Books
by Carol Shields
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A Celibate Season |
with Blanche Howard
Chas and Jocelyn have financial problems and decide that she will take a prestigious job the other side of Canada, meaning a separation from him and from family life. The story of their 'celibate season' is told entirely through their increasingly poignant and revealing letters as their lives inevitably grow further apart and they discover new sides to themselves. Some great comic moments and insights into communication between couples also emerge via this format.
(Victoria Grey-Edwards - bwl 18 April 2003) |
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Larry's Party |
This is the story of Larry Weller in a series of episodes between 1970 (when he is 27) and 1997, with periodical flashbacks. Larry is a floral designer who develops into a creator of garden mazes. The author closely observes Larry's successive marriages and his relations with his family and friends. Told in a relaxed manner, with humorous touches, the story set in North America kept me captivated throughout.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 16 December 2002) |
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The Republic of Love |
Set in urban Canada, this is a serious yet lightly entertaining tale of the mutual love of a three times divorced presenter of a nightly programme on local radio and a researcher into mermaids on the staff of an institute of folk history. As in the novels of Richard Ford and Anne Tyler, I found the different characters and their situations convincing at the same time as stimulatingly offbeat.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 10 August 2001) |
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The Republic of Love |
Written in 1992 and set in Winnipeg, Shields explores the meaning of love between mid-thirties, folklorist Fay - reluctant to commit to marriage - and Tom - almost forty, a late-night radio music and chat show host, three times married and divorced, but with optimism to start again. Shields writes engagingly about the ordinariness of their lives, friends and family. This is a gentle love story with some unexpected surprises.
(Diane Reeve - bwl 48 November 2008) |
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Unless |
This is a remarkable book to linger over and savour and especially so as it is probably Carol Shields' swan song. Reta Winters, successful as a translator and as a writer of light fiction, is happily married with a family and a lovely house. Then all her certainties are challenged when without warning her eldest daughter decides to spend her days sitting on a Toronto street corner, a sign saying 'Goodness' hanging round her neck.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 15 October 2002) |
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