Carter Clay: A Novel [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1999

"This is before the accident. No one is dead yet. Blood circulates just as it should, two ounces per pump of the heart". So begins the extraordinary story of Carter Clay, a Vietnam veteran and drifter who finds himself drunkenly driving a van on a Florida highway and smashes into a car containing the Alitz family: Joe and Katherine, distinguished paleontologists on vacation with their daughter, Jersey Joe is killed in the crash; Katherine and Jersey are seriously wounded. Aghast at what he has done, Carter Clay gets a job in the hospital where mother and daughter are being rehabilitated. In an attempt to redeem himself, he insinuates himself into Jersey and Katherine's lives -- without them suspecting that he is the cause of their plight. At turns suspenseful, psychologically complex, and inhabited by characters that will haunt your memory long after you have turned the last page, Carter Clay is a magnificent novel, an unforgettable tale of mercy, forgiveness, and the possibility of redemption.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"This is before the accident. No one is dead yet." Elizabeth Evans begins her debut novel, Carter Clay, with a prologue so chilling it's hard to imagine she'll be able to maintain the high-octane tension for another 400 pages. That she does is a testament both to her prose and to the power of her central characters: 12-year-old Jersey Alitz, her maternal grandmother, M.B., and the title character, a Vietnam veteran who is the catalyst for both tragedy and transformation.

The novel begins with a horrific accident in which Jersey is severely injured, her mother, Katherine, brain-damaged, and her father killed. The driver is Carter Clay, 42 years old and with "the face of a choirboy." This man has been sober for just a year, ever since his near-fatal stabbing while he was homeless in Sarasota, Florida. Having been given a second chance at life, he has religiously attended AA meetings, and has even come to believe that his craving for alcohol has diminished to manageable proportions: "Suffice it to say that Carter did not understand this appearance of diminution to be largely a feature of distance, as with a great warship that might be covered by the tip of your little finger when the vessel sits on the far horizon."

Then a minor accident sends him to a hospital, where a painkiller is prescribed to him that triggers those old cravings. Before long he is on a collision course, literally and spiritually, with the Alitz family. In the aftermath of the hit-and-run, M.B. reluctantly agrees to care for her injured daughter and granddaughter but soon finds she won't have to do it alone: Carter has decided he must make reparation by caring for his victims himself. But as his obsession with doing right by Katherine and Jersey grows, he may be doing more harm than good. Elizabeth Evans builds this complex and compelling tale with an authority many veteran novelists would envy. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly

From the wreckage of a senseless hit-and-run collision, Evans (The Blue Hour) salvages a brave yet delicate novel that succeeds beautifully despite the unlikeliness of its plot. On their way to Florida from Arizona, paleontologists Joe and Katherine Alitz and their precocious adolescentdaughter, Jersey, meet with tragedy in the form of a drunken Vietnam vet (the eponymous Carter Clay) careening down the highway. The accident leaves Joe dead, Katherine permanently brain-damaged, and Jersey a paraplegic. Determined to assuage his guilt, yet terrified of being found out for his crime, Clay insinuates himself into the survivors' broken lives. His desire to do good impels him to marry the catatonic Katherine and relieve Katherine's alcoholic mother of her unwelcome role as nurse. But a long-standing grudge borne against Clay by his former drinking buddy Finis Pruitt (also a victim of the accident) threatens Clay's precarious new "family." The novel often floats solely on the contrasts among its three central characters: Katherine, a former distinguished scholar who now can scarcely feed herself; Jersey, an insightful child embittered by her fate; and Carter, a desperate loner who uses religion and 12-step programs to glue together a life fragmented by experiences in Vietnam. As Carter nears his redemption, Finis looms nearby, itching for battle. The novel critiques American suburbia even as it swims in it; the characters speak a language of consumer cliches as if the wine they drink and the songs they sing formed an ever-appreciating commodity. Evans's provocative, exclamatory prose sallies forth with rhetorical devices?puns, arch questions, italic emphasis?that bring her contemporary Lorrie Moore to mind. Armed with these tools, as well as with a deeply empathetic sense of humor, Evans transforms a potential melodrama into a sometimes raunchy, but unwincing and bittersweet, tragicomedy.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1st edition (February 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060192658
• ISBN-13: 978-0060192655
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,312,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not an easy read - but well worth the efforts, March 1, 2000

By 

Rosalie Owen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carter Clay: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a quick read strictly for enjoyment, then this is not the book for you. However, if you want to really think and get involved in the minds of some very confused people suffering the consequences of inadvertent actions, or of victims of circumstance, then this will be an interesting experience for you.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thrilling, Heartrending Book, November 28, 1999

By 

Tripp Winslow (St. Bonaventure, Nebraska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carter Clay: A Novel (Hardcover)

Elizabeth Evans takes the reader into the heart of her confused, desperate characters. The novel challenges the reader to think about what it means to be human...what it means to be "good." And if that makes it seem like this is a heavy book, keep in mind that it is also a book full of suspense and humor. Calling the Coen brothers: this would make a great follow-up to Fargo! I loved this book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking, compelling, utterly complex and wonderful, April 19, 1999

By 

Doug Farrington - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carter Clay: A Novel (Hardcover)

This was the first book that I've read by Elizabeth Evans, and I must admit, it was a great story. Carter Clay, the burned out Vietnam vet is as complex and spellbinding a character as you'll come across in any book. It's a story of his fight for redemption after he hits the Alitz family, Joe, Katherine, and their daughter Jersey, with his van. But it's not just that. Evans tackles questions about God's "inhumanity to humans" and religion as a whole. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!