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Carry the One

by Carol Anshaw (Goodreads Author)

3.15 of 5 stars 3.15 · rating details · 5,700 ratings · 1,080 reviews

This stunning, break-out achievement has already been hailed by Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room, for presenting “passion and addiction, guilt and damage, all the beautiful mess of family life. Carry the One will lift readers off their feet and bear them along on its eloquent tide.”

Carry the One begins in the hours following Carmen’s wedding reception, when a car...more

Hardcover, 253 pages

Published March 6th 2012 by Simon & Schuster (first published March 1st 2012)

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2012: What the Over 35s Have Read So Far

100th out of 3,525 books — 699 voters

Best Books of 2012

387th out of 2,658 books — 7,707 voters

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Apr 06, 2012 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it 1 of 5 stars

Recommended to Anne (Booklady) by: Barnes and Noble Staffer

Shelves: anne-booklady-105-books-in-2012, god-awful, spring-2012, womens-fiction, literary-fiction, coffee-n-books-105-in-2012

1.67 Stars

The premise of Carry the One is simple and so very promising. Carol Anshaw begins her story ” in the hours following Carmen’s wedding reception, when a car filled with stoned, drunk, and sleepy guests accidentally hits and kills a girl on a dark, country road. For the next twenty-five years, those involved, including Carmen and her brother and sister, connect and disconnect and reconnect with each other and their victim. As one character says, ‘“When you add us up, you always have to c...more 1.67 Stars

The premise of Carry the One is simple and so very promising. Carol Anshaw begins her story ” in the hours following Carmen’s wedding reception, when a car filled with stoned, drunk, and sleepy guests accidentally hits and kills a girl on a dark, country road. For the next twenty-five years, those involved, including Carmen and her brother and sister, connect and disconnect and reconnect with each other and their victim. As one character says, ‘“When you add us up, you always have to carry the one.’” However, my hopes for the novel were quickly dashed. I expected a good character driven story along the lines of those told by Joyce Carol Oates and Jodi Picoult because tragedies affect individuals so very differently. Some people may be so guilt ridden that they may carry their guilt to the extreme and self destruct, while others are driven to lead lives devoted to helping others while losing their own identity in their efforts.

But Anshaw focuses primarily on Carmen, Nick, and Alice. Through each sibling’s point of view the reader sees each going through varying stages of their lives without much thought to ten year old Casey Redman. Though Alice paints the little girl each year in the same clothes she wore the night she was killed as Alice thought she would be, Anshaw failed to explore the artist’s need to paint the child. Alice’s visit to the home where Anne Frank hid for 2 years was a missed opportunity given Alice’s reaction to both dead girls. Anshaw was more interested in Alice’s relationship with Maude (Matt’s sister). The sex scenes between the two women were very uncomfortable to read.

Carmen did not seem affected by the accident throughout her life. She never mentioned the accident and rarely commented when one of the nine “so called” friends commented upon it. Yet, Matt used the accident as a reason for the dissolution of their marriage; the other was he wanted “someone more Catholic. the attitudes of both Carmen and Matt I dare say reflected those of the author and as a Catholic myself was very offensive. Annulment is a long process that begins at the pastoral parish level and ends at the Papal level. The reasons given by the author for their Annulment is not among the 5 conditions that the Church considers declaring a marriage null. Also, Carmen’s journey toward radial activism is really not Catholic either. The scene at the Women’s Center, while dramatic, did not ring true to me, since I’ve never seen any violence during annual prayer vigilances I attend protesting the Roe v. Wade decision – my only activist action. Anshaw depicts her as strong woman, but she gets so very overwhelmed as a single mother, she has Carmen dressing Gabe in his school clothes at bed time so he would be ready when he awoke. What right minded woman, liberal or not, would do such a thing?

Nick’s story rings true to the novel’s premise. He is the most affected by the tragic accident, other than the actual driver, Olivia. Nick is brilliant, but hopelessly addicted to drugs. His struggle with his addiction and his secret guilt is the most interesting of all of the characters. He marries Olivia, visits Casey’s parents, and fights his brilliance out of that guilt through drugs and alcohol. We know the end of his struggles as they are beginning. Yet, Olivia is completely enigamic. She spends time in federal prison not for her role in Redman’s death, but for the undelivered mail the Police found in the trunk of her car. She comes out of prison hard and isolated, accepting punishment for the child’s death. She further atones for sin by deciding not to have children. Why the author chose to place Olivia at the beginning and end of the novel is baffling, since she was integral to the story’s premise. Also, Olivia was one of the more interesting characters.

