Larry's Party

by Carol Shields

Larry Weller, born in 1950, is an ordinary guy made extraordinary by his creator's perception, irony and tenderness. Carol Shields gives us, as it were, a CAT scan of his life, in episodes between 1977 and 1997 that flash back and forward seamlessly. As Larry journeys toward the millennium, adapting to society's changing expectations of men, Shields' elegant prose makes the trivial into the momentous. Among all the paradoxes and accidents of his existence, Larry moves through the spontaneity of the seventies, the blind enchantment of the eighties and the lean, mean nineties, completing at last his quiet, stubborn search of self. Larry's odyssey mirrors the male condition at the end of our century with targeted wit, unerring poignancy and faultless wisdom.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Novels, Literature

339 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Carol Ann Shields was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her successful 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award. Her novel Swann won the Best Novel Arthur Ellis Award in 1988.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
This is the first novel by Carol Shields that I have read (I still need to read The Stone Diaries). It is set mainly in Canada and the protagonist is Larry Weller. We follow Larry from about 1976 when he is 26 until 1997. It is thematic and each chapter looks at a different aspect of Larry’s life, through his two marriages, being a father, work, sex and so on. Often we see events at a distance as significant events seem to take place between chapters. The last chapter rounds off the whole with a dinner party.
Shields is writing a man’s life and looking at sections of that life over 20 years and doing a remarkably good job. Shields focuses a good deal on work, the way it can fulfil and its importance. Larry starts off working in a flower shop and moves on to become a maze designer (he got his passion for mazes from his first honeymoon in England, getting lost in Hampton Court Maze). Many of the minor characters are also defined by what they do and there is dignity in work. The whole novel is a little like the mazes that Larry designs with lots of paths and byways but pretty much ending up where you started. As Eliot said; “And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time” There is a circularity about the whole
It’s a good story with some interesting reflections on what it is like to be a man. I think Shields is subverting traditional notions of masculinity (some of which probably only exist in men’s minds) and positing multiple masculinities which are more fluid and ambivalent. Larry’s experience is one of anxiety combined with inadequacy. He is certainly not a “master of the universe”. Shields challenges the traditional male notions of aggression, rationality and control; these are dead ends in the maze. Shields is also playing with traditional modes of biography and identity in complex ways. There is a lost and found and doubling back sense that you would find in a maze. There is some repetition and you move from chapter to chapter, but there is a sense of building rather than repeating. One critic has described this as postmodern biographical fiction. Shields plays on a feeling of ordinariness and an unexpected social mobility (it is mostly rich people who want mazes). Larry wonders how he has moved so far from being the son of a working class craftsman. The move has disoriented him and there are tensions between the masculinities he was brought up with and the more middle class ones of his middle age. Usually biography and autobiography consolidate and reinforce the notion of self which has been developed by Western thought (read Western white male thought). Phyllis Rose has argued that biography is a tool by which the dominant society reinforces its values. Shields questions those values quite consciously by providing a protagonist who is unsure, a little muddled and unstable, not a subject of public acclaim. Nina van Gessel argues this is an essentially feminist type of biography.
And on top of all that; Larry is rather likeable.

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meet Larry Weller, an ordinary man with an unbridled passion for designing hedge mazes. In a series of vignettes, Shields explores Larry's conventional life, ticking off the usual items like finding a wife and having a child. Shields manages to come full circle with Larry's story, writing a complete narrative that arrives at a rewarding conclusion - one that links beautifully to the central theme of mazes as an analogy for life. However, Shields often reiterates known-information about Larry, a problem that escalates around the midpoint when redundancy grows increasingly present. It starts to feel like Larry's Party could have been half as long.

Nonetheless, Shields' craft is admirable. Her writing is concise and accurate. She's attune to fine details and has a way of explaining life's mundane trivialities with remarkable clarity. For example, Larry's understanding of a pat on the head or shoulder. In this small act, Larry recognizes "its cruel economy and monumental detachment. It was the sign of someone who was distracted, weary. [. . .] Patting a person was like going on automatic pilot, you just reached out and did it. There, there." Has anyone ever explained the subtext of a little pat-pat better than that? Well done, Ms. Sheilds.

