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The Original 1982
The Original 1982 is the wise and memorable debut novel of love, regret, music and motherhood, by singer and songwriter Lori Carson of the Golden Palominos.
It's 1982, and Lisa is twenty-four years old, a waitress, an aspiring singer-songwriter, and girlfriend to a famous Latin musician. That year, she makes a decision, almost without thinking about it.
But what if what if her decision had been a different one?
In the new 1982, Lisa chooses differently. Her career takes another direction. She becomes a mother. She loves differently, yet some things remain the same.
Alternating between two very different possibilities, The Original 1982 is a novel about how the choices we make affect the people we become-and about how the people we are affect the choices we make.
It's 1982, and Lisa is twenty-four years old, a waitress, an aspiring singer-songwriter, and girlfriend to a famous Latin musician. That year, she makes a decision, almost without thinking about it.
But what if what if her decision had been a different one?
In the new 1982, Lisa chooses differently. Her career takes another direction. She becomes a mother. She loves differently, yet some things remain the same.
Alternating between two very different possibilities, The Original 1982 is a novel about how the choices we make affect the people we become-and about how the people we are affect the choices we make.
230 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2013
11 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
About the author
Lori Carson
9 books9 followersLori Carson is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter whose albums include: Shelter, Where it Goes and Everything I Touch Runs Wild. A former member of the seminal band Golden Palominos, she has contributed to the soundtracks of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, Keith Gordon’s Waking the Dead, and others.
The Original 1982 is her first novel. Lori lives in New York City.
The Original 1982 is her first novel. Lori lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
July 12, 2013
Singer and songwriter Lori Carson makes her fictional debut with The Original 1982. To be perfectly frank, I'm entirely unfamiliar with her music, and didn't recognize the name as someone famous. What drew me to the book was the parallel lives premise, which recalled Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World. Such premises call to me, because, really, who hasn't wondered about the alternate ways a life could go.
As I mentioned, I know almost nothing about Lisa Carson's life, but I feel fairly confident making the assumption that The Original 1982 is largely autobiographical. The whole novel feels very personal, and, honestly, there doesn't seem to be an effort to hide that the writing thereof is a journey for Carson. The heroine's name is Lisa Nelson, and at least one of the songs mentioned is one that appeared on one of Lisa Carson's albums, or at least a song of the same title. Like Lori, Lisa is a musician, a singer and songwriter.
In The Original 1982, Carson considers what Lisa's life might have become had she not aborted her pregnancy in 1982. Nelson faces the classic choice of career or family. In the original 1982, she chose her career, and became somewhat famous. In this imagined 1982, she keeps the baby, raising a daughter, Minnow, largely alone. Though she keeps playing, motherhood is a job in itself and she has to earn money to support them, so she doesn't have enough time to ever make it big. In one life, she is successful and lonely; in the other, unknown but with a lovely daughter.
Carson uses second person fairly effectively here, and I say that as a person who really does not enjoy a second person narrative. This is what makes the novel feel so personal: it's addressed wholly to Minnow, her Little Fish. Lisa Nelson is talking to the daughter that could have existed, and the loss of that person she never knew is visceral. Of course, the second person also has another interpretation, perhaps inadvertent. The reader, presumably a fan of Carson's music, is a child of a sort too, a brainchild born at the expense of an actual child, using the simplified logic of the novel.
The writing style, while not one that necessarily appeals to me, does have a unique cadence, no doubt influenced by her songwriting. The sentence structures are often odd and slightly offbeat. The style does very much suit the story and the character.
What might have been more effective in telling this story is the framework that most stories of this nature use (The Post-Birthday World and Pivot Point are good examples), wherein the story starts and ends in roughly the same place, and the chapters in between alternate futures. Instead, Carson largely focuses on the imagined 1982, occasionally dropping information on what she was doing in the original 1982. This felt really disorganized. Then, when her daughter reached her teen years, the imagined narrative ceased and the novel turned to the actual 2010, focusing on that for thirty pages. The alternating pattern allows for better comparison of the two, and I feel like a lot was left out of both timelines, perhaps because Carson hit what she needed for her own state of mind, but not for mine.
In the end, Carson's book is an interesting one, but not one I am the ideal audience for. At 25, I've not been through any experiences like Carson's. I've never been pregnant, so I don't live with the question of how my life might have been different were I a mother or not a mother. For those who have lived through such things, this might be a powerful read, but it did not resonate with me.
As I mentioned, I know almost nothing about Lisa Carson's life, but I feel fairly confident making the assumption that The Original 1982 is largely autobiographical. The whole novel feels very personal, and, honestly, there doesn't seem to be an effort to hide that the writing thereof is a journey for Carson. The heroine's name is Lisa Nelson, and at least one of the songs mentioned is one that appeared on one of Lisa Carson's albums, or at least a song of the same title. Like Lori, Lisa is a musician, a singer and songwriter.
In The Original 1982, Carson considers what Lisa's life might have become had she not aborted her pregnancy in 1982. Nelson faces the classic choice of career or family. In the original 1982, she chose her career, and became somewhat famous. In this imagined 1982, she keeps the baby, raising a daughter, Minnow, largely alone. Though she keeps playing, motherhood is a job in itself and she has to earn money to support them, so she doesn't have enough time to ever make it big. In one life, she is successful and lonely; in the other, unknown but with a lovely daughter.
