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sarah984's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Essay collections are always hard to rate for me. Some of the essays were brilliant, searing looks at the meaning of violence, but others had clearly been published elsewhere before and didn't fit in as well with the rest of the content. The parts about COVID felt kind of tacked on and strange.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Racism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Trafficking, and Stalking
Minor: Drug abuse, Hate crime, Rape, and Suicide
caidyn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.0
I've had this book on my radar for a long time, but finally was in the mood to read it. It's a memoir, but more like a series of interconnected essays. Toni Jensen tells her stories, as well as the story of Indigenous people in America and just the world around us. At times, it was a difficult read because of the nature of the stories, but they were all so well written and pertinent to what's going on today and what's gone on since America came to be. Highly recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia
mscalls's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Animal cruelty
abbie_'s review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I know this book was only published in 2020 so it would be odd if it weren't relevant to the here and now, but I genuinely cannot think of a book more suited to our current world. It's focused on the US, but Carry is a book that should be on everyone's radar, regardless of location.
.
This book is a blend of personal essay, memoir, history, the natural world and social justice. From the first essay I was blown away by Jensen's ability to weave together topics which at first may seem unrelated but, once you dig deeper, are linked in nefarious ways. She includes her own personal experiences of racism, domestic and sexual violence she's endured in various settings, including academia and at home, but links them to wider cases and events in history to create a complex and devastating tapestry of America, both past and present.
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Jensen has a way of looking at things that made me question things differently too. Such as, what constitutes a violence? How many close calls, how many brushes with sexual violence does a person have to endure before they make up a whole violence? The experiences we live, whether close calls or not, leave permanent marks on our minds. We carry those experiences throughout our lives, they impact the way we do everyday things.
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While the sections dealing with sexual assault affected me greatly, they did not (sadly) surprise me. The many sections on gun violence however... Oof. Obviously I know that guns are a thing in America. In the UK we obviously get news from the US concerning mass shootings. But I don't think I fully comprehended before this book, just how much guns form a part of tragic everyday violence in America. And once I did... it's staggering. Jensen holds absolutely no bars when she assesses why gun violence rates are so high in the US - practically unfettered access to firearms. All the research and studies in the world can't change that simple fact.
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She also examines the untouchable combination of wealth and whiteness when it comes to gun violence, not to mention the intense difference with which the media treats white perpetrators compared to Black perpetrators or perpetrators of colour. Gun violence in America includes the white and wealthy more often than the narrative around the problem would have you believe. With white shooters, they're more inclined to follow the guidelines of not splashing their faces or even names across the news, to not inspire copycat killings and show respect for the victims and their families. But if the shooters aren't white? It's almost guaranteed their faces will be right there, splashed across the news to further fuel the racist agenda.
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One thing (among many) I love about this book is how Jensen will always mention which Indigenous peoples owned the land before it was stolen from them whenever she mentions a new place. Jensen is Métis, and is 100% dedicated to reminding us that the 'Vanishing Indian Myth' is in fact just that. A myth. Her examination of the way American history has sanitised the slaughters of Indigenous folks across the country is eerily accurate to what we're living through right now. With media outlets refusing to call the terrorists who stormed the Capitol for what they are, America (and the rest of the world) is literally watching history being altered, being made more comfortable for the white gaze. Jensen hammers home how much language matters. They weren't 'battles', they were massacres of Indigenous peoples.
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Jensen also continually refers to 'This, our America' throughout the book. I can imagine she was not at all surprised by the events at the Capitol, as no one should be, since it fits perfectly the narrative of America so far - the true narrative, not the comfortable sanitised one. She states at one point that Americans (but again, people all over the world) doing the bare minimum and believing themselves to be part of the solution are in fact the problem. And that is something we all need to internalise.
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One last thing, the title of this book 'Carry' is probably the most perfect title I've ever come across. Throughout the book, Jensen quantifies and defines terms according the many definitions of Webster's. I loved this aspect, and if you were to look up the definitions for 'carry', you would find this book summed up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Trafficking
cristy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
4.5
A plethora of content warnings here. J speaks in depth about not only her personal trauma, but of our collective trauma; her people, her family, and our country as it stands today. The text moves around as she does, including to University of Central Florida and Orlando itself. The Pulse shooting is specifically addressed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, and Suicide
Moderate: Medical trauma
Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, and Grief
autumn_alwaysreadingseason's review against another edition
informative
reflective
4.0
Toni Jensen's Carry is a memoir in essays about her experience as a Métis woman, with a particular focus on how gun violence has become rampant and touches numerous lives. It's also about identity, trauma, being a writer, etc.