Carry the One was really the three siblings’ story. A coming of age story about the effects of an abusive father and a not so present mother that really formed their choices in life, rather than how a tragic event changed their lives. Their characters were caricatures rather than three dimensional. Anshaw’s writing was superb most of time with a few misses here and there. Her strong attitudes were present throughout the story, and I found them to be heavy handed, not entertaining at all. Good writing alone does not make a good book, but perhaps as a more conservative Catholic plebeian I am not her target audience.
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Aug 04, 2012 Em Elle rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: library, literary, did-not-enjoy, read-in-2012

A group of drunk people, on their drive home from a wedding, hit and kill a little girl running across the road. This happens in the first chapter, and is quite the start. From there, every chapter moves forward a couple years and follows some of the people invovled in the accident. My problem with the book was that the accident has little to do with the story after that first chapter, which isn't what I expected based on the synopsis. The writing was nice, sure - but I've seen better. The chara...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Alexa Yupangco rated it 4 of 5 stars

Review posted on Alexa Loves Books

Even though I finished this novel last week, I found I needed a little time before I could even attempt to write a coherent review. There were just a lot of words and impressions and feelings swirling about in my head; though they remain untamed, it is my hope that I can organize them in a way that can fully and sufficiently express what I thought of Carry the One.

Carol Anshaw has a masterful way with words. The story is beautifully written, with characters that...more Review posted on Alexa Loves Books

Even though I finished this novel last week, I found I needed a little time before I could even attempt to write a coherent review. There were just a lot of words and impressions and feelings swirling about in my head; though they remain untamed, it is my hope that I can organize them in a way that can fully and sufficiently express what I thought of Carry the One.

Carol Anshaw has a masterful way with words. The story is beautifully written, with characters that come across as genuine and descriptive turns of phrase. Though she never attempts to follow a precise timeline, the passage of time and the changes that occur during them come across clear enough. The end result is a novel where it appears that Anshaw is picking out the moments that we must see, the significant ones, the ones that really matter.

The book chronicles the journey, mainly of the three siblings, as they carry the "one" with them all their lives. We see how, either subtly or obviously, the accident affected each of them and the outcome of their lives. The book is not about the accident; it is about the reaction to it, whether it is a reaction that is consciously embraced or unconsciously worms it way in out of nowhere. It remains in the background of their lives, as each one of them tries to deal with their grief and guilt and move on.

Because of the realistic way that the portrayal of dealing with these emotions was done, I found the book utterly compelling. We see different reactions in the novel - a hopeless despair, a furious need to get it out of the system and a need to compensate with steadiness. Each of these are portrayed so eloquently, so beautifully.

Not only is the plot brilliant, but the carefully molded characters come to life with Anshaw's words. We discover their thoughts, habits, talents, worries and secrets - especially in lieu of the accident. The book feels a bit voyeuristic to me, as the reader examines these characters - Alice, Carmen and Nick - and their lives in detail, getting glimpses of them that perhaps were meant to be private. This feeling that I could see what no one else (in their world at least) could further fueled my interest in the novel.

Carry the One is not an easy read - but it is one that is worth it in the end.
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Jan 11, 2012 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: won-on-goodreads, fiction

I was lucky to win a copy of this book on Goodreads.

The first thing that stood out to me about this book was the absolute skill of the writer - the subject matter is a hard one, and she manages to narrate the story is a detached manner, but the prose is just gorgeous! Massive talent here!

The main event that this book revolves around (chapter one - I'm not spoiling the book, promise!) is a tragic accident. A group of young people, drunk and/or high (depending on the character) drive down a countr...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anshaw's characters, in the words of one of them, find themselves "stuck in some kind of endless loop, trying to improve the past," a past now defined by a tragic moment that has diversely realized (even if muted and at times nearly undetectable) consequences. I appreciated the understated and plausible effects of trauma in this narrative, and it's a novel of small and finely observed moments (one character, Carmen, bemoans feeling as if "she was in a movie scripted by lazy screenwriters"; notin...more

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Jun 02, 2013 Mayda Bosco rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you’ve ever driven while under the influence and managed to make it to your destination safely without wrapping your car around a tree, killing someone, or even “just” getting pulled over, then you can read this novel while breathing a sigh of relief.

“Carry the One” by Carol Anshaw taps into that raw nerve that resonates on a universal level for just about everyone – making poor choices in life yet walking away from them unscathed and feeling quite lucky. The characters in this modern day fic...more If you’ve ever driven while under the influence and managed to make it to your destination safely without wrapping your car around a tree, killing someone, or even “just” getting pulled over, then you can read this novel while breathing a sigh of relief.

