- Paperback: 188 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Canada (29 Aug 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0394224841
- ISBN-13: 978-0394224848
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.2 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,380,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The superb first novel from the author of The Stone Diaries, winner of the Governor General's Award, a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Judith Gill is a well-respected biographer who desperately wants to write fiction. When she joins her academic husband on sabbatical in Birmingham, she finds on the shelves of their rented flat the notes of a failed novelist. With considerable guilt, Judith decides to plagiarize one of the ideas and brings it home to Canada to work on. Frustrated by the creative process but determined to be more imaginative, Judith attends writing classes and later discovers that her tutor, suffering from writer's block, has ripped off 'her' idea. Once again, Shields focuses her sharp gaze on the small ceremonies of life in this novel of rare intelligence and wit.
Judith Gill is a well-respected biographer who desperately wants to write fiction. When she joins her academic husband on sabbatical in Birmingham, she finds on the shelves of their rented flat the notes of a failed novelist. With considerable guilt, Judith decides to plagiarize one of the ideas and brings it home to Canada to work on. Frustrated by the creative process but determined to be more imaginative, Judith attends writing classes and later discovers that her tutor, suffering from writer's block, has ripped off 'her' idea. Once again, Shields focuses her sharp gaze on the small ceremonies of life in this novel of rare intelligence and wit.
From the Back Cover
Judith Gill is writing a biography of a minor Victorian novelist. Judith has also written a novel of her own, but is unhappy with it. Is the plot original – or is it plagiarised? And when she discovers her own novel has just been plundered can she fairly justify the anger she feels? In the perplexing swirl of family life are her husband, who keeps odd balls of wool in a bottom drawer, and her son, who shares his secrets only with a penfriend.
Lacking the certainty of youth and not yet reaping the wisdom of older age, Judith Gill is at the centre of a beautifully realised novel that is tender, funny and insightful.
'Small Ceremonies' is the companion novel to 'The Box Garden'
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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Pulitzer Prize winning Carol Shields presents another haunting personal reality in "Small Ceremonies."
Her protagonist's train-of-consciousness reflections about her experiences are written in the first person and present tense, and bring this amusing character into sharp focus as she copes with her eccentric husband, her family and her career.
The result is a thought provoking read to which all of us can relate, for these 'small ceremonies' enter into our lives too, and all of us have our own way to consider them.
It is the unusual way that daily life is presented, and the clever commentary upon them, that is so delightful in Small Ceremonies, and makes it such a pleasure to read.
Her protagonist's train-of-consciousness reflections about her experiences are written in the first person and present tense, and bring this amusing character into sharp focus as she copes with her eccentric husband, her family and her career.
The result is a thought provoking read to which all of us can relate, for these 'small ceremonies' enter into our lives too, and all of us have our own way to consider them.
It is the unusual way that daily life is presented, and the clever commentary upon them, that is so delightful in Small Ceremonies, and makes it such a pleasure to read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Shields is terrific!
22 Dec 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The first Carol Shields book I read was "The Stone Diaries" which of course deserved all its awards. Then "Larry's Party" which, though it was somewhat ignored by the literary press, was every bit as enjoyable as "Diaries." By then I had realized that Shields is one of our greatest living novelists. I picked up "Small Ceremonies" knowing it was nearly 25 years old -- her first published novel -- and expecting it to be less than those two later books. I was wrong. "Small Ceremonies" is simply a terrific book. Buy it. Read it.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A Magic Read
8 Oct 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Small Ceremonies is a book to get lost in. Carol Shields has a way of making honouring everyday rituals, conversations and events and presenting them to the reader in a way that makes us savour her characters and stories. Like all Shields' novels, poems and plays, the irresitable Small Cermeonies, leads to contstant searching for more Carol Shields works. To publishers - devout readers want out of print works reprinted!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
A look at how we live day to day not always knowing.
10 Jan 1997
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book was an interesting look at how someone goes about discovering who they are later in life. A biographer who can only look at other people's lives through items or other people's writings. Her complaint of not having the chance to actually ever have met her latest subject makes for a nice ending when she lets another writer know what she does about his facade.
Carol Shields writing is always clear, concise and tells a touching story. If you haven't read Small Ceremonies or Stone Diaries, you are missing some of the best fiction writing I have experienced in a while.
Carol Shields writing is always clear, concise and tells a touching story. If you haven't read Small Ceremonies or Stone Diaries, you are missing some of the best fiction writing I have experienced in a while.
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