Larry's life reads like one long exposition. Traditional narratives reveal the tip of the iceberg. Here, Shields invites us to dip below the water to see the iceberg in its entirety: an author's exploration of a character, his background, what shapes him, and how he came to be. A quintessential character study in full.

This approach is not for everyone, and it would have been monumentally less enjoyable had the structure not been propped up by Shields' writing talent. Larry's Party is a good fit for readers willing to sacrifice plot for a rote and routine examination of day-to-day life delivered with insightful lucidity.

People make mistakes all the time, so many mistakes they aren't mistakes anymore, they're just positive and negative charges shooting back and forth and moving you along. Like good luck and bad luck. Like a tunnel you're walking through, with all your pores wide open. When it turns, you turn too.

[Suz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not finish this. I still feel like reviewing and rating though. This was odd. The narrators voice to me was a mocking tone, but I didn't know if it was meant to be, and I was mocking the mocker. I felt it was slow and things only started to pick up a little when Larry's first wife took a back hoe to his prize shrub maze in the front yard. Cue divorce. Larry was a florist. Larry kept talking about words to describe his penis, or his erection. Diatribes of word after word after word. This happened at the end of a disc then again at the start of the next disc. That pretty much did it for me. I'm not a prude, it was just off, odd, weird, strange, silly. That was the way he told of his penis but substitute those for pecker, Jack, Weiner, hot rod. I'm going to be the final mocker. Obviously I don't get it. Back to the library this went earlier today.

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alas, the Exquisite Mundane!

Because she's from Canada, the ultra talented Margaret Atwood foil giant Carol Shields garners the bleak-in-all-commonplace poetic UFO that is the unmatched Virginia Woolf as well as the page-turning money hungry and brilliant American Novel. It gets a good dose of both the little and epic, and Larry's Party is almost a lexicon novel, an encyclopedia of all things Larry. That's right, with that name, you may even already know this story... (Only because I dont personally know any Larrys... [Or Canadians unfortunately.])

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't help it. I love Carol Shields. I miss her voice in the world. I deeply feel her loss to breast cancer 5 years ago.

Larry's Party is a novel that won Shields the Orange Prize. I'm impressed at her tackling an in-depth, from-the-inside look at the life of an average North American man. I feel she only stumbled by falling into a feminine sensibility in a couple of lines, so overall, I'm still giving this book 5 stars. Basically, I want to give all Shields' work 5 stars.

And yes, if you're looking for plot... look elsewhere. Shields even wrote that she grew to "distrust" plot. Instead, she uses theme ( in this novel it's mazes, and the main character is a landscape designer of mazes) to structure her novel and give it "organic movement" similar to that of a whole life or lived experience, rather than formulaic "rising action" or "narrative arc." It seems to me, readers either go with Shields' style in this regard and love her, or they hate it and find it too boring and plotless.

I'm in the first group.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5) “The whole thing about mazes is that they make perfect sense only when you look down on them from above.” Larry Weller is an Everyman: sometimes hapless and sometimes purposeful; often bewildered with where life has led him, but happy enough nonetheless. From the start, Shields dwells on the role that “mistakes” have played in making Larry who he is, like a floral arts catalogue coming in the mail from the college instead of one on furnace repair and meeting Dorrie at a Halloween party he attended with a different girl. Before he knows it he and a pregnant Dorrie are getting married and he’s been at his flower shop job for 12 years. A honeymoon tour through England takes in the Hampton Court Palace maze and sparks an obsession that will change the course of Larry’s life, as he creates his first maze at their Winnipeg home and gradually becomes one of a handful of expert maze-makers.

The sweep of Larry’s life, from youth to middle age, is presented roughly chronologically through chapters that are more like linked short stories: they focus on themes (family, friends, career, sex, clothing, health) and loop back to events to add more detail and new insight. I found the repetition of basic information about Larry somewhat off-putting in that it’s as if we start over with this character with each chapter – the same might be said of Olive Kitteridge, but that book’s composition was drawn out and it involves a multiplicity of perspectives, which explains the slight detachment from Olive. Here the third-person narration sticks close to Larry but gives glimpses into other points of view, tiny hints of other stories – a man with AIDS, a woman trying to atone for lifelong selfishness, and so on.