“Carry the One” by Carol Anshaw taps into that raw nerve that resonates on a universal level for just about everyone – making poor choices in life yet walking away from them unscathed and feeling quite lucky. The characters in this modern day fictional work are however not as fortunate. “Carry the One” begins at a somewhat chaotic pace by introducing all of its characters within the very first few pages. Carmen and Matt, who barely know each other, decide to get married due to an unexpected “accident”. At their wedding reception, adult friends and relatives find nooks where they can engage in sex and where they allow teenagers to enter and watch. Limitless amounts of alcohol and drugs are consumed throughout the evening, and ultimately, the poor choice of getting behind the wheel while under the influence – and with a carload of passengers in varying degrees of intoxication – turns into an accident of a different kind that brought everyone to Carmen and Matt’s wedding. A child is killed.

As this cautionary tale progresses, the characters introduced early on are all somehow connected to the bride’s family -- Carmen, her parents and adult siblings – whose members are well educated, civic minded, and successful. By all appearances, they are a normal, all American family. Yet Carmen’s father, Horace, is a detached, self-absorbed parent who resents the successes of his children that exceed that of his own. Loretta, Carmen’s mother, takes on the full-time job of dutiful wife but at the expense of nurturing her children. Carmen’s sister, Alice, who was one of the passengers in the car, is a painter who becomes obsessed with the image of the little girl killed. Alice depicts her in drawings as she imagines the girl growing into a young woman had she had the chance to survive the accident. These paintings become her most fulfilling, successful works and draw the ire of her father, a once successful artist himself. Alice is also a lesbian who is forever involved in non-committal relationships or, with women who will not come out due to their own family and societal pressures. Carmen and Alice’s brother, Nick, who was also one of the passengers in the car, is a gifted astronomer completing his Ph.D. yet unreliable to anyone or any endeavor. He struggles with staying grounded in a world surrounded by substances. And Carmen herself is guilt-ridden for allowing Olivia to drive on the night of her wedding knowing all too well that Olivia was in no condition to do so. Given these very real circumstances in this work of fiction, begs the question: is the notion of the All American family, let alone one that is considered “normal,” nothing more than a fairy tale.

The impact of the accident on everyone involved results in escapism. The cast of characters drift into spaces where they either isolate themselves from the accident’s emotional aftermath or immerse themselves in humanitarian efforts as a means of atoning for having wronged an innocent child. They are each however haunted by their choices made on the night of the accident, by the image of the girl in the moments before she was hit by the car, and of her lifeless body lying on the side of the road. As a result, the characters are forever connected by the tragedy as though it were the sum of a macabre calculation: “Like in arithmetic. Because of the accident, we’re not just separate numbers. When you add us up, you always have to carry the one.”

As a modern work of fiction, “Carry the One” functions as an anti-fairy tale. There is no hero to slay the thought demons obsessing over poor choices, or where a heart-broken woman dreams of meeting her prince but instead seeks another woman, or even where a child is saved from tragic circumstances. The novel however ends with yet another accident, this time one of a coincidental nature and one that allows the space for at least Olivia, the driver who was convinced that she was the sole party responsible for the child’s death, to live happily ever after.

The End.

This review and others can be found at:
http://maydabosco.wordpress.com/2013/...

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May 24, 2013 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Western-style burgers and pizza aren’t the only things Beijing has that our little (okay, not little, but non-connected) outpost of Chengdu lacks, although filling up on both this last weekend was a treat. No, we are also missing a true English-language bookstore, which means I’ve been deprived of shelves upon shelves of novels, memoirs and travel writing for months now. (Yes, I’ve got my Nook and do a good deal of book downloading on it, but there is something special about thumbing through a b...more

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May 12, 2013 Jayme rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-books-read, around-the-usa-2013, contemporary-lit

After a late wedding reception in rural Wisconsin two siblings and four friends are driving back to Chicago stoned and drunk when they hit and kill a ten-year-old girl. The rest of the book focuses on how the death of the little girl impacts the direction of their lives.

The premise of this book was very promising and one cannot deny that Anshaw has an amazing gift to twist words to create immense imagery and feeling: “The social road ahead looked like a bleak highway, post-apocalyptic overblown...more

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May 11, 2013 Elaine Burnes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lesbian

I'm not sure what to think of this book. I liked that one of the main characters was a lesbian, and I was pleased that her story was not compromised. Alice has her own story line, but she also appears in most of the others, more so than they do in hers. This, in many ways, was really her story. But the span of years and multiple POVs made it feel distant. We get no more than a dip into each life for a few days every few years. Just when I thought I was getting to know one character, it was time...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Michael Estey rated it 1 of 5 stars

A Book Review
carry the one
A Novel
Carol Anshaw

Carol Anshaw is an award winning writer. The author of several novels, Aquamarine, Seven Moves, and Lucky in the Corner.
In this novel... carry the one, Carol starts with a bang then ends with a little spark.
What I gathered from the first chapter...
A wedding reception is winding up and people are leaving. It's three o'clock in the morning. The reception has taken place in a barn on a farm, out in the country. It's very dark out. Five people are stoned...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Ashley rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, fiction

With accolades like rare, graceful and compulsively readable given by Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, all I could think of as I smoothed the first page open was that I looked forward to a good read in Carol Anshaw’s fourth novel, Carry the one.

