Carmen, Nick and Alice) and their rather unexciting paths to adulthood. While the author attempted to weave Casey (the young girl killed by the group's drunk driving accident) into the story and make it seem as though the three adults were struggling with her memory every day, her inclusion felt more like an afterthought. The novel is structured rather bizarrely, with frenetic jumps among people, places and times. I didn't find the characters to be particularly moving, nor their lives or struggles to be realistic or thought-provoking. All in all, this book was a bit of a disappointment, despite Anshaw's occasionally exquisite use of language.
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LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
In the small hours of the morning on an otherwise deserted country road, a carload of wedding celebrants, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, crashes into a ten year old girl, killing her. One life is ended by the impact, but the ramifications of the accident echo and multiply in the years
Carol Anshaw follows the lives of three siblings over the course of the next twenty-five years: Carmen, whose wedding the others had attended; Alice, who was in the back seat of the car with her lover, Maude; and Nick, who was in the front passenger seat. Each chapter focuses on a different sibling, returning again and again over the years. Swooping between a regal third person, where the course of a character’s life can be announced magisterially, and a close third person narration from virtually inside the head of the character, Anshaw invites us to feel their anguish, doubt, and disappointment. Writing in a lush, lyric mode, she brings her principal characters viscerally to life. So much so that they feel hauntingly, even distressingly, real.
In their separate ways, each character must deal with the fallout from that initial horrific accident. For Alice, a burgeoning artist, the life that might have been for the dead girl begins to play itself out in her paintings. For Carmen, her marriage disintegrates, but she finds solace in her young son. For Nick, the downward spiral is unrelenting. But the effects go far beyond these principal characters.
Certainly an impressive and emotional novel that must be highly recommended.
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that follow in the lives of each of the car’s occupants. For one it means prison. For the others, their guilt and their punishment takes various forms. But for each there can be little doubt that one event will come to dominate the rest of their lives.Carol Anshaw follows the lives of three siblings over the course of the next twenty-five years: Carmen, whose wedding the others had attended; Alice, who was in the back seat of the car with her lover, Maude; and Nick, who was in the front passenger seat. Each chapter focuses on a different sibling, returning again and again over the years. Swooping between a regal third person, where the course of a character’s life can be announced magisterially, and a close third person narration from virtually inside the head of the character, Anshaw invites us to feel their anguish, doubt, and disappointment. Writing in a lush, lyric mode, she brings her principal characters viscerally to life. So much so that they feel hauntingly, even distressingly, real.
In their separate ways, each character must deal with the fallout from that initial horrific accident. For Alice, a burgeoning artist, the life that might have been for the dead girl begins to play itself out in her paintings. For Carmen, her marriage disintegrates, but she finds solace in her young son. For Nick, the downward spiral is unrelenting. But the effects go far beyond these principal characters.
Certainly an impressive and emotional novel that must be highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member konastories
Joy's review: What a thought and emotion provoking book! What is forgiveness? Are some things unforgiveable? What do we 'owe' our family? Can events tie us together forever? All these deep questions AND it's very well written; Anshaw has great descriptive power.
LibraryThing member texicanwife
***This was an advanced readers copy, so final printing may differ from review.
A wedding. Too much booze. Too much drugs. And a long drive home. When a young girl is killed, hit by a car, bounced from the windshield, and lies dead by the side of the road, each passenger, and the driver of the car
Guilt harbors within, and each require the others just to survive. An elite club if you will.
This is an excellent story of a violent death and the mad race to try to outrun its shadows. Spanning several years, it examines love, obsession, siblings, political convictions, the struggles of an artist, drug addicton, and homosexuality.
This book seaks to the heart. I didn't want to put it down!
I give this book Five Stars and a big Thumbs Up!
****DISCLOSURE: This book was provided by Amazon Vine in exchange for an independent and non-biased review.
A wedding. Too much booze. Too much drugs. And a long drive home. When a young girl is killed, hit by a car, bounced from the windshield, and lies dead by the side of the road, each passenger, and the driver of the car
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carries a bit of the dead girl away.Guilt harbors within, and each require the others just to survive. An elite club if you will.