Carson uses second person fairly effectively here, and I say that as a person who really does not enjoy a second person narrative. This is what makes the novel feel so personal: it's addressed wholly to Minnow, her Little Fish. Lisa Nelson is talking to the daughter that could have existed, and the loss of that person she never knew is visceral. Of course, the second person also has another interpretation, perhaps inadvertent. The reader, presumably a fan of Carson's music, is a child of a sort too, a brainchild born at the expense of an actual child, using the simplified logic of the novel.
The writing style, while not one that necessarily appeals to me, does have a unique cadence, no doubt influenced by her songwriting. The sentence structures are often odd and slightly offbeat. The style does very much suit the story and the character.
What might have been more effective in telling this story is the framework that most stories of this nature use (The Post-Birthday World and Pivot Point are good examples), wherein the story starts and ends in roughly the same place, and the chapters in between alternate futures. Instead, Carson largely focuses on the imagined 1982, occasionally dropping information on what she was doing in the original 1982. This felt really disorganized. Then, when her daughter reached her teen years, the imagined narrative ceased and the novel turned to the actual 2010, focusing on that for thirty pages. The alternating pattern allows for better comparison of the two, and I feel like a lot was left out of both timelines, perhaps because Carson hit what she needed for her own state of mind, but not for mine.
In the end, Carson's book is an interesting one, but not one I am the ideal audience for. At 25, I've not been through any experiences like Carson's. I've never been pregnant, so I don't live with the question of how my life might have been different were I a mother or not a mother. For those who have lived through such things, this might be a powerful read, but it did not resonate with me.
June 10, 2013
3.5 stars
There were many things I did like about this book, but it didn't quite jell for me.
I was first intrigued by the premise of life done differently. The first book I encountered that suggested this approach was Penelope Lively's Making it Up, which was well written and interesting, but didn't deliver on that promise to me. The Original 1982 does that, presenting the choice that changes things, and marking out a new path (and comparing it to the old) that follows that decision.
I liked Lisa, the main character, in both versions of her life, and both paths were interesting. She was surrounded by people that I wanted to get to know, and a few I didn't, but I liked reading about anyway. I enjoyed the author's writing. The book was written as a letter to a daughter that never was, and that choice resonated with me.
My biggest problem was that I wanted more, from both of the paths. Big issues were touched on, then the story moved on. Relationships were introduced, but not explored.
The second problem was that I didn't entirely buy the new path, and I can't tell if that was deliberate. Was I learning from this that Lisa is deceiving herself about what her life would have been like, or did the author fail to construct a life I could buy into? How much is the original life based on the author's real life, and is the new life her personal wish, or does it belong only to the character of Lisa?
I enjoyed reading the book, and I'd love to have the chance to argue some of these questions with someone else that read it.
There were many things I did like about this book, but it didn't quite jell for me.
I was first intrigued by the premise of life done differently. The first book I encountered that suggested this approach was Penelope Lively's Making it Up, which was well written and interesting, but didn't deliver on that promise to me. The Original 1982 does that, presenting the choice that changes things, and marking out a new path (and comparing it to the old) that follows that decision.
I liked Lisa, the main character, in both versions of her life, and both paths were interesting. She was surrounded by people that I wanted to get to know, and a few I didn't, but I liked reading about anyway. I enjoyed the author's writing. The book was written as a letter to a daughter that never was, and that choice resonated with me.
My biggest problem was that I wanted more, from both of the paths. Big issues were touched on, then the story moved on. Relationships were introduced, but not explored.
The second problem was that I didn't entirely buy the new path, and I can't tell if that was deliberate. Was I learning from this that Lisa is deceiving herself about what her life would have been like, or did the author fail to construct a life I could buy into? How much is the original life based on the author's real life, and is the new life her personal wish, or does it belong only to the character of Lisa?
I enjoyed reading the book, and I'd love to have the chance to argue some of these questions with someone else that read it.
June 25, 2013
A great first novel. Very well written, in a smooth and pleasant diary-like manner, you never know what is invented and what is memories.
Lisa Nelson is a young woman in her twenties at the beginning of the story (in the "original" year 1982), smitten with a musician who has a strong power over her despite mistreating her and her feelings.
She ends up having his child, a daughter, she names Minnow, while he was against it altogether. She raises her daughter while struggling with love, addiction, music and her career. When Minnow is ten or about, her father finally gets to know her and love her too, and vows to bring himself in her life as well.
Minnow is a very sweet soul, with an inclination for women rather than men, and when she discovers love she chooses a first love who mistreats her, like her mother was mistreated. But we do not know what she will make of the lesson, because Minnow is a what-if part of the story only.
Although touching with the very delicate topics of abortion and sexual orientation and behaviors, as well as addictive behaviors and lifestyle, this novel is not a book about society and life choices. It is a very touching telling of existence despite our "wrong" or right choices in life.
I enjoyed reading it a lot. It is well written and smooth all the way, and it gave me many opportunities to think differently without any hasty judgement. I really recommend it.
Lisa Nelson is a young woman in her twenties at the beginning of the story (in the "original" year 1982), smitten with a musician who has a strong power over her despite mistreating her and her feelings.