From my first reading (in 2008?) I remembered a climactic event involving the Winnipeg maze; a ribald chapter entitled “Larry’s Penis,” about his second marriage to a younger woman and more; and the closing dinner party, a masterful sequence composed almost entirely of overlapping dialogue (like the final wedding reception scene in her earlier novel, The Box Garden) as Larry hosts his two ex-wives, his current girlfriend, his sister and his partner, and a colleague and boss. What is it like to be a man today? someone asks, and through the responses Shields suggests a state of uneasiness, of walking on eggshells and trying not to be a chauvinist in a world whose boundaries are being redrawn by feminism. That process has continued in the decades since, though with predictable backlash from those who consider women a threat.

It seems slightly ironic that Shields won the Women’s Prize for this episodic fictional biography of a man, but I found so much to relate to in Larry’s story – the “how did I get here?” self-questioning, the search for life’s meaning, “the clutter of good luck and bad” – that I’d say Larry is really all of us.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Lindsay Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book. Carol shields is a triumph. This book sums up life for us all, a maze with twists and turns, ups and downs. One would have to read this to understand the familiarity I had with Larry’s story, the resonance of meandering through the stages of life that happen to us all with the passage of time. It’s unfortunate that Carol shields left this planet too soon as I wonder what other stories were simmering in her brilliant mind.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few professional reviews likened this to her The Stone Diaries, but from a man's viewpoint. I did not see the commonality. In the Diaries, I always felt as if the person was real, while in Larry's I never did. From the beginning, it felt as if a woman trying to write from a man's point of view and not quite making it.

Throughout, Shields repeats parts of the story given in earlier chapters. It's almost as if she thinks you will take a long time reading it and might forget what has gone on before so she has to remind you. The shining moment in this is the final chapter. Sometimes an author doesn't quite know how to end a novel. Shields certainly knows and does it in fine style.

That doesn't mean I didn't find this a nice interlude from some of my other reads. I did. And I'll likely read her again, though I think I'll put some space between this and the next one.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

After two lovely collections of short stories it seemed only right to check out the author’s long form and it didn’t disappoint. Actually it was notably similar, unfolding in such a way as to be composed of short interconnected stories right down to the (slightly annoying) revisits of previous chapters, so that each one was logically self sufficient. But really, this was a proper novel, it followed a very average sort of man named Larry Weller for 2 decades of his life, from mid 20 to mid 40s. Each chapter was arranged chronologically and thematically, concentrating on a specific subject and/or salient event of Larry’s life. Larry is a very mild sort of protagonist, unassuming, unimposing, he goes through life with a sort of innocent bewilderment, just riding the waves out as they come. The most original thing about him is his obsession with mazes, which he eventually turns into a lucrative business. Things do occur, but much like the author’s short fiction, this really isn’t a plot driven narrative or, actually, more like the plot isn’t the main strength, that belongs to the writing itself in all its gloriously rendered minutiae of everyday life. It’s weirdly hypnotic in a way, just being so engaged with these precise lovingly crafted descriptions of the most ordinary things. Then again, it can get tiresome, make a book dense and slow going, with dialogue barely entering until the last chapter. Definitely something you’d have to be in the mood for, but well worth the time. There are so many clever observations, such awesome wordsmithing, almost like making art out of nothing at all at times. Just interesting and different perspectives on conventions, much like Duchamp’s toilet becoming Fountain the artwork. No, actually, this is, as an accomplishment, considerably more superior to reimagining a toilet. Because much like the Truman Show we are, all of us, stars in our own movies or tv shows, and this is the movie of Larry’s life and there’s a vicarious appeal to witnessing a life so meticulously analyzed. Larry makes an affable, likeable star, but in a way he’s almost a placeholder for an average North American white man of a certain age, you can view it as a study of changing masculinity concepts and expectations throughout the late 1900s much like an anthropologist or a social sciences buff…or you can just enjoy it as a well written novel. Either way, it works.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The man’s vocation as maze maker is intentionally apt. It mirrors his mind.