Alas. I couldn’t wait to finish it, and not because I loved it, but because I had committed to reading it in whole before doing a book review. I did not enjoy most of this book.

The main characters are siblings Carmen, Ali...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Julie Franki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is that book that I sort of liked just enough to keep reading, and then, as more pages stacked up on the left, found myself more and more engrossed in. Carry The One is what I will henceforth call Sneaker Fiction. That is, maybe you thought you were reading People magazine, but turns out it was Harper’s, how ’bout that?! Or, you started reading Goodnight Moon but it turned into Go The Fuck To Sleep. This is a novel with an interesting enough plot about a group of young adults together at an...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Jenny rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love the idea behind this book. A group of "friends" are involved in a tragic incident. We follow them through several decades and many other life changing events.

The reasons I dislike this book:

1- Lesbian sex- There wasn't anything too graphic, but lots of implications. I kept hoping that Alice would turn straight just so I wouldn't have to read these interactions anymore.

2- Politics- I'm a staunch Republican. The view of some of the political matter rubs me the wrong way. That's all I will...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Felice Picano rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A good author learns by their third of fourth book what they're not particularly good at writing and then either 1)learns to hide it effectively from then on or 2)takes on the challenge and learns how to face the deficiency and attack it head on. I like Carol Anshaw's writing and liked her book Aquamarine very much. This newest, Carry the One, has many wonderful things going for it. The portraits of the two sisters are intriguing, varied, surprising, and always real. Ditto many of the other fema...more A good author learns by their third of fourth book what they're not particularly good at writing and then either 1)learns to hide it effectively from then on or 2)takes on the challenge and learns how to face the deficiency and attack it head on. I like Carol Anshaw's writing and liked her book Aquamarine very much. This newest, Carry the One, has many wonderful things going for it. The portraits of the two sisters are intriguing, varied, surprising, and always real. Ditto many of the other female characters they come into contact with. Not one of them is in any way not unique or credible. The story-- of a family over a period of decades and haunted by an auto accident in which a stranger child was killed --is a good, solid one and for the most part it plays out well. I also like the way Anshaw details how a successful artist becomes aware of how she is successful and goes through the various, often silly, recognizable, if needed stages in this pursuit. Where I've got trouble is the male characters. Not one in this book have anything like the depth, width or interest of the female characters and this is clearly Anshaw's own perceived deficiency too. I write that because while she allows most of the men here to be caricatures or ciphers, she attempts to do an end-run around the problem with her one major male character-- a brother to the wonderful sisters, who thus should be dealt with in as much length and depth. Alas, the end-run is achieved by making him a starry-eyed astronomer and out-of-this-solar system physicist, but also by making him a druggie. As a result while the sisters develop and become more mature he becomes more drugged and out of it, even while becoming famous, until he dies in an alley of an overdose. Really? Really, guys! Ah, Carol, how I wish I'd been one of the people you acknowledged and who had seen this book in an earlier verison. I would have stopped this from happening. I know from drugged out people and I know personally from the pain of dealing with someone very close until s/he ends her/his life in what Shakespeare calls "a waste of shame." But even so. ... It shortchanges the character, the family, the balance of the book, the reader, and as a result all the glamour, really great writing and considerable wit and charm here can't keep this from being a cauldron with only two legs. (less)

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Jan 18, 2013 Maliny Mohan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read the blurb , and one might be tempted to be suspended in a dejavu - a group of drunk youngsters racing down a pedestrian - the theme sounds familiar isnt ? But if you thought this book, for that matter , had anything even slightly to do with the movie that sprang up in your mind , then you are wrong . This is not a thriller , not even a tad close . Infact , the essence of the story is focussed on the youngsters , who are pushed forward to a period shadowed by the tragic accident in every noo...more
Read the blurb , and one might be tempted to be suspended in a dejavu - a group of drunk youngsters racing down a pedestrian - the theme sounds familiar isnt ? But if you thought this book, for that matter , had anything even slightly to do with the movie that sprang up in your mind , then you are wrong . This is not a thriller , not even a tad close . Infact , the essence of the story is focussed on the youngsters , who are pushed forward to a period shadowed by the tragic accident in every nook and corner , each crack and crevice of their life , rather than the accident and its repercussions .

