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A review by stevienlcf
Carry the One by Carol Anshaw
3.0
This is a book that snuck up on me. Despite the fabulous reviews, the first hundred pages were a slog-fest, but then I began to appreciate the artistry of Anshaw's writing. The story opens in 1983 at the wedding of Carmen and Matt in rural Wisconsin. A group of wedding party revelers, including Carmen's siblings, Alice, an artist, and Nick, an astronomer, and Matt's sister, Maude, a model and nursing student, pile into a car too tired and stoned for anyone to confidently take the wheel. They strike and kill a 10 year old girl, Casey Redman, who inexplicably appears in the road.
The only character who pays real penance for the event is Nick's girlfriend, Olivia, who was driving. She serves several years in jail, marries Nick, and then disappears, fed up with Nick's addiction. Nick also suffers, obsessively reaching out to the Redman family while sinking deeper and deeper into his addiction. Alice is consummed for years with her love affair with Maude, while enjoying success as an artist. Ironically, the paintings she considers her most successful are portraits of the doomed girl that she keeps private. Carmen looks for some meaning in social activism, but her marriage flounders when Matt takes up with the babysitter. Carmen seems to dismiss the affair as a cliche and, seemingly, the only effect of the collapse of her marriage is her detrioriating homemaker skills. When she marries Rob, she is annoyed by his passivity and his cultural ignorance, despite the fact that Alice observes that he treats Carmen as if he "put her on a float in the parade."
Anshaw's characters are self-obssessed and narcissistic, and I was annoyed that there was so little remorse, much less lives transformed by this tragedy. While the Redman girl intrudes on the characters' thoughts, these intrusions are more an annoyance -- "carry the one" -- than an opportunity for redemption. Yet, the very thing that annoyed me is one of the novel's greatest strengths. It does not pander to our expectations and devolve into a sappy tale about profound lessons learned in the aftermath of a terrible accident.
The only character who pays real penance for the event is Nick's girlfriend, Olivia, who was driving. She serves several years in jail, marries Nick, and then disappears, fed up with Nick's addiction. Nick also suffers, obsessively reaching out to the Redman family while sinking deeper and deeper into his addiction. Alice is consummed for years with her love affair with Maude, while enjoying success as an artist. Ironically, the paintings she considers her most successful are portraits of the doomed girl that she keeps private. Carmen looks for some meaning in social activism, but her marriage flounders when Matt takes up with the babysitter. Carmen seems to dismiss the affair as a cliche and, seemingly, the only effect of the collapse of her marriage is her detrioriating homemaker skills. When she marries Rob, she is annoyed by his passivity and his cultural ignorance, despite the fact that Alice observes that he treats Carmen as if he "put her on a float in the parade."
Anshaw's characters are self-obssessed and narcissistic, and I was annoyed that there was so little remorse, much less lives transformed by this tragedy. While the Redman girl intrudes on the characters' thoughts, these intrusions are more an annoyance -- "carry the one" -- than an opportunity for redemption. Yet, the very thing that annoyed me is one of the novel's greatest strengths. It does not pander to our expectations and devolve into a sappy tale about profound lessons learned in the aftermath of a terrible accident.