I was several dozen pages in before I latched. I felt lost in the mental maze and fatigued by the density of the story’s stream of consciousness style, the obsessive thoughts, ruminations, and people who didn’t seem to matter, such that when those who did matter reappeared on the scene I felt sweet relief.

And then I surprised myself by ultimately loving this book and the sleuth work it demanded. I loved Larry, and the satisfaction of knowing his heart before he did. I loved his people, infuriating as some of them could be. I loved Shields’ inventive approach to chapter making, with its shingling overlay and reintroductions.

Persevere with me in this circuitous path, Shields seems to say. Follow in Larry’s footsteps, and you’ll arrive at the centre to claim your reward.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carol Shields liked to write about ordinary people with ordinary problems. On the face of it, that's just about the last thing I'd want to read! But hers are not the loud, robust "common men" we hear so much about in country songs. These are the unsung ordinary people, quietly living their lives: The gentle souls.

I like Larry, and Shields is becoming my favorite novelist.

[GoldGato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carol Shields has been described as the “bard of the boring”, which, I guess, means she is able to write about ordinary people living ordinary lives in ordinary situations. But maybe the outcomes are not ordinary at all. This novel is all about an ordinary guy named Larry who finds himself aging through life without having a clear plan for anything, while achieving more than he ever thought he would.

…he was just one more citizen of the Larry nation, those barbecuers, those volunteer firemen, those wearers of muscle shirts. Men called Larry have to be brave, while other men are allowed lapses.

That’s very Larry.

The book progresses through the years, with Larry first portrayed as a young man with no great ambition in life. Ordinary. By chance, he ends up being a specialist in designing garden mazes. Not ordinary. To Larry, it’s just a job, but one that allows him to expand his horizons. This includes marriages, a child, one other relationship, and a move upward in the socio-economic sphere. Larry doesn’t seem to target anything, he just endures, mainly because he loves to work.

Work can be dirty, noisy, dangerous, degrading, but it’s still work, and that’s what turns the gears of life. Years later, when his life was going badly, he came to see work as the only consolation for persisting in the world.

Larry is also modest (once modesty gets in your veins, you’re stuck with it), which also helps in his professional success. He doesn’t really strive for anything; he just rides the rails of life. He is dizzied by his various relationships, the women being the leaders. Not surprisingly, Larry is Canadian, but his business success moves him to the United States, where he acquires wealthier clients. Ordinary Larry becomes extraordinary Larry, although he is the only one who doesn’t see himself that way.

Getting older was to witness the steady decline of limitless possibility. That’s all it was.

I really enjoyed reading this, even though I wasn’t sure where the book was going at first. As I realized each chapter would portray Larry as an older individual, I became more attached to the character. But what I really liked was the way Shields could portray how Larry thought about himself. He is always questioning his life, not really sure he’s supposed to have accomplished what others have at his age. And the writing is wonderful. Instead of too much dialogue, which I never really like, she writes descriptively, which helps the reader to stay focused. This is the first book I’ve read by Shields, but I can understand how this title won the Orange Prize For Fiction in 1998.

Book Season = Summer (meteor grit)

[Antoinette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this prior to GR.

[Samir Rawas Sarayji · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is the story of Larry and his journey through two divorces, a girlfriend and falling again for one of his exes. All of which happens to an average person with average desires and an average passion, namely, designing mazes. The result for me was therefore average.

It’s also the first work by Carol Shields that I’ve read but I suppose this may not have been the best place to start. I’ve heard good things about her writing which is why my review is focusing on the writing aspect.

Descriptive power

One prominent feature in this novel is the intensity of Shields’ descriptive prowess. Take the opening page, the second paragraph where the reader has just been told that Larry grabbed the wrong jacket:

His hand was traveling straight into a silky void. His five fingers pushed down, looking for the balled-up Kleenex from his own familiar worn-out pocket, the nickels, and dimes, the ticket receipts from all the movies he and Dorrie had been seeing lately. Also those hard little bits of lint, like meteor grit, that never seem to lose themselves once they’ve worked into the seems.