To sum up the story , the book opens with a wedding ceremony - Carman and Matt are getting married . Grazing the occasion are Carmen's siblings - Alice and Nick , Nick's girlfriend Olivia , Matt's sister and Alice's girlfriend Maude . Then there is Tom , the band guy . Except Carmen and Matt , the others set out on their return trip to their respective places late night , Alice and Maude immersed in the bubble of their fresh romance and Nick and Olivia doped to an egregious extent . With the situation being such horrendous , one cant but expect a gruesome event around the corner , here a girl , all of ten being crashed against by their car. Olivia , the girl behind the wheel , quite evidently stoned , gets sentenced for the penace and the others are left free . But they find themslves embarking on a journey from then on , a journey muddled with remorse , not in a formidable manner but a subtle one . No , their life isnt seen guided by this remorse , but somehow or the other the debacle of their past draws a line separating their lives into two parts - before the incident and after .

My Take :

The cover page is undoubtedly welcoming .I am not sure how it works for others, but stumbling upon decent reviews about the book i am about to read sure piques my senses . The opening pages of the book did uncork my curiosity with dozens of remarkable reviews about the writing . The book contains a cascade of events over a time period of twenty five years knit together , with emphasis on the worth mentioning ones . Owing to this methodology , the story cruises forward fast , never rendering a dull moment . The fact that a multitude of lives are brought under scan adds to shunning even a speck of weariness that might creep in .

In the world of fiction , there are stories which drive forward unreigned single mindedly in search of the climax . Then there are yet another sector of stories which , instead of focussing on the final point , immerse the reader in details , dissecting each character and event to tiny shreds . This book effortlessly slips to the second slot and a profound one in that sense .

The attitude of Olivia post her release from the prison didnt quite entice me . She seemed to be shattered by the incident and her jail term following that in an immense manner that she turns arrogant in her approach to life and also to Nick . Her relation with Nick then on seemed almost mechanical , though they are seen enjoying each others company at times. Maybe she should have been a bit more concerned for Nick , when the situation remains that he wasnt completely freed from drug addiction . Instead , Olivia turns reticent and even leaves him high and dry at one point of time . But then , years of solitude in prison might drastically change a person's outlook as a whole , i suppose. Nick on the other hand is compassionate and sensitive with his yearly visits to the dead girl's mother as an act of remorse .

Alice's character has been sketched in a commendable manner as sinking in a whirlpool of her love lives which eventually sucks out her passion . But how she stumbles onto probable girlfriends at every walk of her life , left me clueless ! Is the situation that rampant in real life ?

Carmen emerges succesfull in her family life , although she carries her share of burden in the relationship front . If to pinpoint the lives which transformed unrecoverably after the accident , that would be Nick's and Olivia's . The others are seen culpable , albeit moving on , at time slogging yet holding on . Maybe that could be the take home message -'To keep fighting against the ill forces of fate ,come what may ' .

The book offers everything - intriguing turn of events , commendable writing , nuggets to contemplate on and ultimate rawness in narration . However never pick this one up with an aim of savouring a spell binding or nerve wrecking end to the story . There isnt any . The events , sketched seamlessly , confluence to the climax in quite a natural manner leaving no space for a suspense of any sort . The USP is the whole book itself and the roller coaster of a journey it takes you through . Go read it !

Reviewed also at my blog http://colouredbydreamz.blogspot.in/(less)

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Jan 04, 2013 Rebecca Davis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this rather despite myself, but I was never really able to forget I was reading something that someone had written as fiction.

On some level Carol Anshaw has a knack for making the conflicts between her characters poignant and compelling; I found myself caring about this rather oddball family as their lives unfolded. To a certain extent this had to do with the desire to see "where they wound up," which the book did in fact pay off.

On another level, the effect on the family of the "tragi...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Mom rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Three siblings and some friends are driving together, stoned and drunk. They cause an accident in which a young girl is killed. How does this affect their future lives? How do they deal with the tragedy?

This is the premise of the novel, but unfortunately, the story does not live up to its potential. We follow the siblings through the next 30 or more years, but it is not clear that the accident has much to do with their lives. Whatever problems they had later were extensions of problems establis...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Jill Manske rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a depressing book. It's bad enough that it starts with the horrific death of a young child, hit by a car of stoned friends in the middle of the night following the wedding of their siblings. But none of the group seems able to live a normal life afterwards. I can only imagine how traumatic it would be to know you had killed a child through your own stupidity and carelessness. But none of these people seem able to cope in normal ways. Whether it's drugs, alcohol, commitment issues, promiscui...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book has gotten totally mixed reviews om Amazon, mostly, IMO, from readers who were looking for a Jodi Picoult kind of novel. I believe you need to be on the proper wavelength to fully enjoy this elegant writer's gifts. If you've never before read her, you may wish to start with Lucky in the Corner, or Aquamarine.

