<![CDATA[Unless: A Novel]]>

false <![CDATA[Unless: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170854508m/74462.jpg 74462 29 "A life is full of isolated events," writes Carol Shields near the end of Unless, "but these events, if they are to form a coherent narrative, require odd pieces of language to link them together, little chips of grammar (mostly adverbs or prepositions) that are hard to define... words like therefore, else, other, also, thereof, therefore, instead, otherwise, despite, already, and not yet." Shield's explanation for her novel's title lends meaning to this multilayered narrative in which a mother's grief over a daughter's break with the family revises her feminist outlook and pushes her craft as a writer in a new direction. The oldest daughter of 44-year-old Reta Winters suddenly, inexplicably, drops out of college and ends up on a Toronto street corner panhandling, with a cardboard sign around her neck that reads "goodness." The quiet comforts of Reta's small-town life and the constancy of her feminist perspective sustain her hope that her daughter will snap out of this, whatever "this" is. Threaded into her family's crisis is her ongoing internal elegy on the exclusion of women from the literary canon, which she transposes to mean her daughter's exclusion from humanity. Reta wonders if her daughter has discovered, as she herself did years before, that the world is "an endless series of obstacles, an alignment of locked doors," and has chosen to pursue the one thing that doesn't require power or a voice: goodness. In her own writing, Reta reaffirms her own sense of self, as well as her sense of humor. As her theoretical reflections on modern womanhood play counterpoint to her unwavering sense of creating a home and keeping her family together, Reta's smarts and fears form a wonderfully coherent narrative--a life worth reading about. With Unless, the inaugural title in HarperCollins's Fourth Estate imprint, Shields (author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Stone Diaries) once again asserts her place in the canon. --Emily Russin 1344971 2002 Unless: A Novel total:1458|5:276|4:508|3:451|2:165|1:58| 1458 5153 2154 228 1 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Jan 02 13:28:46 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 13:29:09 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 3 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 03 03:00:28 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 06:41:43 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed May 07 11:27:57 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 13 06:08:30 -0700 2008 This is my favorite Carol Shields book so far, and that is saying a lot because I adore Carol Shields. This novel was short-listed for the Booker. There is so much here, but it is portrayed in the classic slow, sensitive, Shieldsian manner. Those who think there is "nothing going on he...more...]]> 2 3 false false Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 08 12:26:28 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 08:21:09 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 20 00:28:27 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 19 06:56:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 19:18:36 -0700 2008 Tue May 27 20:54:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 1 false false Wed Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 09:43:04 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 30 13:49:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 09:58:02 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 10:09:35 -0700 2009
More tha...more...]]> 3 1 false true Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 17 09:22:20 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 06:54:02 -0800 2008 Unless by Carol Shields tells a story of what happens. Reta Winters is a suburban Toronto mom with three daughters and a husband obsessed with trilobites. One spring day, her oldest ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Mon Aug 10 14:26:14 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 14:27:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 14:09:03 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 17 19:10:00 -0700 2009
In Unless, I love the voice she gave to her main character Reta's inner dialogue. I feel like I know Reta. I appreciate her insights on femini...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Mon Jun 04 12:24:46 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 04 12:28:18 -0700 2007
She ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Jun 16 10:00:25 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 28 11:58:01 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 23:33:10 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 11:04:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 09 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Aug 10 09:16:38 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 10 09:21:10 -0700 2008 4 2 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Nov 16 13:06:08 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 09:02:49 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 16 18:02:15 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 13 14:06:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Sun Oct 19 07:42:53 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 19 07:44:07 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Nov 04 19:34:12 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 19:37:45 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Oct 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 10:32:12 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 10:17:50 -0700 2009 twice more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=74462