She ends up having his child, a daughter, she names Minnow, while he was against it altogether. She raises her daughter while struggling with love, addiction, music and her career. When Minnow is ten or about, her father finally gets to know her and love her too, and vows to bring himself in her life as well.
Minnow is a very sweet soul, with an inclination for women rather than men, and when she discovers love she chooses a first love who mistreats her, like her mother was mistreated. But we do not know what she will make of the lesson, because Minnow is a what-if part of the story only.
Although touching with the very delicate topics of abortion and sexual orientation and behaviors, as well as addictive behaviors and lifestyle, this novel is not a book about society and life choices. It is a very touching telling of existence despite our "wrong" or right choices in life.
I enjoyed reading it a lot. It is well written and smooth all the way, and it gave me many opportunities to think differently without any hasty judgement. I really recommend it.
August 30, 2014
I'm torn between a 3 or 4 on this one. On one hand, the story with the child, was very touching. On the other hand, the chapters were so short and choppy, and didn't always leave on a conclusive note (since I was reading on Kindle, I had to backspace several times to make sure I'd actually finished the chapter).
This is not really a story about the 80s, but it is about what actually happened and what might have been in the life of a young musician as she decides whether or not to end her unplanned pregnancy. This is certainly a cautionary tale for young women, and it really makes a great argument for choosing life.
Near the end, the parallel story telling ends, and we just get the point of view regarding what really happened. This storyline was not nearly as interesting or compelling as the imagined storyline.
I did like this quote: "Life is like a big empty house when you're young, windows open wide. But over time, you close off rooms that are too painful to visit, whole wings you can't bear to enter. Eventually, you live in a book-filled kitchen off the porch, hiding from your own history."
This is not really a story about the 80s, but it is about what actually happened and what might have been in the life of a young musician as she decides whether or not to end her unplanned pregnancy. This is certainly a cautionary tale for young women, and it really makes a great argument for choosing life.
Near the end, the parallel story telling ends, and we just get the point of view regarding what really happened. This storyline was not nearly as interesting or compelling as the imagined storyline.
I did like this quote: "Life is like a big empty house when you're young, windows open wide. But over time, you close off rooms that are too painful to visit, whole wings you can't bear to enter. Eventually, you live in a book-filled kitchen off the porch, hiding from your own history."
March 20, 2018
Singer/songwriter Lori Carson, of the Golden Palominos (a band I was not familiar with until now---they are worth checking out, good music for writing or working at the laptop, etc.) has written a piece of speculative memoir.
In The Original 1982, musician protagonist Lisa is in a relationship with another musician, Gabriel, and from one moment in that year she makes a decision that affects the rest of her life. (And I’m sorry if that tells you next to nothing but if the book jacket didn’t give it away they I won’t either.)
This was very enjoyable, a work that I feel seems close to the bone here. The trials of performing and trying to achieve success in the music world are relatable, the wisdom of having lived through many choices, both bad and good, is a wisdom that one can appreciate after being on the planet a few years longer. I don’t know that I would have understood the themes of this when I was a younger person.
I flipped back and forth with how I felt about this. I never hated it or anything, but I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. I thought maybe it was supposed to have a sci-fi component to it (it doesn’t) and then I found myself wishing that this had been more straight-up, as in, more like a fictionalized memoir rather than a “what-if?”. But by the end I understood why it was done this way. And I appreciated the wisdom and the short chapters and the realism of it all.
In The Original 1982, musician protagonist Lisa is in a relationship with another musician, Gabriel, and from one moment in that year she makes a decision that affects the rest of her life. (And I’m sorry if that tells you next to nothing but if the book jacket didn’t give it away they I won’t either.)
This was very enjoyable, a work that I feel seems close to the bone here. The trials of performing and trying to achieve success in the music world are relatable, the wisdom of having lived through many choices, both bad and good, is a wisdom that one can appreciate after being on the planet a few years longer. I don’t know that I would have understood the themes of this when I was a younger person.
I flipped back and forth with how I felt about this. I never hated it or anything, but I wasn’t really sure what to make of it. I thought maybe it was supposed to have a sci-fi component to it (it doesn’t) and then I found myself wishing that this had been more straight-up, as in, more like a fictionalized memoir rather than a “what-if?”. But by the end I understood why it was done this way. And I appreciated the wisdom and the short chapters and the realism of it all.
September 12, 2013
I plowed through this story. It was well-written. It was riveting. But I knew the ending even before starting the book, and that made it less palatable to me.
Lisa (a singer-songwriter just like the author; how much of this is autobiographical?) is going through menopause and looking back on the life that could've been had she not had two abortions. For starters, she would have a charming child named Minnow.
The fact that this is merely an exercise is what-ifs and regrets, and that the protagonist does not seem better for it at the end is what leads me to give this book three stars.
Some examples of the broken protagonist (aka "the original" Lisa):
"How has this happened? I'm on the periphery, a solitary animal in a world of connected creatures."
"Life is like a big empty house when you're young, windows open wide. But over time, you close off rooms that are too painful to visit, whole wings you can't bear to enter. Eventually, you live in a book-filled kitchen off the porch, hiding from your own history."
Even though Lisa insists that she is "putting Minnow to bed" with this story, that she will always wonder about her unborn fondly, I highly doubt that she feels better because of it. That might be true to life (for Lori, if autobiographical), but damn, it makes a depressing novel.