This is my take on Carry the One: Carol Anshaw is a magician. This beautiful and tenderhearted book (all her books are tenderhearted, even at their most drily ironic) joins elegan...more This book has gotten totally mixed reviews om Amazon, mostly, IMO, from readers who were looking for a Jodi Picoult kind of novel. I believe you need to be on the proper wavelength to fully enjoy this elegant writer's gifts. If you've never before read her, you may wish to start with Lucky in the Corner, or Aquamarine.

This is my take on Carry the One: Carol Anshaw is a magician. This beautiful and tenderhearted book (all her books are tenderhearted, even at their most drily ironic) joins elegance of structure with a subtle, oblique scrutiny of the dissimilar trajectories through adulthood of three emotionally interdependent siblings, and their friends and lovers who were involved in the terrible accident that closes the first chapter.

The magic is declared in the book's title: it describes both the device by which the reader journeys from chapter to chapter, and the special sort of narrative time-travel (skipping whole years in a single leap) that allows us to experience a quarter century of growing up (or failing to do so) for the many characters in this story. I thought Anshaw performed an especially amazing feat in the unobtrusive, restrained touches by which she gave life to the one character who was robbed of her future right at the start of the book. And in the end, Anshaw gifts us (or I should say, Olivia, who alone did time after the child's death, and is given an especially closed, opaque personality) with a small miracle, a consoling touch whose mystery has been fully earned over the length of the book.

Alice, the gay sister who is a painter, is a surrogate for the novelist (in real life, Anshaw also paints): Anshaw captures, and blesses, her human creatures (and a couple of dogs) through a patient accumulation of small, attentive touches. Anshaw's books are all about family (even when the family is broken or--as in this book--badly frayed), about the mismatch between love and passion, and about the rueful, sometimes anxious acknowledgement that we're hopelessly fallible. They're also about the mysteries of time. For Anshaw, art (the writer's art especially) is redemptive. It allows you to slow down, speed up, or suspend time, and look into interlaced story arcs as if into a crystal ball. But she protects her characters' privacy even when she exposes their flaws, and she forgives them, even when they cannot forgive themselves. (less)

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Oct 28, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Carry the One has a dramatic beginning: it’s the evening of Carmen and Matt’s wedding and they are surrounded by their family and friends. It’s a non-traditional, very Bohemian wedding at a farmhouse owned by Alice, Carmen’s sister, and Jean, both artists. In the wee hours of the morning, several party guests — drunk, stoned and sleepy — are making their way home when there is a tragic accident. A young girl is killed on a dark country road. One guest will take the blame, but they will all carry...more Carry the One has a dramatic beginning: it’s the evening of Carmen and Matt’s wedding and they are surrounded by their family and friends. It’s a non-traditional, very Bohemian wedding at a farmhouse owned by Alice, Carmen’s sister, and Jean, both artists. In the wee hours of the morning, several party guests — drunk, stoned and sleepy — are making their way home when there is a tragic accident. A young girl is killed on a dark country road. One guest will take the blame, but they will all carry the guilt.

For the rest of their lives, the accident will play in the background — their relationships, their careers, their friendships are all tested and changed. Their lives are already intertwined: Carmen’s sister, Alice, and her brother, Nick, were in the car when the accident happened. Nick’s girlfriend, Olivia, was driving. Alice’s new lover, Maude (sister to Matt, the groom) was in the car, as was Tom, Jean’s married lover. (If you’re confused, don’t feel bad. It took me a while to sort them out in my head.) Even Carmen and Matt, who weren’t in the car, carry the guilt of letting them all drive off, knowing they weren’t sober enough to be behind the wheel. That little girl becomes a constant presence in their lives. As one character says, “When you add us up, you always have to carry the one.”

I think the most tragic story belongs to Nick. He was a wild kid with an equally wild girlfriend, but that all ended the night of the wedding. After that, it was just a slow spiral — although he still has flashes of brilliance and you always believe he can pull himself out. Alice’s life is a perfect example of ”be careful what you wish for.” Carmen tries so hard, but she just doesn’t get it when it comes to relationships. I found myself wanting to sit her down for a stiff drink and some straight girlfriend talk. But that’s life, isn’t it? Things never seem to turn out the way you planned. It’s all ups and downs with long stretches in between and nobody ever really lives happily ever after. I was proud of Olivia; she had the hardest road of all, I think, but the peace she found came at a great price.