In one paragraph we learn what Larry is like and already draw some inferences about his relationship to Dorrie and how they spend their time. Shields accomplishes this feat beautifully throughout the novel and this alone made it worth reading. However, what was simultaneously irritating was this constant feat of description. The first chapter, a short one, is set to establish to the reader who Larry is and his current relationship, but the reader is swamped with detail about clothes, fabrics and the characters’ preferences and choices, resulting in an overkill effect, where, several pages later, we’re back to the jacket:

It comes to Larry what the noise is. It’s the lining of his jacket moving back and forth across his shoulders as he strolls along, also the lining material sliding up and down against his shirt-sleeves…

Now I understand that the scene was foregrounded with the jacket and returning several pages to this establishes to the reader the continuation of the scene, but is it really necessary to go into that much descriptive detail again (I’ve truncated the paragraph above)?

Whirlwind

The novel tracks Larry’s life from 1977 to 1997, which, let’s face it, is not that great a time span for a contemporary novel. And while the story tackles two marriages, a (girl) friend and Larry’s infatuation with mazes, alongside several other characters, Shields’ at no point explores in-depth Larry’s inner psyche. The interactions between characters were much too real with lack of subtext or emotional insight, resulting in an overall superficial read. This was perhaps the greatest downfall of the novel considering there were ample opportunities and situations to delve deeper into the characters, or even into Larry alone.

The focus on descriptions and quick dialogue gave the novel a whirlwind effect where the pace was quick and the story development was at times amusing and at times blasé. The reader stays floating above the unfolding scenes and watches the characters interacting in the most common of situations, a slice-of-life effect if you will. This added to the effect that Larry was a puppet reacting to the events unfolding around him rather than his being an active participant to events revolving around him.

Conclusion

Although there are some wonderful descriptive passages and occasional eyebrow-raising observations, the emotional superficiality and overly realistic dialogue of the characters made it difficult to invest any sympathy towards these characters. If you’re looking for an easy contemporary read with strong descriptions then the book can offer this, but steer away if you wish to delve more deeply into character development.

[Burd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book when it first came out in 1997. After reading the first few pages, I put it back on the shelf. There it sat for 17 years with a bookmark at page 20. I'm so glad I came back to it. At this stage in my life I am so much more receptive to Larry's life lessons! I think the reason I didn't like it at that time was that I had read The Stone Diaries and was expecting something similar. I've learned not to do that. An author's books should be like his or her children. They should each contain a part of them but they should also be different.

Larry Wellar is a normal, average guy living a mundane life just like so many of us. Carol Shields has taken this ordinary man's existance and given it meaning.It gives us hope, doesn't it, that no matter how simple our lives may seem, they truly have a meaningful place in the realm of human existence.

The book is laid out in chapters focusing on specific years in Larry's adult life from 1977 when he was 26 years old to 1997. There is a lot of reiteration of key elements about Larry from chapter to chapter. At first I found this redundant and annoying but then it occurred to me that we all do that. Repeat little parts of our bio to others and to ourselves; our occupation, where we live, our relationships, interests. These details define us as unique beings. It reinforces who we really are. Even our names, as was the focus of one chapter, has an effect on how others percieve us and how we perceive ourselves.

"He never really liked his first name. It's Larryness has always seemed an imprisonment and a sly wink toward its most conspicuous rhyme: ordinary...He was just one more citizen of the Larry nation, those barbecuers, those volunteer firemen, those wearers of muscle shirts..."

Larry's fascination with mazes was the perfect vehicle to reflect his feelings of "willed abandonment" when lost in the maze of his own life. He feels "the unexpected rapture of being blindly led" and "the futility of " pushing throught he tunnel of an ever-receding future".
Hmmm... A bit of a depressing outlook but in the end, good ol' Larry comes to realize that with all his self-perceived shortcomings and disappointments, he has his own unique story that just keeps unfolding before him. And it's not all that bad. In fact, it's quite beautiful.