Guns are woven throughout, from her father's own possession, to encounters she's personally had, to other people she's known who have been affected by them. For example, she writes of the Pulse night club shooting in Orlando, a place that she used to live and which her students would frequent. Her life is almost presented as a web, a twisted game of "three degrees from..." as she relates herself to these events.
Guns are woven throughout, from her father's own possession, to encounters she's personally had, to other people she's known who have been affected by them. For example, she writes of the Pulse night club shooting in Orlando, a place that she used to live and which her students would frequent. Her life is almost presented as a web, a twisted game of "three degrees from..." as she relates herself to these events.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence
thebookteaseblog's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
This memoir in essays reminded me so much of another favorite: I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell. Both are stunningly, poetically written, with a focus on extraordinary and everyday brushes with death. Jensen is a born storyteller, someone whose curiosity about language and the effects of words comes through clearly in her writing. I fell head over heels for her narrative style from the first page. It feels overly simplistic to describe Carry as a book about violence - it is about that, it's true, but Carry is also about family, and place, and survival. It puts what's happening in (to use Jensen's refrain, our America) in a larger context. In her essays, she reminds us that as long as this country chooses to view gun violence as a problem that cannot be solved, as something that just is, that the violence against Black and Indigenous people, the violence against women and children, the countless almosts, the too-many-to-name violent acts that are carried out every day will continue. She reminds us that we cannot untangle the threads of the violence against animals and the violence against women, the violence of the past and the violence of the present, the everyday violence and the headline making violence, the violence of the individual and the violence of the government, because it is all connected. I hope that one day people will look back on stories like those in Carry and they will seem unrecognizable. In the meantime, they are an anthem, a warning, a question.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Trafficking, Violence, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Xenophobia
deedireads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Carry is one of those memoirs that just stands so far out from all the others. The writing is fierce, poetic, and self-assured. Read it.
For you if: You liked Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House.
FULL REVIEW:
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land absolutely blew me away. Toni Jensen’s prose sings and cuts, drawing you in and rooting you to the spot until it’s finished.
Jensen masterfully weaves together two defining focuses of her life: her Native identity, and the recurring presence of guns and gun violence — be it in her fraught childhood home, on any of the various campuses where she’s taught, or in the neighborhoods where she’s lived. Somehow, she never loses the examination on either one of those things, even though they are not always related to one another. She also broadens out to examine the impact of racism against Native people, violence against women, classism, and more.
It’s heavy, but it rings with humanity. It’s honest, it’s sad, it’s hopeful, it’s important. I cried, I shook, I laughed. I’m still in awe.
This won’t be for everyone, in that it’s an untraditional memoir — but in the best way, I thought. It’s written in essays rather than a narrative arc, jumps around in time, and rings with metaphorical, poetic prose. The best comparison I can draw is In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. If you liked that one, I think you’ll like this one. Jensen’s skill with words is incredible.
TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Child abuse (physical); Child abuse (sexual); Animal abuse; Gun threats and violence; Pregnancy, breech/emergency C-section birth
TL;DR REVIEW:
Carry is one of those memoirs that just stands so far out from all the others. The writing is fierce, poetic, and self-assured. Read it.
For you if: You liked Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House.
FULL REVIEW:
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land absolutely blew me away. Toni Jensen’s prose sings and cuts, drawing you in and rooting you to the spot until it’s finished.
Jensen masterfully weaves together two defining focuses of her life: her Native identity, and the recurring presence of guns and gun violence — be it in her fraught childhood home, on any of the various campuses where she’s taught, or in the neighborhoods where she’s lived. Somehow, she never loses the examination on either one of those things, even though they are not always related to one another. She also broadens out to examine the impact of racism against Native people, violence against women, classism, and more.
It’s heavy, but it rings with humanity. It’s honest, it’s sad, it’s hopeful, it’s important. I cried, I shook, I laughed. I’m still in awe.
This won’t be for everyone, in that it’s an untraditional memoir — but in the best way, I thought. It’s written in essays rather than a narrative arc, jumps around in time, and rings with metaphorical, poetic prose. The best comparison I can draw is In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. If you liked that one, I think you’ll like this one. Jensen’s skill with words is incredible.
TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Child abuse (physical); Child abuse (sexual); Animal abuse; Gun threats and violence; Pregnancy, breech/emergency C-section birth
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Child abuse and Animal cruelty
Minor: Pedophilia
lela's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Dementia and Trafficking
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