Carry the One by Carol Anshaw
I read a review. A review in a national newspaper. A paper with a wonderful book section that I read regularly and admire for its candor. A review very unlike the ones I write in this blog that I like to think are genuine and from the heart. My reviews are not written to sell a book, but only to offer my opinion and interpretation of the written word so that you can make an informed choice on how to spend your reading time.
The review I read on Carry The One pulled me in hook, line and sinker. The story of a family impacted by a tragic accident drew me in. After Carmen's shotgun wedding, her brother and sister get in a car with Olivia, the driver who is stoned out of her mind. On the dark rural roads the car ends up wrapped around a tree and a young girl walking along the road in the middle of the night is dead.
Carry The One follows the twists and turns of the siblings lives, each dealing in separate and different ways. The story had great possibilities for rich, deep characters and raw emotions, things I love in a novel. However Carry The One could not deliver. The story line spans many years and I struggled to know how much time had passed between the scenes. Based on the action I expected one thing to happen only to be told that I was in a totally different place in time.
This isn't the first book I've read lately that felt the need to throw in the events of 9/11. I don't even think Hemingway or Steinbeck could fully express the emotions of that day in a way that would touch me as a reader. It's too big to undertake even for the expert writers. The characters here, had some drab discussion about it that might have been meant for me to see the burden they had been carrying all these years. Frankly at that point I could really care less about them. Any glimmer of hope I had that might have redeemed them by the end of the story was gone.
Someday I may learn the lesson. Don't be dragged in by an enticing cover or a sparkling review. Carry The One is shallow and poorly written yet I was convinced it was the next great American novel. Next time I promise I'll do my homework first, and slow down before taking only a second to download and investing hours in reading.
I read a review. A review in a national newspaper. A paper with a wonderful book section that I read regularly and admire for its candor. A review very unlike the ones I write in this blog that I like to think are genuine and from the heart. My reviews are not written to sell a book, but only to offer my opinion and interpretation of the written word so that you can make an informed choice on how to spend your reading time.
The review I read on Carry The One pulled me in hook, line and sinker. The story of a family impacted by a tragic accident drew me in. After Carmen's shotgun wedding, her brother and sister get in a car with Olivia, the driver who is stoned out of her mind. On the dark rural roads the car ends up wrapped around a tree and a young girl walking along the road in the middle of the night is dead.
Carry The One follows the twists and turns of the siblings lives, each dealing in separate and different ways. The story had great possibilities for rich, deep characters and raw emotions, things I love in a novel. However Carry The One could not deliver. The story line spans many years and I struggled to know how much time had passed between the scenes. Based on the action I expected one thing to happen only to be told that I was in a totally different place in time.
This isn't the first book I've read lately that felt the need to throw in the events of 9/11. I don't even think Hemingway or Steinbeck could fully express the emotions of that day in a way that would touch me as a reader. It's too big to undertake even for the expert writers. The characters here, had some drab discussion about it that might have been meant for me to see the burden they had been carrying all these years. Frankly at that point I could really care less about them. Any glimmer of hope I had that might have redeemed them by the end of the story was gone.
Someday I may learn the lesson. Don't be dragged in by an enticing cover or a sparkling review. Carry The One is shallow and poorly written yet I was convinced it was the next great American novel. Next time I promise I'll do my homework first, and slow down before taking only a second to download and investing hours in reading.
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