Lisa (a singer-songwriter just like the author; how much of this is autobiographical?) is going through menopause and looking back on the life that could've been had she not had two abortions. For starters, she would have a charming child named Minnow.
The fact that this is merely an exercise is what-ifs and regrets, and that the protagonist does not seem better for it at the end is what leads me to give this book three stars.
Some examples of the broken protagonist (aka "the original" Lisa):
"How has this happened? I'm on the periphery, a solitary animal in a world of connected creatures."
"Life is like a big empty house when you're young, windows open wide. But over time, you close off rooms that are too painful to visit, whole wings you can't bear to enter. Eventually, you live in a book-filled kitchen off the porch, hiding from your own history."
Even though Lisa insists that she is "putting Minnow to bed" with this story, that she will always wonder about her unborn fondly, I highly doubt that she feels better because of it. That might be true to life (for Lori, if autobiographical), but damn, it makes a depressing novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2013
Lately I've been reading a lot of books that deal with going back to the past and re-doing any mistakes that have been made. Lori Carson addresses this issue in her debut novel, "The Original 1982."
Carson takes her character Lisa back to a time when she made a life-altering decision, and has her imagining what would have happened if she had only made a different choice. The storyline deals with some hard subject matters, such as abortion, promiscuous behavior, drug and alcohol usage, but Carson also weaves a fascinating point of view of how life is fragile and how choices can make a huge difference throughout the story.
1982 was a pivotal year for me, it was the year I got married to my best friend Don, so it was interesting to go back in time with this book and remember the era. I also could appreciate the music scene that Carson describes in this novel, as my husband is a musician as well. She captures the time period and the social atmosphere very well here.
"The Original 1982" is not an easy read - in terms of emotions, at least it was for me. But it is captivating at the same time. If you are looking for a novel that makes you stop and think - this one will definitely fill that bill.
Carson takes her character Lisa back to a time when she made a life-altering decision, and has her imagining what would have happened if she had only made a different choice. The storyline deals with some hard subject matters, such as abortion, promiscuous behavior, drug and alcohol usage, but Carson also weaves a fascinating point of view of how life is fragile and how choices can make a huge difference throughout the story.
1982 was a pivotal year for me, it was the year I got married to my best friend Don, so it was interesting to go back in time with this book and remember the era. I also could appreciate the music scene that Carson describes in this novel, as my husband is a musician as well. She captures the time period and the social atmosphere very well here.
"The Original 1982" is not an easy read - in terms of emotions, at least it was for me. But it is captivating at the same time. If you are looking for a novel that makes you stop and think - this one will definitely fill that bill.
September 29, 2013
If I could give this book 3.5 stars I would, because I liked it, but I didn't LOVE it. In 1982 our narrator gets pregnant with her boyfriend's child. The boyfriend really wants nothing to do with it, and thusly she aborts the child. However, in an alternate universe she writes as if she has kept the child and raises it on her own, all the while striving to succeed in two careers (one real estate, one music). About 50 pages before the end of the book though, she writes in the Original Universe, where the child was never born, so the last portion of the book (which is all the year 2010) I felt like, well, I really don't have to pay attention or absorb any details of any of these characters, because well, I know the jig is up by now. And it just seemed like a laundry-list of what they did for a year "we went to the store, we drank wine, we went to the hospital to visit so-and-so..." and then finally, the last paragraph of the book is what a mom feels for a daughter, the sort of "if you had been born, these would be my words to you my lovely daughter."
March 5, 2013
This story was so easy to read. The side by side story lines seam together effortlessly. I grew up in the time frame of this book, and Lori Carson does a great job of depicting this era. I wish this book had another 100 pages, I wasn't ready to leave this great cast of characters.
June 17, 2013
The older I get the more I think about choices I've made and what ifs. This book is about the authors choice of whether or not to have a child. It's a moving book and well written.
July 18, 2021
I love books that involve the bending of time, or rewriting it, so I was excited to find and read this. I was/am completely unfamiliar with the author as an artist, but as others have pointed out in their reviews, this book felt very autobiographical. I didn’t mind the short chapters, and I overall really liked the flow of the book. I enjoy books that don’t get caught up in too many details, or spend pages upon pages trying to describe things to me. However, I felt like the second part of the book ended very abruptly. I had a really hard time getting into the third part of the book when it becomes more of the characters present life. I found myself uncaring, and wishing that more time had been spent on her alternate reality. Especially because at the end of Part 2, she ages Minnow to 18 & then that’s it? It’s as if the author is saying once a child becomes 18, they’re an adult and stop being a child anymore to their parents. Having never had children of my own, but being a child to my parents, I know that’s not true. I’m currently 35 & I’m never not their child, even as I’ve grown and developed friendships with both of my parents. I think if the third part of the book had been different, I’d have rated this higher. Not to say that the main character should have decided to adopt at 52, but was it even considered? The character certainly felt like she was missing that aspect of her life. It’s never too late to do/get what you want out of life. I also wanted more in Part 3 with Gabriel. Like, where was he in that life then? She obviously kept tabs on him in Part 2, because of Minnow. But was he a has been by the time she’s 52, in Part 3? Did he still follow his political career in his home country? This whole storyline just felt loose to me.
