A review by abbie_
Carry by Toni Jensen

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced
 I know this book was only published in 2020 so it would be odd if it weren't relevant to the here and now, but I genuinely cannot think of a book more suited to our current world. It's focused on the US, but Carry is a book that should be on everyone's radar, regardless of location.
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This book is a blend of personal essay, memoir, history, the natural world and social justice. From the first essay I was blown away by Jensen's ability to weave together topics which at first may seem unrelated but, once you dig deeper, are linked in nefarious ways. She includes her own personal experiences of racism, domestic and sexual violence she's endured in various settings, including academia and at home, but links them to wider cases and events in history to create a complex and devastating tapestry of America, both past and present.
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Jensen has a way of looking at things that made me question things differently too. Such as, what constitutes a violence? How many close calls, how many brushes with sexual violence does a person have to endure before they make up a whole violence? The experiences we live, whether close calls or not, leave permanent marks on our minds. We carry those experiences throughout our lives, they impact the way we do everyday things.
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While the sections dealing with sexual assault affected me greatly, they did not (sadly) surprise me. The many sections on gun violence however... Oof. Obviously I know that guns are a thing in America. In the UK we obviously get news from the US concerning mass shootings. But I don't think I fully comprehended before this book, just how much guns form a part of tragic everyday violence in America. And once I did... it's staggering. Jensen holds absolutely no bars when she assesses why gun violence rates are so high in the US - practically unfettered access to firearms. All the research and studies in the world can't change that simple fact.
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She also examines the untouchable combination of wealth and whiteness when it comes to gun violence, not to mention the intense difference with which the media treats white perpetrators compared to Black perpetrators or perpetrators of colour. Gun violence in America includes the white and wealthy more often than the narrative around the problem would have you believe. With white shooters, they're more inclined to follow the guidelines of not splashing their faces or even names across the news, to not inspire copycat killings and show respect for the victims and their families. But if the shooters aren't white? It's almost guaranteed their faces will be right there, splashed across the news to further fuel the racist agenda.
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One thing (among many) I love about this book is how Jensen will always mention which Indigenous peoples owned the land before it was stolen from them whenever she mentions a new place. Jensen is Métis, and is 100% dedicated to reminding us that the 'Vanishing Indian Myth' is in fact just that. A myth. Her examination of the way American history has sanitised the slaughters of Indigenous folks across the country is eerily accurate to what we're living through right now. With media outlets refusing to call the terrorists who stormed the Capitol for what they are, America (and the rest of the world) is literally watching history being altered, being made more comfortable for the white gaze. Jensen hammers home how much language matters. They weren't 'battles', they were massacres of Indigenous peoples.
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Jensen also continually refers to 'This, our America' throughout the book. I can imagine she was not at all surprised by the events at the Capitol, as no one should be, since it fits perfectly the narrative of America so far - the true narrative, not the comfortable sanitised one. She states at one point that Americans (but again, people all over the world) doing the bare minimum and believing themselves to be part of the solution are in fact the problem. And that is something we all need to internalise.
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One last thing, the title of this book 'Carry' is probably the most perfect title I've ever come across. Throughout the book, Jensen quantifies and defines terms according the many definitions of Webster's. I loved this aspect, and if you were to look up the definitions for 'carry', you would find this book summed up. 
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