A Day and a Life

Booklist magazine begins its review of Carol Anshaw's Carry the One with this sentence: "Words used to praise Anshaw's earlier novels (Seven Moves, 1996; Lucky in the Corner, 2002), witty, warm, intimate, poignant, apply equally well to her most compelling book yet, a wholly seductive tale of siblings, addiction, conviction, and genius." I'm not sure about the word "seductive," but all the other adjectives definitely apply. The book starts out with a wedding, Carmen's and Matt's. It's an eclectic and unusual group. At the wedding, Carmen's sister Alice, an artist, meets and falls in love with Matt's sister Maude, a model. Carmen's brother Nick, who comes dressed in a gown, brings his new girlfriend and fellow drug user Olivia, who comes dressed in a tux. Carmen's friend Jean brings her married boyfriend and folk singer Tom.They all end up leaving the wedding together that evening, crammed in Olivia's car. Olivia and Nick are as high as kites, and the others are all in various states of inebriation or tipsiness. A young girl walking down the road is hit and killed. From this moment on, these people are forever linked by this tragic event. The "one that must be carried" when the Kenney siblings add themselves up is the girl. They all feel different levels of guilt and pain, and the results are evident in the lives they end up leading. Nick takes the most obvious downward spiral. He is a brilliant physicist but can't seem to stay sober. Alice becomes famous for her painting; she produces a collection of paintings of the girl who died, wearing the clothes she had on that fateful night, but reset in different phases of her future life that she will never experience .This is an exceptionally written, gentle story about the ways we can and cannot forgive ourselves and others.