March 26, 2024
I really was knocked sideways by this one. I'm writing this review about 4-5 years later and still recalling the emotional experience of reading it. It's written in a parallel narrative way that is really the only way something like this could be written. Ms. Carson really brings to live the daughter that she never got to raise.
I knew a little bit of Lori Carson's music and that's what drew me to the book. And, some of the characters in the novel I'm realizing are based on other musicians I'm familiar with and that was a nice touch. But, the story itself and how it plays out was both heartwarming and heartbreaking.
I knew a little bit of Lori Carson's music and that's what drew me to the book. And, some of the characters in the novel I'm realizing are based on other musicians I'm familiar with and that was a nice touch. But, the story itself and how it plays out was both heartwarming and heartbreaking.
February 11, 2017
This book was a remarkable exercise in trying to re-write the past. As someone who has begun to here the ever ticking clock I can understand the urge to explore the path not taken. I wish that there had been more balance through out the book between the original life and the imagined life. In truth you only got to see a small piece of the life that was actually lived. It was then had to appreciate that it had its good points. The life with a child was then idealized. Ultimately though I felt the touch of heart break at the end for something lost that can never be gained again.
May 25, 2019
Gabriel Luna is the bane of my existence.
This book really put things into perspective for me. I realized that I was upset at how a fictional character was treating another fictional character but not upset at how I’m being treated currently. It made me look really hard at myself and at my love life and see how it’s unacceptable to treat another person. It was was a sad read but I’m glad I read it overall.
This book really put things into perspective for me. I realized that I was upset at how a fictional character was treating another fictional character but not upset at how I’m being treated currently. It made me look really hard at myself and at my love life and see how it’s unacceptable to treat another person. It was was a sad read but I’m glad I read it overall.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 9, 2019
“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.”
“So many good times. What a shock it is to realize we were living in a ‘time’, like ‘after the war’ or ‘during the depression .’ It had just been ‘now’ to us. It felt like everyone, and everything would always be like that.”
“It’s only now that can’t be any different; the past can be anything you want!”
“So many good times. What a shock it is to realize we were living in a ‘time’, like ‘after the war’ or ‘during the depression .’ It had just been ‘now’ to us. It felt like everyone, and everything would always be like that.”
“It’s only now that can’t be any different; the past can be anything you want!”
April 22, 2018
Very cool story. Think a variation of 'Sliding Doors' without the negative Gwyneth Paltrow connotations. I'll admit I was drawn in by the 'non original' narrative, but by 'the original 2010' section, both narratives made perfect sense
May 9, 2025
Incredible. Sobbed. Can’t stop thinking about this book
May 17, 2025
I love those "What if" tales, and while I did enjoy this book I wish there had been a little more back and forth.
September 21, 2017
I really enjoyed this book because it felt really personal to the author which made it feel personal to me. I think we all have "what if" moments about decisions we've made in our lives and unlike other books I've read that make big, romantic changes to peoples' lives when they get to experience the outcome of a different life choice, this story felt a lot closer to the truth. A different path would lead to a life that looks pretty similar to the one you're actually living. I think that's a brave choice to make when writing a story like this.
June 22, 2013
Originally published at Reading Reality
If things were different, everything would be different. In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, it’s called the other leg of the trousers of time.
If you could choose one decision in your life, and go down the other path, what would you do?
Telling this version of her story, Lisa chooses differently. In her alternate version of 1982, she chooses to become a single mother to her baby, instead of having an abortion. In the other 1982, Lisa has the little girl she names Minnow, instead of a semi-celebrated musical career.
In neither version of her life does she have a happily ever after with Minnow’s father, a slightly older and somewhat more famous Latin-American singer. Gabriel Luna wasn’t capable of making a family, or even being faithful. In the original 1982, he was simply the first of several addictions. In the Minnow-future, Lisa did a better job of leaving him behind sooner, if only for the sake of her daughter.
But what this story does is imagine, not just one simple change, but how that one instant affects an entire life. Lisa has a child instead of an abortion. With Minnow in her life, every single thing that happens after is altered, and so is every person who walks part of her journey with her.
She continues as a waitress instead of making a career on the road as a singer-songwriter. The people who would have been her bandmates forge their careers with other bands. But the music is part of her soul. It sometimes takes a backseat to making a living, motherhood, or simple exhaustion. But she never gives up.
In the end, she is still a singer-songwriter, but it all happens differently. And she has Minnow. It might have been. But it didn’t.
Escape Rating B+: One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”. The Original 1982 is Lisa’s re-imagining her whole life as that road. Reaching mid-life, we all struggle with these kinds of questions, wondering what would have happened if we’d taken the other fork at too many important bends in the road, dealing with regrets about what might have been.
Instead Lisa writes them out as a story for herself, and for her niece, comparing her two lives. She doesn’t pull too many punches. She doesn’t think that her life would have been easier if she’d chosen to keep Minnow, only that it would have been vastly different.
It’s telling that in neither future does she get the guy. He’s not the dream. Her daughter was the dream.
Because this book was written by Lori Carson of the Golden Palominos, there’s a meta question about how much of the story is autobiographical. It reminded me of Carly Simon’s famous song, “You’re So Vain”, and the persistent rumor that the subject was Warren Beatty. Or Mick Jagger.
I wonder who Gabriel Luna was in Lori Carson’s life. If there was such a person, or persons.
