Carry Me Home: A Novel [Paperback]

Sandra Kring (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2004

The love of family. The heartbreak of war. The triumph of coming home.

1940. Rural Wisconsin. Sixteen-year-old Earl “Earwig” Gunderman is not like other boys his age. Fiercely protected by his older brother, Earwig sees his town and the world around him through the prism of his own unique understanding. He sees his mother’s sadness and his father’s growing solitude. He sees his brother, Jimmy, falling in love with the most beautiful girl in town. And while Earwig is unable to make change for customers at his family’s store, he is singularly well suited to understand what other people in his town cannot: that life as they know it is about to change; the coming war will touch them all.

For Jimmy will enlist in the military. And Earwig will watch his parents’ marriage buckle under the strain of a family secret. And when Jimmy returns–a fractured shadow of his former self–it is Earwig’s turn to care for him. His struggles to right the wrongs visited upon his revered older brother by war, women, and life are at once heartwarming and riotously funny. Their family and town irrevocably altered, Earwig and Jimmy fight to find their own places in a world changed forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Earnestly narrated by brain-damaged 16-year-old Earl "Earwig" Gunderman ("Ma said that after the fever was gone, my brain was like meat cooked too long, and it just fell apart whenever I tried to learn something new"), Kring's heartfelt debut explores the effects of WWII on a smalltown Wisconsin family. Earwig, whose intellectual difficulties are balanced by his sharp emotional intelligence, gets a significant assist in the growing-up process from his older brother, Jimmy. But after enlisting in the National Guard on a drunken whim, Jimmy is shipped out with one of the first ill-equipped units to be sent to the Philippines. When his unit is overrun in Bataan, his fate is assumed to be grim. At home, Earwig sighs about rationing, discovers a dark family secret and hopes for Jimmy's safe return. And Jimmy does come home, but, shell-shocked after years as a POW, he drowns his sorrows in drink. It takes Earwig's devotion and a tender new relationship with young widow Eva Leigh to turn him around. Kring's narrative is familiar at first, but hits its stride after Jimmy's homecoming, capturing family tensions and the divisive town dynamics when Jimmy and his fellow soldiers criticize the government for abandoning them in Bataan. Strong characters, a clear community portrait and a memorable protagonist whose poignant fumblings cloak an innocent wisdom demonstrate Kring's promise.
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Review

"Heartfelt.... Strong characters, a clear community portrait and a memorable protagonist whose poignant fumblings cloak an innocent wisdom demonstrate Kring’s promise."
--Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Delta (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385338139
• ISBN-13: 978-0385338134
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carry home"Carry Me Home", October 7, 2007

By 

Gayla Collins (Sheridan, WYOMING USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carry Me Home: A Novel (Paperback)

Earl"Earwig" Gundersen, 16, is mentally slow due to a high fever as a baby, but he is one of the wisest characters I have read. In his simplicity is a guilelessness, a gentleness, an intuitive ability to aid without reward.

As our narrator, Earwig is our compass back to the 1940's in the height of WWII. Once content to play with his 8 year old friend, Eddie, finding tadpoles and sticking suckers, Earl's big brother's enlistment in the army changes Earwig's family dynamic forever. Under the pressures of his parents constant bickering, the townspeople angst of lost, and his brother's subsequent return home a shell of his former self, Earwig is forced into responsibilities that surpass his once perceived abilities. His intuitiveness to simply love and accept balms the situations that threaten to destroy a family and a town.

Sandra Kring writing is magical. It is unique. In the publishing world of formulaic writing she breaks the rules and writes with a fervor that ignites the same in her readers. She straps us in a roller coaster and takes us on a wild ride while we give in glady to her centrifugal force. It becomes nearly impossible to put down the book once you begin and that kind of writing is exhilarating.

Buy the ticket; take the ride; you will not be disappointed.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THERE SHOULD BE A SPECIAL RATING FOR THIS WONDERFUL BOOK -- FIVE STARS IS NOT ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, July 14, 2006

By 

Pamela A. Poddany "Book Freak!" (Toledo, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Carry Me Home: A Novel (Paperback)

I must say this is one of the BEST books I have EVER EVER read. What characters! What a plot! What great emotions! Told by 16 year old Earwig, who is slightly mentally slow, it is a GEM. A JEWEL. A TREASURE!!!!!!!!! Is there someway that this book could be ADVERTISED more and let the world know they should read this book? AMAZON will help in that field ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earwig tells us of his life before, during, and after WWII. Told in his own words, what he lacks in a high IQ he totally makes up for in WISDOM and INSIGHT into the human heart. What happens to him, his family and friends and how he describes events make you want for more. This book is 258 pages SHORT. Wish it could have been longer, I hated for it to end.

One second I was laughing out loud and the next I was crying. All of the characters -- Earwig's parents, the neighbors, his much adored and loved big brother, Jimmy, Jimmy's friends and their girl friends, -- you could not ask for a better cast of characters. You can practically hear the big bands playing and smell and see the blue hazy smoke from everyone's cigarettes! You will even fall in love with Earwig's dog, Lucky.

This book is one not to be missed. After you read it, tell everyone to check it out. You won't be sorry and your friends will thank you for turning them onto a masterpiece!!!!!!!!!!!

Ms. Kring has a new book, THE BOOK OF BRIGHT IDEAS. I am sure that will be another winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Story!, March 27, 2005

By 

Nancy C. "napilinan" (SAN DIEGO, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carry Me Home: A Novel (Paperback)

It seems I'm only moved to write a review when I award 4 or 5 stars, but I do love to recommend good books to readers. It's hard to believe Carry Me Home is Ms. Kring's first novel. I've never read a book quite like it, and look forward to future books from this author.

Earwig and his family are good people living in difficult times. Although Earwig is mentally slow, we could all learn from his observations of life and people; the world would be better off.