This is an excellent story of a violent death and the mad race to try to outrun its shadows. Spanning several years, it examines love, obsession, siblings, political convictions, the struggles of an artist, drug addicton, and homosexuality.
This book seaks to the heart. I didn't want to put it down!
I give this book Five Stars and a big Thumbs Up!
****DISCLOSURE: This book was provided by Amazon Vine in exchange for an independent and non-biased review.
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LibraryThing member DanieXJ
It was an okay book, not my favorite ever, but not bad either. Some of it was quite intense, and some of it uh... well, it was too flower-y for me, not to mention the small fact that at the beginning there were so many characters introduced all at once, so it got a bit overwhelming.
Still, despite
Also, I usually don't care what format it's in, but the copy that I won had a nice heft to it that isn't always apparent these days, even with hardbacks.
Still, despite
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the ton and a half of characters, most of them were interesting and different. Not all cut from the same cloth that's for sure. A solid three star book.Also, I usually don't care what format it's in, but the copy that I won had a nice heft to it that isn't always apparent these days, even with hardbacks.
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LibraryThing member smcbeth
I'm always surprised when I read or hear from a reader that they didn't "like" the characters. Characters can be well written and interesting without being likable. In fact, characters can be boring because they are boring. I liked the concept of the book and found it well written. Powerful events
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shape different people in different ways. Show Less
LibraryThing member vasquirrel
I initially had trouble being interested in the characters - as presented - a couple of a siblings, belonging to a couple of families are involved in a car accident that leaves a young girl dead. Missing their back stories? Thinking the book would be more of a thriller?
When I got hooked, I was
I'm not sure if I should blame the author or my preconceptions for feeling like the novel was a slow starter, but that's why I gave it three stars, rather than four.
Reminded me a LOT of Without a Backward Glance by Kate Veitch, which I enjoyed a bit more than Carry the One.
When I got hooked, I was
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HOOKED.The accident remains mostly in the background, but always there. Anshaw crosses decades deftly in advancing the life stories of the main characters. She does all the right things to allow the reader to NOT feel like she is jumping around haphazardly. Rather, she drops into their lives with enough subtle clues to tell the reader exactly what is going on and why.I'm not sure if I should blame the author or my preconceptions for feeling like the novel was a slow starter, but that's why I gave it three stars, rather than four.
Reminded me a LOT of Without a Backward Glance by Kate Veitch, which I enjoyed a bit more than Carry the One.
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LibraryThing member JackieBlem
This books follows the lives of a group of family and friends through 25 years, starting with a wedding and a drunken ride on a dark country lane that resulted in the death of a little girl. The "one" they all carry is the specter of that girl, the responsibility and guilt , and the book is the
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story of how that effected their lives. One becomes a fierce liberal activist, one becomes a famous painter who can't show her best work, another becomes an addict who is obsessed by the child's mother. Then there's the conflicted nurse turned model, the songwriter who finds his success tainted with the tragedy, and more. This is a group character study of the process of time, what it does to us, what we do with it, and how we (humans) deal with it. What really moves the book is the magnificent writing--very visual yet full of mystery and shadows. This book will make you think about consequences and choices in your own life even as the characters' lives unfold in front of you. Show Less
LibraryThing member Draak
Carry The One is a story about a group of people who leave a wedding reception one night and end up killing a little girl on a dark country road. this changes all their lives. i only gave this book 2 stars because I found the book boring and the characters unlikeable. The only one who had their
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life changed would be Olivia who was driving the car that night. The rest were superficial. i really wanted to like this book but just couldn't. Show Less
LibraryThing member GoudaReads
I really liked the idea of this book: an accident involving lots of drunk/stoned people in a car that hits and kills a young girl. Technically, only the driver is guilty by law, but the others carry their own guilt. No one made good decisions that night. Each of the characters takes away a bit of
Anshaw paints a vivid portrait of the accident's impact on the characters' lives. Not only how they are individually altered, but also how the shared experience shapes their interactions with each other. The author is adept at handling a multitude of characters - all were interesting and individualized so I never was confused about who was who or why they made the choices they did. And the paths the characters lives took were all believable and understandable. For me, the only downfall was that I didn't like the characters. To the one they were too self-centered and felt cold. So, I never really connected emotionally to the story.