But we’ve all faced choices where we wonder what might have happened if we’d picked the other road. This story, this other 1982, makes you stop and think about those choices.
If you knew then what you know now, what would you do? The problem is, you never know then what you know now. We choose, we live the lives that stem from that choice. No going back, except through works of imagination. But those other lives, they haunt us just the same.
If things were different, everything would be different. In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, it’s called the other leg of the trousers of time.
If you could choose one decision in your life, and go down the other path, what would you do?
Telling this version of her story, Lisa chooses differently. In her alternate version of 1982, she chooses to become a single mother to her baby, instead of having an abortion. In the other 1982, Lisa has the little girl she names Minnow, instead of a semi-celebrated musical career.
In neither version of her life does she have a happily ever after with Minnow’s father, a slightly older and somewhat more famous Latin-American singer. Gabriel Luna wasn’t capable of making a family, or even being faithful. In the original 1982, he was simply the first of several addictions. In the Minnow-future, Lisa did a better job of leaving him behind sooner, if only for the sake of her daughter.
But what this story does is imagine, not just one simple change, but how that one instant affects an entire life. Lisa has a child instead of an abortion. With Minnow in her life, every single thing that happens after is altered, and so is every person who walks part of her journey with her.
She continues as a waitress instead of making a career on the road as a singer-songwriter. The people who would have been her bandmates forge their careers with other bands. But the music is part of her soul. It sometimes takes a backseat to making a living, motherhood, or simple exhaustion. But she never gives up.
In the end, she is still a singer-songwriter, but it all happens differently. And she has Minnow. It might have been. But it didn’t.
Escape Rating B+: One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”. The Original 1982 is Lisa’s re-imagining her whole life as that road. Reaching mid-life, we all struggle with these kinds of questions, wondering what would have happened if we’d taken the other fork at too many important bends in the road, dealing with regrets about what might have been.
Instead Lisa writes them out as a story for herself, and for her niece, comparing her two lives. She doesn’t pull too many punches. She doesn’t think that her life would have been easier if she’d chosen to keep Minnow, only that it would have been vastly different.
It’s telling that in neither future does she get the guy. He’s not the dream. Her daughter was the dream.
Because this book was written by Lori Carson of the Golden Palominos, there’s a meta question about how much of the story is autobiographical. It reminded me of Carly Simon’s famous song, “You’re So Vain”, and the persistent rumor that the subject was Warren Beatty. Or Mick Jagger.
I wonder who Gabriel Luna was in Lori Carson’s life. If there was such a person, or persons.
But we’ve all faced choices where we wonder what might have happened if we’d picked the other road. This story, this other 1982, makes you stop and think about those choices.
If you knew then what you know now, what would you do? The problem is, you never know then what you know now. We choose, we live the lives that stem from that choice. No going back, except through works of imagination. But those other lives, they haunt us just the same.
October 9, 2014
The premise of this book really interested me, but I didn't like the way it was carried out. The book centers around Lisa, a successful musician, as she thinks about what her life may have been like had she made a totally different decision at a crucial point in her early twenties. She goes on to tell the story of her life in this Alternate 1982, with references here and there about how things differed in the Original 1982. And tell she does, as I felt like the book mostly told us about things she did instead of "showing" us what she did.
A more appropriate name for the book would have been The Alternate 1982, as most of the book detailed this alternate life and there were very few details of her "original" life. That is, until the last fourth of the book, when the storyline for this alternate life abruptly ends and all of a sudden we are given the story of the main character's original 2010.
The main difference between the original and alternate lives Lisa experiences and imagines is that in one, she focuses on her career as a musician and sees success in that avenue, and in the other she has a daughter and reaches fulfillment that way. I enjoyed seeing these two drastically different paths, but I thought the alternate life seemed a bit too specific to be just a what-if scenario. This is somewhat explained away at the very end of the book, but I would have enjoyed it a bit better if she would have prefaced it in some way to explain up front why everything was so detailed. Or, if she had used words like "might" and "would", it may have been less distracting. "I might have done this and they would have probably done this.." is a lot less distracting than specific details like, "I did this and this and this and then he said this to me and I felt this way.." Also, while I realize this alternate reality was an imaginary scenario, it still seemed too unrealistic. There was one point where Lisa got off a bus and waved and everyone waved back. Really??! All of the strangers on the bus that you had never seen before waved at you when you stepped off?? Huh?!
The main thing that kept me from getting invested in the story is that it didn't tell enough of the "real" 1982, so I had nothing to compare this alternate life too. Lisa would occasionally tell us in a sentence or two about some detail in her real life, but it was few and far between. At one point in Alternate 1982, she gets a job and has a crush on a coworker. Did she get this job in Original 1982? Did she cross paths with this crush at all then? Where was she at during this point in Original 1982? Details like this were severely lacking, so it took away from the whole what-if scenario, since I didn't know enough about how things went originally. Plus, I thought it could have been great if there were some paralleled experiences between original and alternate story lines. Perhaps if she dated this coworker in one storyline, in the other she would have been famous and came across him and thought he was a hack, or something funny like that. I thought there were some missed opportunities to tie these alternate realities together a bit or cross paths at certain junctures.
Overall, an interesting premise, but it wasn't carried out in a way I found appealing.