The final chapter contains lots of choppy dialogue amongst nine characters at Larry's party. There is a sence of tension and drama that wasn't present in the previous chapters. I think it would have been cool if that one chapter were written in play format. After all, Larry looks at his life the same way Macbeth did. It's a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing. But is it? Read Larry's Party for some food for thought.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I start the actual review, it is worth noting that Larry’s Party and I actually mean the party of the book’s title takes place on April 26th, which is today’s date. This was a total coincidence and I like it when things like that happen.

Larry’s Party – the novel focuses on 20 years in the life of Larry. The book is divided into 15 chapters and you could say they are interlinked by small details, which crop up. I won’t go into what happens to Larry because I’d rather the reader to discover that.

There are themes worth investigating and these will not spoil the book:

Mazes

Mazes play a huge part in the book, this all begins when Larry gets lost in the maze at Hampton Court. There he undergoes an epiphany and decides to dedicate his life to creating mazes out of shrubbery. In the book the maze represents life ; there are twists and turns. Sometimes there’s more than one exit to escape from. Sometimes there are dead ends. Larry’s life throughout the book is the same way. On his journey through the life maze he gains, loses, escapes and runs into surprises.

Masculinity

A lot of Larry’s party focuses on what it’s like to be a man in the 20th century. Larry encounters situations where his ‘masculinity’ is challenged : his first career as a flower arranger, his disdain of sports, his sex life (there’s a chapter dedicated to his private parts) and role he should play in marriage, there’s even a section about clothes males wear, although he dreams of women’s clothing. During the party the masculinity theme is brought to the forefront due to Larry making soup as an entree.

The Party

In the centre of every maze there’s a surprise. A sort of reward. Be it a fountain or statue. In Larry’s Party, it’s the actual party which is the highlight or treat of the novel. As Larry hits midlife he decides to hold a party and the guests are all people who have had a role in his life story. The party itself is a dialogue heavy chapter which encapsulates all the themes in the book. We all know that solving a maze consists of making the right turn. During the party that right turn happens.

I thought Larry’s Party was a fantastic read. Shields writing style is loose and funny and all the characters (and there’s quite a cast) are all well balanced. The party itself being one of the best pieces I have read in a long time. It is a bit condescending to say that a book is a must read but… it is a must read.

[Anya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. It about someone’s ordinary and yet extraordinary life, as all our lives are. The author writes beautifully and sensitively, emotionally and balanced with such attention to funny little details which are important in our lives. I loved the chapter headings and focus! A joy to read and definitely reminiscent of the stone diaries which I also loved as a tasteful, meaningful book.

[Kirsty Dummin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book difficult to read. Not because it wasn't well written, Shields certainly knows how to write. Having read a little of Shield's technique for structuring her work, I know that she has less of a focus on plot and more on the ordering of her chapters, which I think is very evident in Larry's Party. As the name would suggest, the novel does conclude with a party for protagonist, Larry, but it is a long and convoluted path to get there.

Each chapter begins with a recap of the previous scenes, which is frustrating as you almost feel like it was pointless to read everything prior. Or worse, that as a reader perhaps you hadn't absorbed the information given to you earlier. Each chapter covers a period of Larry's life, from age 17 to some time in his 40s, including two marriages and a son. This is all well and good, but most of these scenes are reflected back on, rather than being in the present, until we get to the party.

Sadly, I never once finished a chapter and wanted to continue on to the next. I could have happily put it down and never returned to it, which I seldom do.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 for bookclub 😊

[Linda Prieskorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Larry is a typical boring human who plods through life. The author uses 100's of comparisons to benchmark Larry against average people. She repeats many scenarios about his life, his first marriage, his life as a child as he progresses through life. As boring as the language is in the book you feel compelled to continue reading because Larry's life is your life. You are not a famous statesman, you are not an olympic athlete, you are not in the news weekly, you write on Facebook and goodreads and that is the pinnacle of your fame.

Great quotes From Larry's Party -

Men. These curios upholstered assemblages of bones, the fearful morality that attends them, the clutter of good luck and bad, the foolish choices, the seeds of the boys they"d all been - and those seeds sprouting inappropriately even as their hair thins and their muscles slacken. Fighting for a little space in the world. Needing a little human attention. Getting it up, getting it off. When does it it stop? Does it ever stop?