I really loved this book. I got caught up in these stories so easily and I was surprised by how invested I felt in their stories. Even when I wanted to smack them in the head or shake some sense into them, I wanted things to turn out well. It’s really a sign of great writing, I think, when you feel all wrapped up in the story. At the same time, I found myself afraid to turn the pages, because you just knew that some stories would end in tears — and they did, quite literally, for me.(less)

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Sep 09, 2012 Patrice Sartor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bonding-through-trauma, drugs-alcohol-and-or-crime, love-sex-romance, music-art, parent-child, realistic-fiction, siblings

Everyone deals with tragedy in their own way. When guilt is involved, that alters things too. This story mainly takes you through the lives of three siblings, relating their connections with each other, their spouses/partners, their parents, and how the accident has affected them. Although I don't know anyone who has endured something like this, Anshaw made the story feel real for me, and relate-able. The character development is strong, and I am pleased at who ended up with whom.

There is pain...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Vic rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book that kept me fully engaged.

Spoiler alert: The following discusses plot and characters.

The story is of a group of family members who were in the car when it hits and kills a 13 year girl. Nobody fully recovers bur each deals with it.

The accident is a nightmare. A group heads off at 3am following the wedding of one two sisters, Carmen. The driver was a druggie girlfriend, Olivia, of the druggie brother, Nick. Everybody knows that Olivia is high, but nobody stops her f...more This was an interesting book that kept me fully engaged.

Spoiler alert: The following discusses plot and characters.

The story is of a group of family members who were in the car when it hits and kills a 13 year girl. Nobody fully recovers bur each deals with it.

The accident is a nightmare. A group heads off at 3am following the wedding of one two sisters, Carmen. The driver was a druggie girlfriend, Olivia, of the druggie brother, Nick. Everybody knows that Olivia is high, but nobody stops her from driving off. Carmen yells but is not heard that she is driving with only her parking lot.

Alice is the most likeable character. She is a successful painter who deals with the accident by painting a series of paintings of the dead girl growing up, always in the same clothes. Her best paintings but never shown. Much of the story is looking for love. She is gay and always attracted to unattainable beautiful narcissistic women, but by the end settles down with someone less attractive but far more loving.

Carmen is the least developed family member. A political activist. After a first marriage, she settles down with a fairly boring, politically unaware man, who is good to her. Similar to Alice, maybe not so bad. The melding of the children, her son and his anorexic daughter, and Carmen’s coming to accept the girl is interesting.

The brother Nick is the most screwed up. A druggie who never escapes and then at the end dies the expected death. His part in the tragedy death of the girl is pretty horrific. High as a kite, he saw the girl in time to grab and turn the wheels of the car, but due to his highness just watched it play out. He repeatedly goes back and sees the girl’s mother who as she is dying of cancer, gives him forgiveness. But, he never pulls out.

The person who may have done best is the driver, Olivia. To pay for what she has done, she accepts a much longer prison sentence than required and completely reforms her drug ways. She pays a price for what she did. But, she never gets together with anyone, other than Nick, who she leaves immediately upon his starting back on drugs.

A good story. But, something about it made me feel like the story was more about the events than the characters. This is odd because the main point of the book is meant to be about how the death of the girl had an impact on each of them. But, I really did like the story.
(less)

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Jul 19, 2012 Angela Risner rated it 3 of 5 stars

I started this book and immediately thought that I would not enjoy it. At the beginning, the characters seemed to be very unlikeable - and not in the I can't wait to read more to see if this person gets what's coming to him/her way, but in a they're taking up valuable oxygen from the rest of us way. However, as I plodded further along, the character development convinced me that there was more to see.

The night that Carmen is married, her brother and sister as well as a couple of others leave in...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Carolyn Amundson rated it 2 of 5 stars

Great premise. Not so great execution. The premise of the book is the after-effects on the five people in the car that hits and kills Casey Redman. However, the book focuses on the three siblings: one who gets married for really stupid reasons and is a do-gooder (Carmen); one who is a lesbian and paints (Alice), and one who does drugs and is an astronomer (Nick). Oh, yeah, Carmen wasn't in the car, although it was her wedding they were leaving. The driver of the car (Olivia), another passenger (...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Lisa Beaulieu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Either Goodreads is going to have to add more star-giving-capabilities, or I will have to go and undo many 5 star ratings I have given, reconsidered in comparison with this book.

There is a casual conversation in the book describing how before the big bang, the entire universe was the size of a dime. There is another one about whether one could possibly step outside of time. (Don't be put off, I know nothing about physics or astronomy and I followed it easily.) There is an artist who paints a se...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Sherri rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction, alcoholism, death, family, grief-loss

I would have liked this book better without the forced premise about "Carrying the One." I didn't believe that a 10 year old girl would be out on a country road at 3 a.m., and even if she were, I think she would hear the car coming!