Bottom line: a well written and enjoyable story with less than likable (to me) characters. I'd definitely read another book by Carol Anshaw.
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the dead girl that night and each deals with her presence in their lives in different ways. Anshaw paints a vivid portrait of the accident's impact on the characters' lives. Not only how they are individually altered, but also how the shared experience shapes their interactions with each other. The author is adept at handling a multitude of characters - all were interesting and individualized so I never was confused about who was who or why they made the choices they did. And the paths the characters lives took were all believable and understandable. For me, the only downfall was that I didn't like the characters. To the one they were too self-centered and felt cold. So, I never really connected emotionally to the story.
Bottom line: a well written and enjoyable story with less than likable (to me) characters. I'd definitely read another book by Carol Anshaw.
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LibraryThing member bobbieharv
I'd read rave reviews, and loved her other books, so I was excited to read this. Unfortunately I was disappointed, though I'm not quite sure why. The characters just didn't grab me; I wasn't interested in their stories; the writing was just okay. Good but not great.
LibraryThing member jules72653
I liked this book although it was a bit hard to keep all the characters straight and their relationships to each other. In the beginning I wasn't sure if Jean was a friend or a sister. Turns out she was a friend of the sister. I didn't love the characters like I sometimes do but the author did a
I have paraphrased my favorite line from the book: "The past is resistant to revision." I love that!
I also thought the last chapter was perfect! To end the book with another character would have been wrong.
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great job pacing the novel. Each chapter moves the story along deftly, sometimes in years and sometimes much less. I have paraphrased my favorite line from the book: "The past is resistant to revision." I love that!
I also thought the last chapter was perfect! To end the book with another character would have been wrong.
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LibraryThing member shazjhb
This book should make no. 1 for best book 2012. I am not sure what made it so compelling. Maybe it was the simple event and how it impacts people's lives or maybe it was the walk through recent history.
LibraryThing member brooks
I finished Carry The One nearly a month ago, but I've had a hard time trying to figure out how to write about it. It's well-crafted, beautifully written and nicely-paced. The characters are engaging and the story believable. I have a lot of really complementary things to say about Carry The One,
Carry The One is a family drama that focuses primarily on three siblings: Carmen, Alice and Nick. The story begins after Carmen's wedding, when Nick, Alice and their friends and girlfriends load up in a car and go racing into the night. When they hit and kill a young girl, the guilt follows them for the rest of their lives. The story follows Alice, Carmen and Nick for the next 25 years as they fall in and out of love, live through failure and success and seem to find some kind of resolution in the end.
This is a book about characters and this may sound strange, but I know it's a good book when I don't like one of the characters. I'm not talking about when a character does something irritating or is just kind of annoying, I'm talking about when a character is so fully-realized that I feel like I know them and I understand them. In Carry The One that character is Carmen. She's the kind of person that is never happy with what they have, never happy with the current state of the world, and never really appreciates all of the wonderful gifts in her life. She's a mother, a crusader and is supposed to be the sensible one of the bunch. She the least obviously affected by the death of the girl, but her struggle is more subtle and her character arc isn't as clearly resolved.
Alice is the artist of the family. She spends most of the novel escaping the shadow of her artist father, falling in and out of bed with Maude (who can't seem to fully come out of the closet and whose "fascination with hypothetical versions of herself was bottomless.") and coming to the rescue of her siblings. She's fun and funny, but she also loves harder than anyone else in the book. She loves her siblings, she loves Maude. She even seems to love her parents more than her brother and sister.
