Meaningful...Carson’s soft-lit prose never gets too romantic — and, most remarkably, she doesn’t pass judgment, instead chronicling the ups and downs of two fates unfolding with rueful realism. Mothers and others will appreciate her approach.” — NPR
“Carson hasn’t abandoned music completely; all the musicality of nuanced emotion can be found in the distilled beauty of her delicate prose. The music world may be losing a voice of quietly impassioned grace, but the literary world has easily and fortunately gained one.” — PopMatters
“A lyrical story of love, longing, and acceptance. Beautifully imaged and authentically told, the result is a deeply meaningful exploration of an often painful subject.” — Booklist
“A daring, thoughtful book — delightfully unpretentious and full of love. THE ORIGINAL 1982 deftly explores the ways in which even what seem like the wrong choices can lead us in the right direction.” — Alethea Black, author of I Knew You'd Be Lovely
“THE ORIGINAL 1982 follows one woman’s what if? through a captivating double narrative that keeps the reader hooked. I fell hard for both options, and for the wise and determined narrator, Lisa, and I couldn’t stop reading until the tender, touching end.” — Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Wonder Bread Summer
“Carson writes about regret, desire, and most of all, love in its many forms with grace and sensitivity. This is a novel of deep sympathy and enormous heart, an impressive debut.” — Christine Sneed, author of the novel Little Known Facts
Carson writes about regret, desire, and most of all, love in its many forms with grace and sensitivity. This is a novel of deep sympathy and enormous heart, an impressive debut.
Carson hasn’t abandoned music completely; all the musicality of nuanced emotion can be found in the distilled beauty of her delicate prose. The music world may be losing a voice of quietly impassioned grace, but the literary world has easily and fortunately gained one.
A lyrical story of love, longing, and acceptance. Beautifully imaged and authentically told, the result is a deeply meaningful exploration of an often painful subject.
THE ORIGINAL 1982 follows one woman’s what if? through a captivating double narrative that keeps the reader hooked. I fell hard for both options, and for the wise and determined narrator, Lisa, and I couldn’t stop reading until the tender, touching end.
A daring, thoughtful book — delightfully unpretentious and full of love. THE ORIGINAL 1982 deftly explores the ways in which even what seem like the wrong choices can lead us in the right direction.
Meaningful...Carson’s soft-lit prose never gets too romantic — and, most remarkably, she doesn’t pass judgment, instead chronicling the ups and downs of two fates unfolding with rueful realism. Mothers and others will appreciate her approach.
A lyrical story of love, longing, and acceptance. Beautifully imaged and authentically told, the result is a deeply meaningful exploration of an often painful subject.
A debut novel that juxtaposes the narrator's memories with thoughts of what could have been had she made a different decision back in 1982. An aspiring singer/songwriter, a rebel and a developing alcoholic, young Lisa is in love with a South American musician 13 years her senior who has achieved a certain stardom and can have his pick of beautiful women. She meets him when he comes into the cafe where she works as a waitress and admires her beauty. She knows she is one of many women in his life but thinks perhaps she will be the special one when she becomes pregnant with his child. But since he makes it clear he doesn't want her to have the baby, she has an abortion, a decision she very much regrets 30 years later, when she decides to revisit it. Addressing the man, she writes: " 'Maestro, I'm not having an abortion. Get ready. You're going to have a child.' And since I'm the writer of this story, and can do whatever I want, that's what I'll do. Go back to that day in 1982." She goes on to invent a child she names Minnow, and over the course of the book, she tells her imagined daughter's story as well as her own, mixing in events that did actually happen in 1982. Reality and imagination converge in this what-if tale.
