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meli65's review against another edition
4.0
Well written and enjoyable. What made it extra-special for me is it's the first book I can remember reading in which the adults live out their lives in a time frame that is recognizable to me -- the action begins in 1983 and continues on through the present day.
blessedandbooked's review against another edition
2.0
I won this book through Goodreads, and was excited to receive it. I began reading the book and it showed some promise, however; the book became quickly bogged down for me. The main characters at the beginning of the book are high and drunk after leaving a wedding reception. Unfortunately, they hit a young girl walking home and she is killed. The book continues with the main characters over a 25 year period and what happens in their lives through the shadow of their one night of "fun". This book deals with addictions, relationships, and bad attitudes.
I kept reading to try and find something positve that came out of these people's lives, but all I found was a lot of depression and no way to work through it. I really wanted to like this book, but overall, I was glad to just get through it.
I kept reading to try and find something positve that came out of these people's lives, but all I found was a lot of depression and no way to work through it. I really wanted to like this book, but overall, I was glad to just get through it.
mmcki1's review against another edition
1.0
Read as an ARC. Definitely the worst book I have read in the last three years.
ldv's review
3.0
Based on my vague recollection of the blurb on the book and the title, I expected this book to be a little bit more like [b:One Day|4137|Me Talk Pretty One Day|David Sedaris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165389015s/4137.jpg|1030767] in that it revisits the same characters over an extended period of time. Or I thought that each chapter would directly connect that chapter's main character with "the girl" (ie the One of the title), and that it would follow all of the characters who were in the car when the accident occurred. Not quite. Really the book focusses on three siblings and their adulthood/development. Only two of the siblings were in the car, and the other three characters who were in the car are part of the story throughout the novel, but mainly in secondary or tertiary roles.
This unexpected storyline shadowed my perception of the story, but there is no doubt that the author writes well. I never felt dialogue was cheesy or characters were flat or unrealistic. In fact, these characters are some of the most realistic characters I've encountered. That's what the book is really about: realistic characters living through life's screw-ups and trials. More attention was given to Alice and her love life than I would have liked (I felt Carmen's storyline dropped off after it seemed to be going so strongly), but still interesting. And different. Different is always welcome.
This unexpected storyline shadowed my perception of the story, but there is no doubt that the author writes well. I never felt dialogue was cheesy or characters were flat or unrealistic. In fact, these characters are some of the most realistic characters I've encountered. That's what the book is really about: realistic characters living through life's screw-ups and trials. More attention was given to Alice and her love life than I would have liked (I felt Carmen's storyline dropped off after it seemed to be going so strongly), but still interesting. And different. Different is always welcome.
pattydsf's review
4.0
I checked this talking book out after reading a favorable review. I had run out of audio books and this sounded like a good possibility. I wavered through most of the book - do I like this? Should I continue? There would be chapters that I loved and then parts that were difficult listening. I was starting the last CD when a friend asked me if they would like this novel. I had to answer that I was not sure - wait until I reach the end.
When I got to the end and the whole book came together, I knew I had experienced an extraordinary book. Anshaw takes us through decades of family, friends, marriage, children, divorce. All that happens is influenced by one event that happens at the very start of the story. How Anshaw kept the threads running smoothly and kept track of all of them, amazes me. Her language is beautiful and made even better by Renee Raudman's narration.
I am struggling to know how much to tell about this tale in my review. If I give you the bare facts, I won't have done justice to how Anshaw puts everything in context with the accident that starts the tale. Let me just say if you want to know more about this, read it.
I recommend this book to lovers of the movie, The Big Chill, to readers of literary fiction, to listeners who want to live in other peoples' lives for awhile and to my friend who asked if she should read this. No one who lived through the 1970's until now should miss this book.
When I got to the end and the whole book came together, I knew I had experienced an extraordinary book. Anshaw takes us through decades of family, friends, marriage, children, divorce. All that happens is influenced by one event that happens at the very start of the story. How Anshaw kept the threads running smoothly and kept track of all of them, amazes me. Her language is beautiful and made even better by Renee Raudman's narration.
I am struggling to know how much to tell about this tale in my review. If I give you the bare facts, I won't have done justice to how Anshaw puts everything in context with the accident that starts the tale. Let me just say if you want to know more about this, read it.
