Customer Reviews

Carry Me Home: A Novel

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.

I often wonder why some books make the bestseller list when they shouldn't and others don't when they should. Carry Me Home should have. It's an eloquent story that's filled with sensitivity, humanity, and emotional depth.

Set in a small town in Wisconsin during WWII, Carry Me Home lets us enter the lives of sweet and perceptive 16-year-old "Earwig," his parents, his brother Jimmy, and friends. When Jimmy goes off to war and becomes a POW, Earwig learns to become a man and takes a job at the bowling alley. He becomes friends with the lovely widow Eva Leigh and her somewhat promiscuous sister.

Although it deals with the, regretfully, timeless issue of war and how people on the homefront deal with loss and hardships, it's not just about difficult times. This is a story about a family that loves and supports each other and deals with life with humor and compassion. The result is a tender novel of love, loss, and the pain of growing up.

Kring's characters are colorful and enchanting, and Earwig's family and friends became my family and friends. This outstanding and inspiring book will stay with me for a long time.

I have been trying unsuccessfully for about a year to get my 12-year old son to read. I have bought him book after book in the hope that he would become interested. No luck. Until I drove out of state and listened to this book on tape. My son became enthralled. Now he can't read enough. And as for myself, I loved this book. Thank you, Sandra Kring.

When my english teacher saw me reading a World War II Novel in class he told me he had a book about World War II that I might be interested in. The next day he brought "Carry Me Home" into class for me to have and read. He said "i might not like it" but to "give it a try". So I did. And i fell in love with Sandra Krings Novel. I wish there were more novels like this on the market. I have two chapters left and i do not want it to end. I have never read such an emotional book about the home front of World War II. Now that the novel is comming to a close I am desperatly trying to find another book similar to this one. I know by far i will never find a book so enchanting as this one was. If anybody has any suggestions (for a similar novel) please e-mail me with the title becuase I have a feeling if I don't find another book like this, I will wind up reading "Carry Me Home" a second time. A MUST READ!

Carry Me Home, is Sandra Kring's debut novel. It's about a mentally handicapped teen growing up in Wisconsin during WW II. Earl "Earwig" Gunderman has always been protected by his older brother, Jimmy, who goes off to serve in the Pacific Theater and becomes a POW.

During the years in his brother's absence, Earwig grows into a man. He learns some hard lessons while he and his family, like many others, suffer the hardships of war. From rationing and polio, to family secrets and shattered lives, Earwig experiences trials as struggles to find his way.

Finally, Jimmy returns, haunted by his POW experience. Earwig steps up and through his caring and simple, yet straightforwardly honest appraisal and actions, he helps his brother recover.

Sandra Kring's book is an exceptional example of what I find to be rare-a well written first person POV, present tense novel. My only caution would be that it contains some coarse language.

Carry Me Home is filled with interesting characters, vivid description and historical accuracy, and it's an excellent read. It is not a novel I would normally have read, but did so on recommendation. I am extremely glad I did.

The world of literature has a new remarkable character named Earl "Earwig" Gunderman. He will take his place alongside Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield as one of literature's most memorable teenagers. Although deemed "slow" by the folks in his rural 1940's Wisconsin hometown, Earwig possesses a soul filled with warmth and compassion. Ms. Kring covers life and times in the American Midwest during the early war years with historical accuracy and perfect pitch. "Carry Me Home" has the unerring sound of this dangerous time in American history. Earwig's family agonizes over his older brother gone missing in the war as they struggle with severe rationing and shortages. Throughout the conflicts the young man's innocent wisdom is beautifully developed by the author.

Sandra Kring's novel Carry Me Home will make a great motion picture. Look for it after you've read this stunning story.

Some stories merely entertain us, but others grab our hearts and transport them to another time and place where we laugh and cry with a character that it is impossible not to fall in love with. In Sandra Kring's Carry Me Home Earl "Earwig" Gunderman is such a character.

Sixteen year-old Earl's mind is simple, but his spirit is so victorious and courageous that even when more "normal" folks are distraught, Earl never gives up his hope nor retracts his love. When his brother and hero, Jimmy, goes off to war, Earwig leaves behind his play and goes to work to help his parents cope with the war. Then when Jimmy comes home from the war, a shell of the man he used to be, it is Earl's simple mind and loving heart that gives Jimmy the strength to overcome the horrors he has experience and to truly live again.

Believable, emotionally engaging and masterfully written, Carry Me Home is one of the most inspiring books I have read.

CARRY ME HOME brought tears to my eyes from laughter and from sadness. This was a well-written story told from the amazingly honest viewpoint of "Earwig", the main character in the story. Although set in a long ago era, the topics of war, discrimination, societal opinions and family love and heartaches are timeless issues that we still struggle with today. I read a lot of books and this was truly one of the best books I've read in a long time! I look forward to reading more from Ms. Kring.