A more appropriate name for the book would have been The Alternate 1982, as most of the book detailed this alternate life and there were very few details of her "original" life. That is, until the last fourth of the book, when the storyline for this alternate life abruptly ends and all of a sudden we are given the story of the main character's original 2010.
The main difference between the original and alternate lives Lisa experiences and imagines is that in one, she focuses on her career as a musician and sees success in that avenue, and in the other she has a daughter and reaches fulfillment that way. I enjoyed seeing these two drastically different paths, but I thought the alternate life seemed a bit too specific to be just a what-if scenario. This is somewhat explained away at the very end of the book, but I would have enjoyed it a bit better if she would have prefaced it in some way to explain up front why everything was so detailed. Or, if she had used words like "might" and "would", it may have been less distracting. "I might have done this and they would have probably done this.." is a lot less distracting than specific details like, "I did this and this and this and then he said this to me and I felt this way.." Also, while I realize this alternate reality was an imaginary scenario, it still seemed too unrealistic. There was one point where Lisa got off a bus and waved and everyone waved back. Really??! All of the strangers on the bus that you had never seen before waved at you when you stepped off?? Huh?!
The main thing that kept me from getting invested in the story is that it didn't tell enough of the "real" 1982, so I had nothing to compare this alternate life too. Lisa would occasionally tell us in a sentence or two about some detail in her real life, but it was few and far between. At one point in Alternate 1982, she gets a job and has a crush on a coworker. Did she get this job in Original 1982? Did she cross paths with this crush at all then? Where was she at during this point in Original 1982? Details like this were severely lacking, so it took away from the whole what-if scenario, since I didn't know enough about how things went originally. Plus, I thought it could have been great if there were some paralleled experiences between original and alternate story lines. Perhaps if she dated this coworker in one storyline, in the other she would have been famous and came across him and thought he was a hack, or something funny like that. I thought there were some missed opportunities to tie these alternate realities together a bit or cross paths at certain junctures.
Overall, an interesting premise, but it wasn't carried out in a way I found appealing.
May 28, 2013
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.
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.
January 2, 2015
From The Book Wheel:
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you could go back and do it all over again? If you have, then you’ll race through this book that does exactly that. Author (and singer/songwriter) Lisa Carson’s The Original 1982 is way of rewriting her life after having an abortion (this is on page 3 and is all over Goodreads, so it’s not a spoiler).
Addressed to the daughters he never had, Lisa constructs an entire life for her daughter and herself from the early days of pregnancy and on through high school. Steeped in the reality that not everything is always rosy, Lisa’s daughter endures the trials and tribulations that the average girl experiences (and then some). This was, perhaps, my favorite part about the story because when you’re rewriting your own life, you can make it anything you want it to be and Lisa opted to stay in the realm of the possible.
While the description of the book makes it seem as if there is a lot of flipping back and forth between the original 1982 and the real one, the book mostly takes place in the fictitious version of the story. There are times when Lisa punctuates a story with what happened in her real life to keep the reader grounded, but mostly it served to remind me that this girl never existed.
For the full review, click here.
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you could go back and do it all over again? If you have, then you’ll race through this book that does exactly that. Author (and singer/songwriter) Lisa Carson’s The Original 1982 is way of rewriting her life after having an abortion (this is on page 3 and is all over Goodreads, so it’s not a spoiler).
Addressed to the daughters he never had, Lisa constructs an entire life for her daughter and herself from the early days of pregnancy and on through high school. Steeped in the reality that not everything is always rosy, Lisa’s daughter endures the trials and tribulations that the average girl experiences (and then some). This was, perhaps, my favorite part about the story because when you’re rewriting your own life, you can make it anything you want it to be and Lisa opted to stay in the realm of the possible.
While the description of the book makes it seem as if there is a lot of flipping back and forth between the original 1982 and the real one, the book mostly takes place in the fictitious version of the story. There are times when Lisa punctuates a story with what happened in her real life to keep the reader grounded, but mostly it served to remind me that this girl never existed.
For the full review, click here.
June 14, 2013
The Original 1982 is a novel of "What If." In this case, what if Lisa hadn't have had an abortion in 1982 and instead kept the baby that was fathered by her musician boyfriend.
This is a super quick read and one you won't be able to put down especially if you like the 80s.
I loved the way Lisa reinvented those years and the character of her daughter, Willow. I loved how she was determined to be a mother, even though her life is shitty at first.
Lisa isn't a character that it is easy to like, because she's really co-dependent on Gabriel for awhile. It is hard to imagine any woman wanting to keep this guy around for love, because he really treated her badly. She kept falling back into bed with him, even when he was cheating on her.
However in her alternate 1982 she grows up a bit faster, even while harboring a crush on her former lover. She becomes a pretty responsible mother.
There are so many memorable characters in this book. I loved her friend Alan and the neighbor Maria. I also loved all the little references to 80s music in the book.
The story offers up the two realities, but it doesn't really try say which one is better. I think both Lisa's had some regrets stemming from the decision that she made in 1982.
In the end, the story is bittersweet and you know that in Lisa's reality she's really matured and you wish her the happiness she didn't find so far.
This is a super quick read and one you won't be able to put down especially if you like the 80s.
I loved the way Lisa reinvented those years and the character of her daughter, Willow. I loved how she was determined to be a mother, even though her life is shitty at first.