I recommend this book to lovers of the movie, The Big Chill, to readers of literary fiction, to listeners who want to live in other peoples' lives for awhile and to my friend who asked if she should read this. No one who lived through the 1970's until now should miss this book.
luckyspark's review
2.0
Meh. I usually love Carol Anshaw books; but, this one was unsatisfying. The story was interesting but it lacked her usual adept storytelling and the ending was more of a petering out with a last second quick wrap up than any real resolution. It was okay; but, not up to her previous books.
mikolee's review
3.0
Three quarters of the way thru the title if the book pops up in a startling and profound way. A melancholy sweet novel focused on the lives if people in the years following a fatal car crash. Well written with captivating characters that immediately pull you into their lives.
lisagray68's review
4.0
Took me awhile to read this one, but I think it was only busy-ness on my part. After Carmen's wedding, a carload of attendees (including her brother and sister) kill a little girl as they are driving home. This book is about the lives they went on to live and how guilt became woven into the fabric of everything that happened next. Pretty dark (with lots of drugs and lesbian sex), but if you can handle that, you'll like it.
samhouston's review
3.0
Carry the One, the latest offering from Carol Anshaw, is sneaky. The novel begins as a straight-forward description of a hippie-style wedding attended by the bride’s siblings but not her parents. It is here that the reader meets the story’s main characters: siblings Carmen (the bride), Alice, and their doper brother Nick, along with Nick’s stoned girlfriend Olivia, Tom (a folk singer with negligible fame), and Maude (the groom’s sister). Reminiscent of the wedding described by Mario Puzo in The Godfather, a good bit of steamy sex ensues amongst these six during the wedding reception.
All is well as this sleepy, stoned, and mostly sated crew piles into one car to make its way back to the big city and individual lives. Mere minutes later, their world is shattered when Olivia, who is behind the wheel of the car, strikes and kills a little girl trying to cross their remote highway. Anshaw presents even this tragic accident and its immediate aftermath in a straight-forward account. At that point, however, the novel shifts in a more literary direction in which the reader will follow each of these young revelers well into middle-age via a series of jumpy flashbacks.
Numerous lives are damaged by the way that ten-year-old Casey Redman dies. Her parents, of course, suffer most obviously and most immediately, but they are not the only ones to sustain crippling damage to their souls. Carmen, Alice, Nick, Maude, and Tom are perfectly happy to let Olivia take the entire blame for what happened. But for the rest of their lives, they struggle to keep their personal guilt hidden – often even from themselves. Tom, who seems least affected, walks away from the whole thing as quickly and cleanly as possible, only to resurface years later with an idea that will disgust the others. And, although Olivia takes the biggest hit of all, none of them will ever be able to forget what happened that night.
If nothing else, this group of friends is filled with overachievers. One will become a prominent astronomer, one a painter of international repute, one a model/actress, and one a diligent political activist. Each of them is, however, so insecure that they expect to find failure around the next corner. After all, they deserved to be punished, do they not?
Carry the One tells a sad story, one that is much more complex than it initially appears to be. It is about personal guilt, family, love, addiction, and recovery – recovery of several varieties, in fact. Even though only one of the characters expresses her guilt outwardly, the life of each has been forever limited by the painful burden that keeps them tied together
All is well as this sleepy, stoned, and mostly sated crew piles into one car to make its way back to the big city and individual lives. Mere minutes later, their world is shattered when Olivia, who is behind the wheel of the car, strikes and kills a little girl trying to cross their remote highway. Anshaw presents even this tragic accident and its immediate aftermath in a straight-forward account. At that point, however, the novel shifts in a more literary direction in which the reader will follow each of these young revelers well into middle-age via a series of jumpy flashbacks.
Numerous lives are damaged by the way that ten-year-old Casey Redman dies. Her parents, of course, suffer most obviously and most immediately, but they are not the only ones to sustain crippling damage to their souls. Carmen, Alice, Nick, Maude, and Tom are perfectly happy to let Olivia take the entire blame for what happened. But for the rest of their lives, they struggle to keep their personal guilt hidden – often even from themselves. Tom, who seems least affected, walks away from the whole thing as quickly and cleanly as possible, only to resurface years later with an idea that will disgust the others. And, although Olivia takes the biggest hit of all, none of them will ever be able to forget what happened that night.
If nothing else, this group of friends is filled with overachievers. One will become a prominent astronomer, one a painter of international repute, one a model/actress, and one a diligent political activist. Each of them is, however, so insecure that they expect to find failure around the next corner. After all, they deserved to be punished, do they not?
Carry the One tells a sad story, one that is much more complex than it initially appears to be. It is about personal guilt, family, love, addiction, and recovery – recovery of several varieties, in fact. Even though only one of the characters expresses her guilt outwardly, the life of each has been forever limited by the painful burden that keeps them tied together