I feel like I was supposed to love Alice the most, but it turns out that Nick was the one I cared about the most. After the accident, Nick goes from a heavy drug user to a full-blown addict. I felt like his character was built from a flimsy stereotype, but I cared much more about what happened to him. When he's clean he's a very successful astronomer, but when he's using drugs, he's as down and out as it gets. Nick's story is the most heart-breaking because he is unable to channel the guilt and grief he feels over the death of the girl. His only response is to self-destruct.
This could have easily been a fluff novel, designed to pull at your heart-strings and manipulate you into shedding tears for two-dimensional characters, but Carol Anshaw pulls it off in way that feels real.
I said earlier that I didn't love Carry The One. I've been trying to figure out where the book and I missed each other and I've realized that it just wasn't written for me. I don't know if it's because I'm male and the book seems to be more geared towards female readers or if it's just a matter connecting to the story. Maybe it's both. I certainly think Carry The One will appeal more to women than men, but I hesitate to say that it's explicitly a book for women either.
In the end, Carry The One is a good book and I liked it. The characters are strong and relatable, the writing is quite good and the story feels fresh. Some readers will really love this book and others, like me, will probably appreciate, but not ultimately fall for its charms.
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but ultimately I didn't love it.Carry The One is a family drama that focuses primarily on three siblings: Carmen, Alice and Nick. The story begins after Carmen's wedding, when Nick, Alice and their friends and girlfriends load up in a car and go racing into the night. When they hit and kill a young girl, the guilt follows them for the rest of their lives. The story follows Alice, Carmen and Nick for the next 25 years as they fall in and out of love, live through failure and success and seem to find some kind of resolution in the end.
This is a book about characters and this may sound strange, but I know it's a good book when I don't like one of the characters. I'm not talking about when a character does something irritating or is just kind of annoying, I'm talking about when a character is so fully-realized that I feel like I know them and I understand them. In Carry The One that character is Carmen. She's the kind of person that is never happy with what they have, never happy with the current state of the world, and never really appreciates all of the wonderful gifts in her life. She's a mother, a crusader and is supposed to be the sensible one of the bunch. She the least obviously affected by the death of the girl, but her struggle is more subtle and her character arc isn't as clearly resolved.
Alice is the artist of the family. She spends most of the novel escaping the shadow of her artist father, falling in and out of bed with Maude (who can't seem to fully come out of the closet and whose "fascination with hypothetical versions of herself was bottomless.") and coming to the rescue of her siblings. She's fun and funny, but she also loves harder than anyone else in the book. She loves her siblings, she loves Maude. She even seems to love her parents more than her brother and sister.
I feel like I was supposed to love Alice the most, but it turns out that Nick was the one I cared about the most. After the accident, Nick goes from a heavy drug user to a full-blown addict. I felt like his character was built from a flimsy stereotype, but I cared much more about what happened to him. When he's clean he's a very successful astronomer, but when he's using drugs, he's as down and out as it gets. Nick's story is the most heart-breaking because he is unable to channel the guilt and grief he feels over the death of the girl. His only response is to self-destruct.
This could have easily been a fluff novel, designed to pull at your heart-strings and manipulate you into shedding tears for two-dimensional characters, but Carol Anshaw pulls it off in way that feels real.
I said earlier that I didn't love Carry The One. I've been trying to figure out where the book and I missed each other and I've realized that it just wasn't written for me. I don't know if it's because I'm male and the book seems to be more geared towards female readers or if it's just a matter connecting to the story. Maybe it's both. I certainly think Carry The One will appeal more to women than men, but I hesitate to say that it's explicitly a book for women either.
In the end, Carry The One is a good book and I liked it. The characters are strong and relatable, the writing is quite good and the story feels fresh. Some readers will really love this book and others, like me, will probably appreciate, but not ultimately fall for its charms.
