Most of the stories in "Various Miracles" provide insight into characters whose plain or predictable lives/situations are revealed to be unique or exceptional in some way. The stories are haunting, spiritual somehow, and Shields' writing is - as always - magnificent. She has a light touch so that...
just finished reading Pulitzer Prize Winner Carol Shield’s collection of short stories. I have enjoyed her work in the past, her novels, especially “Larry’s Party.”One thing I will say about “Dressing up for the Carnival” is that I was continually surprised. Shields is a writer who changes from m...
As someone who's read quite a bit of Shields, I've noticed in the past that she has an early nonfiction work called Susanna Moodie: Voice And Vision. I know nothing else of Moodie (except that she's also been an influence on Margaret Atwood) but when I started this, I had to wonder if any hoopla ...
Larry veti Dorrien lähelleen, keinutteli häntä sylissään ja taputti hänen tukkaansa. Hän hätkähti tuntiessaan taputukseen sisältyvän julman varauksellisuuden, suorastaan monumentaalisen etäisyyden. Se kertoi ihmisestä, joka oli hajamielinen, väsynyt. Se oli aviomiehen taputus. Hän oli nähnyt isän...
The book started off terribly promising - looking at the art of writing biographies versus novels, i.e. what it takes from an author to write a book of these two different genres. The main characters are authors and teachers of literature. In the beginning the lines had me thinking.Halfway throug...
I bought this book as a Christmas gift for someone, attracted to it by its recent accolade of competing on Canada Reads. I have never before read anything by Carol Shields, and when I buy books that I haven't read before with the intention of giving them to other people, I tend to read them myse...
Tom Avery enjoys women to excess.First, there is the abundance of mothers who tended to his care. Twenty-seven, to be exact. Oh, sure, only one actually gave birth to him, but he is a true product of getting raised by a village. Prior to turning forty, he went through three wives. Ever the optimi...