Lisa isn't a character that it is easy to like, because she's really co-dependent on Gabriel for awhile. It is hard to imagine any woman wanting to keep this guy around for love, because he really treated her badly. She kept falling back into bed with him, even when he was cheating on her.
However in her alternate 1982 she grows up a bit faster, even while harboring a crush on her former lover. She becomes a pretty responsible mother.
There are so many memorable characters in this book. I loved her friend Alan and the neighbor Maria. I also loved all the little references to 80s music in the book.
The story offers up the two realities, but it doesn't really try say which one is better. I think both Lisa's had some regrets stemming from the decision that she made in 1982.
In the end, the story is bittersweet and you know that in Lisa's reality she's really matured and you wish her the happiness she didn't find so far.
August 19, 2014
This was a fascinating book of fiction about the music scene in New York in the 1980s as told by the author who actually lived that scene herself. It followed parallel lives of the character Lisa Nelson, on the one hand having a child and the other where she chose an abortion at the behest of the child's father. The stories intersected and merged at points so one wasn't sure where the "original" story left off and the imagined life took off. This was Lori Carson's debut novel that was likely largely autobiographical as she is a singer songwriter like the main character. She writes like she is living the story (or both stories) and brings you in so that you feel you are living it with her. I was not familiar with the author's music even after I listened to several of her songs on YouTube. As others have said, you can be a great musician but never make it professionally depending on your life choices. I thought the book was excellent and I couldn't put it down. I found the author's blog online and almost felt it was a continuation of the novel (the "original" storyline). I look forward to her next novel.
September 5, 2013
The Original 1982 from the info sent to me for consideration for a review sounded like a chick lit book. A cute, fun, fluffy book.
However, this is not chick-lit. Does this make it a bad book? No, not even.
Everyone wants to go back to a certain point in life and change things- and then wonder how that will affect the rest of their life. Will that change take you to a different place or not?
The author writes a book that is more diary format, part love song to a person that would have been in her life- if she had not made a choice, a choice that she made on her own; but with pressure from her boyfriend.
Seeing how things played out (and imagining how they could have played out) made for an interesting combination- and kept me interested.
But this is not chick lit. It's heavier. It's not as fun. It's even sad at times. However, The Original 1982 is worth a read.
Full review: Traveling With T
June 11, 2015
What a strange, strange book. I feel like I just read Lori Carson's diary- like I've pried into her deeply personal inner life. Lisa Nelson - Lori Carson - really? Other reviewers have pointed out that similarity in the names and the potential autobiographical nature of this "novel" and I'm totally on board with that interpretation.
While I loved Minnow and hearing how she developed into a young person, I got sick of LIsa's whiny tone and overly depressing musings. This book seems so filled with regret, coming down so firmly on the side of "Welp, definitely shouldn't have had that abortion." It's sad, but not in a good way. It's sad in a self-indulgent way.
That being said, I did engage with the story pretty thoroughly and was absorbed for a good three days. The writing is good, just not great. I was too annoyed with Lisa and the overly sappy tone to feel particularly moved in the end.
While I loved Minnow and hearing how she developed into a young person, I got sick of LIsa's whiny tone and overly depressing musings. This book seems so filled with regret, coming down so firmly on the side of "Welp, definitely shouldn't have had that abortion." It's sad, but not in a good way. It's sad in a self-indulgent way.
That being said, I did engage with the story pretty thoroughly and was absorbed for a good three days. The writing is good, just not great. I was too annoyed with Lisa and the overly sappy tone to feel particularly moved in the end.
February 13, 2014
The Original 1982 by Lori Carson shows how one decision can largely impact the outcome of one woman's life. It does this by switching back and forth between the two possible realities. One in which the woman keeps an unplanned pregnancy, and another in which she aborts the baby. I suppose this book did not really speak to me because it makes clear that only one path actually happened and that the woman is "making up" the other path. However, in my mind, both of the two paths are so well developed, and both made so many assumptions, that how could the woman have really known or believed what she imagines would have really happened? Regardless, as the rating states, this was not my cup of tea, but other people may enjoy this read.
July 24, 2013
I haven’t quite put my finger on what it was about Lori Carson’s The Original 1982 that didn’t quite work for me. That is not to say it’s a bad novel, it’s okay. In fact, its very okayness prompted me to write a that column for Book Riot asking how we talk about books that are only okay.
From the description this book is right up my alley: a female singer/songwriter wonders how her life would have changed had she not chosen to end an unplanned pregnancy when she was a young, twenty-something waitress in 1982. And yet. . . this book roused nothing within me. Read More.
From the description this book is right up my alley: a female singer/songwriter wonders how her life would have changed had she not chosen to end an unplanned pregnancy when she was a young, twenty-something waitress in 1982. And yet. . . this book roused nothing within me. Read More.
June 4, 2013
I come away from this book with a distinct feeling of "Meh". I enjoyed the first two thirds of the story, especially bouncing back and forth between the original 1982 and the alternate version. I loved Minnow and how her personality blossomed. But the last section was a let down. Granted, it tells the final story, but I didn't find it terribly interesting. Possibly it's because I'm still too young to connect to the character at that age. I also was expecting more cultural references from the 80s and 90s. That's the stuff I most enjoyed.
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