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LibraryThing member Beamis12
Almost feels like the reader is a voyeur peering on these characters lives. The writing is so smooth and the characters are two sister and a brother who are involved in a fatal accident which effects them in different way throughout their lives. We peer in on them in increments of several years,
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finding out where they are at, how they are facing their challenges. Actually quite structurally perfect and apparent simpleness of the novel is deceptive. Show Less
LibraryThing member TFS93
I didn't like the way the story jumped around and moved between characters and stories. I found it extremely hard to follow. I found it very hard to like any of the characters. The book was SO depressing that it made me wish the characters would just end it all so I didn't have to read about their
This review is in reference to an Advance Reader's Edition of the book
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terrible, depressing lives anymore. I honestly could not recommend this story to anyone.This review is in reference to an Advance Reader's Edition of the book
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LibraryThing member nivramkoorb
This is my first Carol Anshaw book and I thought it was excellent. It is always interesting to see reviews and it is inevitable that people that give bad reviews don't like the characters or are looking for a plot when the book is a character study. Bottom line is that the writing was great. Good
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humor and although the characters were tightly drawn as being liberal, artistic, and addictive, the book was interesting and I recommend it. Good use of history and how the backdrop of events impacted the characters. The accident was a constant that was always out there but it didn't overwhelm everyone except for Nick. I look forward to reading more books by Carol Anshaw. Show Less
LibraryThing member Donura1
5 out of 5
We all know that a single event can have a lifelong impact on us and may have a different impact on us as it does in others, however, Carol Anshaw has taken a single event and delved deeply into the impact it had a group of friends and family who experienced a single event that changed
Carry The One, her latest novel, is sure to be a page turner for many this year. The skill that Ms. Anshaw has at taking the complexity of each character and blending them together, on top of, around, and under each other is masterful. As you wind your way through this story of two sisters, a brother, their extended families, you become a part of them, you wonder how the event would have affected you, and what long term effects it would have had on your life.
Five people leave a wedding party after a long night of partying. They most certainly should have stayed but didn’t, each for their own reasons. While driving down a lonely country road, they hit and kill a child who happens to be in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night.
The secret is not the event, but the spell that is cast and holds you throughout the book to show how lives change or don’t change, how they separate or come closer together. A wonderful, astute look at what life can hand you and what you choose to do with it or allow it to do to you.
We all know that a single event can have a lifelong impact on us and may have a different impact on us as it does in others, however, Carol Anshaw has taken a single event and delved deeply into the impact it had a group of friends and family who experienced a single event that changed
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all of their lives.Carry The One, her latest novel, is sure to be a page turner for many this year. The skill that Ms. Anshaw has at taking the complexity of each character and blending them together, on top of, around, and under each other is masterful. As you wind your way through this story of two sisters, a brother, their extended families, you become a part of them, you wonder how the event would have affected you, and what long term effects it would have had on your life.
Five people leave a wedding party after a long night of partying. They most certainly should have stayed but didn’t, each for their own reasons. While driving down a lonely country road, they hit and kill a child who happens to be in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night.
The secret is not the event, but the spell that is cast and holds you throughout the book to show how lives change or don’t change, how they separate or come closer together. A wonderful, astute look at what life can hand you and what you choose to do with it or allow it to do to you.
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LibraryThing member bearette24
Really interesting and unusual book. It's supposedly about an accident early in the story, but it's really about different forms of addiction, perhaps springing from the accident. The characters were expertly drawn, the narrative had a certain wry humor, and the romance was steamy. I'd definitely
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be interested in seeing what she writes next. Show Less
LibraryThing member bdouglas97
Thought this was very boring...sorry..following the lives of several people who were involved in a car accident where a young girl was killed...
LibraryThing member bookappeal
The “one” purportedly being carried in this novel is a 10-year-old girl, killed by a car of guests leaving a wedding reception in 1983. The guests include Alice and Nick, sister and brother of Carmen, the pregnant bride. Years later, when the car’s occupants find themselves together again,
But, in fact, only peripheral characters are affected significantly by the girl’s death. Carmen exhibits no guilt over letting her obviously impaired brother and sister drive away in the middle of the night. After the event, Alice’s toxic and mostly sexual relationship with Maude continues unabated. Nick is intelligent enough to do something brilliant with his life but his only real goal remains getting high. Memories of the incident surface sporadically, particularly in Alice’s paintings, but after twenty-five years, the siblings are exactly the same people they might have been if the accident never occurred.
