Scan barcode
A review by sjklass
Carry the One by Carol Anshaw
4.0
Reading this novel of a mere 253 pages, I felt as though I'd completed a 600 page Jonathan Franzen tome. I can only attribute that reaction to author Carol Anshaw's sublime writing.
Driving away from Carmen's wedding reception in the wee hours of the morning, Carmen's brother Nick and sister Alice and 3 other guests are all drunk or high. Their lives are irreversibly changed when the car they're in hits and kills a young girl. Alternating chapters follow the damaged, flawed, characters through 25 years of life's milestones.
The three siblings push each others buttons and lean on each other for support. Carmen is a political activist who puts herself in harms way. She is a wife and mother, then single mother. Alice is the talented, insecure artist who paints the dead girl into her landscapes and has a series of affairs with women who can control her. Nick is the brilliant astrophysicist who uses drugs to assuage his guilt and falls down the rabbit hole of addiction. Olivia, the driver, atones by doing time in jail but re-enters society with a new moral-code and ambition. Forever connected by 'the girl', some self-destruct, some stumble their way into their 40's.
A lot to convey in less than 300 pages, but the author manages it, making it look easy. Taking place between 1983 and 2008, I am roughly the same age as the characters. Cultural/historical references throughout had me recollecting - where was I when....? This novel is one that will stay with me for some time and has me looking forward to what Carol Anshaw has in store for us next.
Driving away from Carmen's wedding reception in the wee hours of the morning, Carmen's brother Nick and sister Alice and 3 other guests are all drunk or high. Their lives are irreversibly changed when the car they're in hits and kills a young girl. Alternating chapters follow the damaged, flawed, characters through 25 years of life's milestones.
The three siblings push each others buttons and lean on each other for support. Carmen is a political activist who puts herself in harms way. She is a wife and mother, then single mother. Alice is the talented, insecure artist who paints the dead girl into her landscapes and has a series of affairs with women who can control her. Nick is the brilliant astrophysicist who uses drugs to assuage his guilt and falls down the rabbit hole of addiction. Olivia, the driver, atones by doing time in jail but re-enters society with a new moral-code and ambition. Forever connected by 'the girl', some self-destruct, some stumble their way into their 40's.
A lot to convey in less than 300 pages, but the author manages it, making it look easy. Taking place between 1983 and 2008, I am roughly the same age as the characters. Cultural/historical references throughout had me recollecting - where was I when....? This novel is one that will stay with me for some time and has me looking forward to what Carol Anshaw has in store for us next.