I got past that part, however, and was still interested in this book full of characters who can't seem to break free of their demons of addiction, bad relationships, and anxiety. The problem for me, however, was that their problems after the accident were the same as...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Ann Collette rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very smart book. I admired its structure, which covers a great span of time without ever directly addressing just how much time is passing; it's taken for granted the reader will have no trouble following along. In a way, time is the subtext of this story about a group of relatives and their friends and lovers, and how their lives are impacted after a car accident occurs where a young girl is hit and killed. Alice, totally enamored of her new lover Maude, is dizzy with lust as she and...more This is a very smart book. I admired its structure, which covers a great span of time without ever directly addressing just how much time is passing; it's taken for granted the reader will have no trouble following along. In a way, time is the subtext of this story about a group of relatives and their friends and lovers, and how their lives are impacted after a car accident occurs where a young girl is hit and killed. Alice, totally enamored of her new lover Maude, is dizzy with lust as she and Maude leave her sister Carmen's wedding reception. Nick, the brother of Alice and Carmen, is high on drugs, as is his companion Olivia, who drives the car that all four leave the reception in. On their way home, absorbed as they are in their own personal highs, they hit and kill a ten year old girl out very late at night for reasons no one ever learns. How the child's death affects them for the rest of their lives, as they either destroy themselves with guilt or forgive themselves the best they are able to, and make what they can of their lives (while never forgetting what happened), makes up the bulk of the book.
I kept thinking as I read that I really don't know anyone like these people, which was part of the reason I kept reading; they felt foreign yet intellectually valid to me. Alice, a successful artist who's also a lesbian, seemed the most fully rounded character. Her passion for life, and her art, jumped off the page (as did her wit). Nick's addiction to drugs and the downward spiral both guilt and drug addiction turn his life into also held my interest (though his on and off work as an astronomer didn't). But that same offhand manner I so admired, when addressing time in this book, didn't sit right with me as far as the damaging relationship the siblings had with their parents was concerned -- I felt a little gypped, that that wasn't addressed with more depth. In the end, though the book didn't resonate with me emotionally, I found myself admiring the characters for their acceptance of their responsibility for what happened, and the author for the scale of her vision and her understanding of how age boils life down to knowing that no matter what happened during it, you either make your life worth living, or not. (less)

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Jun 04, 2012 Ken Honeywell rated it 4 of 5 stars

A wedding in Wisconsin, a tragic event, and its aftermath–decades of aftermath. That’s pretty much the story here, and it’s a pretty damn fine, richly observed novel full of interesting characters who are damaged in different ways by a car accident after the wedding reception that kills a 10-year-old girl. In the decades following the crash, the characters shape their lives in relation to that horrible event. Anshaw’s lucid, entertaining style may remind you of Jonathan Franzen, as might her foc...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Patty rated it 4 of 5 stars

Carry The One
By
Carol Anshaw

My in a nutshell summary...

Friends are at a wedding and on the drive home incur a horrible tragedy that impacts their lives forever.

My thoughts after reading...

Hmmm...this was a wonderfully character driven delight of a book...once you get past the initial tragedy. Lots of mixed up quirky characters all dealing with the aftermath of this accident. Lives are altered forever...those involved are haunted by this accident that occurred years earlier in the middle of the ni...more

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May 30, 2012 Monica Casper rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been a fan of Carol Anshaw since Aquamarine. When I saw that she had a new book coming out, I was thrilled. I read it largely in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. As a native Chicagoan, one of my favorite things about an Anshaw book is the Chicago setting, and here we get Wisconsin, too.

I teach trauma studies, and so a book premised on a devastating accident and its aftermath is immensely appealing to me. Anshaw does a nice job with this one, too, showing each character's g...more

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About Carol Anshaw

Carol Anshaw (born March 1946) is an American novelist and short story writer. Her books include Lucky in the Corner, Seven Moves and Aquamarine. Her stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories in 1994 and 1998. She acquired her MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts (1992). She has won a National Book Critics Circle Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, an NEA Grant, an Illinoi...more

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“Romance no longer looked like so much fun, more like a repetitive stress injury…” — 7 people liked it

“You are a speck. This whole life that seems so huge to us? asall of human enterprise even? Fuck us. We are so tiny," as he said "so tiny" he bent over until his forehead was nearly touching the tabletop, as if he was homing in on the speck that was them. "I can't stand to think we only add up to a blip. I need to think we're more than that." "Deal with it." he looked around as if someone had called his name.” — 3 people liked it

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