Carol Anshaw’s ability to write insightful, sharp dialogue and evocative description is never in question. But her skill in crafting a sentence is wasted on self-absorbed, unrealistic, and repetitive characters whose only purpose is to carry on with their meaningless lives. Unless Anshaw’s intent is demonstrating the destructive power of narcissism, she misses the mark.
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one of them comments, “When you add us up, you always have to carry the one.”But, in fact, only peripheral characters are affected significantly by the girl’s death. Carmen exhibits no guilt over letting her obviously impaired brother and sister drive away in the middle of the night. After the event, Alice’s toxic and mostly sexual relationship with Maude continues unabated. Nick is intelligent enough to do something brilliant with his life but his only real goal remains getting high. Memories of the incident surface sporadically, particularly in Alice’s paintings, but after twenty-five years, the siblings are exactly the same people they might have been if the accident never occurred.
Carol Anshaw’s ability to write insightful, sharp dialogue and evocative description is never in question. But her skill in crafting a sentence is wasted on self-absorbed, unrealistic, and repetitive characters whose only purpose is to carry on with their meaningless lives. Unless Anshaw’s intent is demonstrating the destructive power of narcissism, she misses the mark.
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LibraryThing member froxgirl
Anshaw is a genius at pulling together family and friend strands into a united whole world for the reader, penetrating the depths of all her characters, even the minor ones. In this novel, we meet three siblings - Alice, Nick, and Carmen - immediately after a disastrous drunk and drugged-driving
Quotes: "She was a terrible actress, wooden. Often she appeared stunned by the other actor's line."
"It was not a good situation when the same person provided the pain and the analgesic."
"I don't think he's terribly interested in a tragedy so big that everyone else is in on it. He's a tragedy snob."
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accident, when a little girl is hit and run over following Carmen's wedding. With the tragedy opening the novel, we follow what becomes of those who were in the car and the newlyweds. Alice becomes a famous artist stuck in a bad groove with her flighty, ambitious girlfriend, Carmen's husband eventually divorces her to run off with a missionary, and Nick, an astronomer, has a secret about the accident which sends him over the line into addiction. As the siblings age, the accident's impact reaches into their lives with amazing force, and the reader will ache for their subsequent good and bad decisions.Quotes: "She was a terrible actress, wooden. Often she appeared stunned by the other actor's line."
"It was not a good situation when the same person provided the pain and the analgesic."
"I don't think he's terribly interested in a tragedy so big that everyone else is in on it. He's a tragedy snob."
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LibraryThing member MHanover10
This book was okay. It didn't suck me in like most books I like. It starts out with a wedding between Carmen and Matt. Their sisters Maude and Alice get in a car with Alice and Carmen's brother Nick, who is high and his girlfriend Olivia who is also high and gets behind the wheel. They soon hit a
I was expecting this book to be more about how the death of the young girl affects their lives and how one incident can change someone for life but they all were already on the paths they were headed before the accident.
The book is a little boring and was just a look at the life of these messed up people. It's pretty much focused on Carmen, Alice and Nick and Alice is the main character featured. Not a bad book, I've just read better.
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girl and kill her. The book then goes through there lives over the next 20 years. You don't really grasp time passing along unless you catch an age of someone or a major event. Or even the book said "2 years later" other then that it was an "oh, we've jumped ahead." I was expecting this book to be more about how the death of the young girl affects their lives and how one incident can change someone for life but they all were already on the paths they were headed before the accident.
The book is a little boring and was just a look at the life of these messed up people. It's pretty much focused on Carmen, Alice and Nick and Alice is the main character featured. Not a bad book, I've just read better.
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Awards
Lambda Literary Award (Finalist — 2013)
Green Carnation Prize (Shortlist — 2012)
St. Francis College Literary Prize (Shortlist — 2013)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction & Poetry — 2012)
Language
Original publication date
2012-03