Morning, all! I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Lori Carson's debut, The Original 1982.In 1982, Lisa found out she was pregnant. Her boyfriend, a well-known international musician, didn't want to be a father. And so, Lisa decided not to go through with the pregnancy.
But what if Lisa had chosen differently? In her imagined 1982, she keeps Minnow. It's tough at times, but Lisa does everything she can for her daughter, making a life for the two of them and imagining how her things would be different if this was her reality, the other 1982.
Like a few of my other reads lately, I've got mixed feelings about The Original 1982. The story structure is odd, to say the least. The narrative plays out mostly as the other 1982, with interspersed lines throughout about how the original 1982 actually played out. And I rather enjoyed this.
Carson writes in a first person, present tense POV, which definitely takes a little getting used to. POV isn't actually something I talk about much here because I'm honestly not a stickler for any particular one. If it works, it works and that's all I really pay attention to. When I notice it, though, it seems like maybe it's not quite working. Here it just didn't seem all that smooth in spite of the fact that the book is an overall quick read.
What I didn't really like about the book was the final part, set in the original 1982. After so much of Lisa's imagined story, being brought back to her reality wasn't quite as interesting. Perhaps that's the point. That this is the reason she's imagined her life with Minnow in the first place. (It's set as a story that she's writing in the final portion of the book.)
Lori Carson's debut is interesting and it was fun to read a different kind of narrative. I liked Lisa and Minnow, but my heart ached for them. By the time I got to the final portion, I was also feeling a bit down thanks to the book.
Rating: 3.5/5
To see more stops on the tour, check out the official TLC tour page here.
For more on Lori Carson, including a chance to see her read from the book's prologue, visit her website here. You can also like her on Facebook.
3 comments:
Huh, interesting. I have my tour post for this coming up soon, but haven't read it yet. We'll see. :/
Gil Roth tweeted me a link to this wonderful podcast he did with Lori Carson: http://chimeraobscura.com/vm/podcast-little-suicides-little-fish
Check it out!
Wow, what an unusual story, though I can totally understand Lisa's reasons for imagining her "other" life.
Thanks for being a part of the tour!
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