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'This collection offers a timely reminder of the complexity, subtlety and sheer intelligence of her humane vision. Shield's virtuoso but unflashy skill in handling narrative structure and voice makes it easy to overlook the stories' self-conscious artistry and reflexivity, and they abound with characters who employ second-order creativity to good and bad ends. No one does the gradual dazzle better than Carol Shields.' Samantha Matthews, TLS
'Shields understood misdirection; and she always noticed what was really going on. Like Austen – whose biography was one of her last books – she knew the world's surfaces, but she also knew its depths.' Erica Wagner, The Times
‘When you’ve been reading Carol Shields, you go outside, you listen to a conversation, you think about your own life or a friend’s life, and you notice more. And for this she should be thanked’. Hermione Lee, Guardian
‘What she offers … is a study in eccentricity that relates it to the ordinary, familiar world. That's the world she never loses sight of … in what will endure of her finest fiction.’ Independent
Praise for Carol Shields:
‘Her perceptions are so quick, her style is so acute, that she can tack a breath to the page and skewer a thought on a wing. It is her speciality to isolate moments that remain distinct in the mind for years, perhaps for a lifetime.' Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times
'In her hands we believe anything can happen.' Guardian
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SOMETHING IS ALWAYS SAYING TO ME: Be plain. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Particular favourites of mine were "Mrs Turner Cutting the Grass", a story of an ordinary woman with several extraordinary moments, "Absence" - a work I think of genius, and extremely clever too, and the two stories about the marvellous Meershank. I can really only thoroughly recommend them all - it's such a pleasure to read good quality - no, the best quality - prose in a time when we seem to be offered so much that is sub-standard by publishers. I hope other publishers will follow suit in raising standards!
I had to read as many short stories as possible for my university course and browsing the shelves of the local library thirty minutes before closing I came across this. Carol Shields. The name rang a bell but I couldn't quite place her. I'd certainly not read any of her novels. I decided to get the book out. I liked the cover (I've got a thing for autumn leaves in the way they remind me of cold autumn days - I'm very sentimental like that). Before I got this book out (it was hardback and my bag was already heavy) I decided to read the first short story to ensure lugging it home wouldn't be a waste of time.
I became instantly hooked by the story. It was different, experimental. It kept my interest and I was eager to finish this one story so I could run to my flat and sit down with the whole collection, devouring each story like a greedy woman with a box of chocolates.
The stories appealed to me because they were exquisitely written and of interest. Carol Shields finds interest in the mundane, painting something so ordinary and dull into something magical, a little miracle. All her stories have meanings, little twists at the end. They're touching but but don't lay the sentimentality on with a trowel.
After having taken this collection of short stories back to the library I headed to my local book shop and bought it. I couldn't be without it. Whenever I am bored or low I turn to it. It is my bible.
A good short story can knock you off your feet with its amazingness. Carol Shields has knocked me off my feet and I'm still struggling to stand six months later.
The first two lines of "Pardon":
On Friday afternoon Milly stopped at Ernie's Cards 'n' Things to buy a mea culpa card for her father-in-law, whom she had apparently insulted.
"Sorry," Ernie's wife said in her testy way."We're all out."
I love the off-handed humor and grace of the phrase "apparently insulted". This last collection is a departing gift, and should be read accordingly. Each page turned slowly, each paragraph unwrapped and savored, each word read as though it was the last - "part of the bliss they would one day gladly surrender."
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