It seems that once there's enough money, enough recognition, enough love - not that he loves Charlotte Angus, exactly - then there's nothing to look forward to except the next minute.

And the most timely of all -

He's noticed that the heft of of money makes the bodies of the wealthy more dense, more boldly angled and thus threatening even when suited, dressed, coated - and wrapped in the soundlessness of their immense, padded, and luxuriously ventilated office spaces. The rich are underpinned by ignorance, he's noticed. They know nothing of the authentic scent of dust and dowdiness. ....... The rich- except for the self made rich- believe they're biting at the apple of life just because they know enough to appreciate pre-Columbian art and hand pieced quilts. They-re out of touch, they breathe the dead air of their family privilege.

Larry is you and if you are as lucky as Larry your life will end with a satisfying twist.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the end, I liked this book far better than I imaginged I would. My first thoughts as I read centered around what I felt was Carol Shields' smuggness to believe that SHE could actually have any true insight into the working of a man's brain/thoughts. I had a professor once who stated, "A brain soaked in testostrone, does not function like a brain soaked in estrogen!" Having lived all these years, I have to agree. Men and women function differently and neither really understands the other, even when we think we do. Having said that, Shields does a good job of imagining what is going on in Larry's mind.
It is the story of Larry's internal and external life told in chunks from the age of about 26 to about 46 - a rather interesting 20 years. Shields writing style for this novel is interesting in that for all the well written prose, with great discriptions and wonderful vocabulary - the sections seem to be written independent of each other; often as if the reader had no other knowledge of Larry's history. I found that a bit disruptive to the story, but then just got used to it.
The ending came as not a surprise exactly and in retrospect I probably should have anticipated it a bit more than I did. The ending made the book for me, without it, I would have only given this book a three star review.
It is worth the read, enjoy!

[Deedi Brown (DeediReads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:
I really just enjoyed reading Larry’s Party. It was cleverly written with a lovable main character and seems like it was very relevant for its time.

For you if: You are looking for something that reads easily but leaves an impact.

FULL REVIEW:

“Departures and arrivals: he didn’t know it then, but these two forces would form the twin bolts of his existence — as would the brief moments of clarity that rose up in between, offering stillness. A suspension of breath. His life held in his own hands.”

Published in 1997, Larry’s Party won the Pulitzer Prize, was shortlisted for several others, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and — the thing that led me to it — won the Women’s Prize. I’m making my way through all the previous Women’s Prize winners as part of their #ReadingWomen challenge right now.

I really, really just enjoyed myself reading this book. It’s delicious and comforting, but also resonant and beautifully written. Each of the 15 chapters takes us further through Larry’s life, beginning in 1977 when he was 27 up through 1997 (which was the present at the time this book was written) when he was nearly 50. We move alongside him through youth, marriage, fatherhood, divorce, remarriage, mid-life crisis, career success, and more.

Each chapter also focuses around a theme; they’re titled things like “Larry’s Love,” “Larry’s Folks,” “Larry’s Work,” “Larry’s Words,” etc. The narrative style is playful, each chapter almost assumes that you don’t know details that you most certainly do; for example re-introducing you to the fact that Dorrie is Larry’s first wife, Ryan is his son, his first job was in a florist shop, etc. So each chapter sort of pretends that it stands on its own, all while they layer and layer and layer on themselves until you just love Larry so, so much, even as he is flawed.

And along the way, Carol Shields drops STUNNERS of paragraphs, words that will cut you to your core amidst a sea of easy-to-read, comfortable sentences. The result is something I found pretty unique; prose that you can read quickly that will also extract your heart from your chest and set it gently on the floor.

The whole point of this book is to examine what it means to be a man at the end of the 21st century. At first, this didn’t sound very compelling to me. (If this book had also been written by a man, I probably would never have picked it up, lol.) But today we forget how that really meant something big back then, that it was actually a fiercely feminist position to take. This was written as feminism was gaining even more momentum, gender roles were really starting to break down, and men were starting to see themselves (and be seen) as multi-dimensional, emotional creatures. Viewed through today’s lens, it may not feel especially progressive. But I think it was at the end of the 90s. Larry is tender, romantic, emotive, complex, and entirely lovable. And the women he loves are equally fierce and notable.

I will probably re-read this one. I loved it.

“‘Mon père’; the words struck Larry in the heart. The lighter-than-air mateyness, the straight-in-the-eye punch. This was more than he deserved, much more. With a stab of love he watched his son watching him — a grown man who stumbled, fell into error, got lost, made a fool of himself, but was willing, at least, to be rescued. Something good was bound to come of this.”

CONTENT WARNINGS:
Infertility

[Josh Friedlander · Rating 2 out of 5]

A man's life told in chunks. For some reason every chapter recapitulates the plot up to here, as if they're standalone stories, even though it is a single linear narrative (unlike say Runaway or Olive Kitteridge), and the chapters don't seem to have been published separately. It is about (as announced somberly in the final chapter) "what it's like to be a man in the twentieth century". There are some felicitious moments: I like Larry's whimsical profession of garden maze builder, and Shields clearly had fun researching the job's history and arcane terminology. But so much of the writing is the mirror image of men writing badly about women: through all of Larry's internal monologue, we hear the author's voice. Somehow he sees himself as women see men, internalised. He is physically conscious of the heft of his shoulders and body as he walks (?), he worries that he isn't emotionally available enough to his mate, he isn't surprised at finding a girlfriend more easily after his second divorce - since there are so many good women out there and so few datable men. None of this is precisely wrong or implausible, it just immediately reminds the reader that they are reading a middle-aged woman writing a middle-aged man, not immersed in a life of someone real.

[Gabriel Lavao Calafell · Rating 5 out of 5]

During our lifetime, some stories are meant to reach us at certain points of our life. Perfectly timed stories which are meant to inspire us, guide us or give us that push in the times we need them the most. I randomly selected this book from my library with no prior knowledge of it whatsoever and took it home. For the next couple of days I followed Larry Weller as he came of age and grew to be a man. He allowed me to see the tender and bitter moments that inevitably await for me in my own life and has made me excited yet frightened of it all. Rarely has a book touched me so much with its prose and flow. The pages seem to flow with so much ease that by the time you close the book you feel as if you have gone through a whole lifetime yourself. As a rather colossal feeling of emptiness as now clouded me in the moments after finishing this book, I can only thank Carol Shields for gifting me with this story. I can only say I dearly needed it. And thank you Larry, I won’t ever forget you and I hope that wherever you are in the world today, you feel as lost as you felt that day in the maze with your whole life ahead of you

[Claire O'Sullivan]

I read this as part of The Women's Prize Reading Women Challenge with Book and Brew. I loved this! What a joy to read something I would not have otherwise discovered. Insightful, kind, gentle - exactly what I needed in these difficult times.

[Val · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book recounts episodes in the life of Larry Weller, florist and maze-maker, over a period of twenty years.
We can see why Larry likes mazes, they have a logic and structure which can only be seen from above; when one is in them, they can be confusing, people get lost. Larry feels like this about his life, he wants there to be a logical pattern to it, but much of the time he is lost and confused. His judgement and ability to read situations are often faulty. (We are given a good example to demonstrate this in the opening chapter.)
Two stars is a harsh rating for this book, as it is nicely written and the author has done some research and used it well. I had read quite a few small family dramas just before this one and this felt like a non-drama in comparison. My main feeling on finishing it was that it was just another Orange / Bailey's Women's Prizewinner to tick off the list. It is not a bad book, but it was not for me, now.
In the final episode of the book, Larry's party itself, Carol Shields tries to tie Larry's condition into the general situation of men at the end of the twentieth century, unsure of their place in a more equal society where the traditional roles no longer apply. I don't think this works; Larry feels confused and lost because he is Larry, not because he is a man. Men are as different as women, some feel comfortable with old traditional roles, but many do not (and did not when they were the norm).

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This weekend I went to the inaugural Emerald Street Literary Festival, which was fantastic. The first panel was on the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, which, as regular readers will know, is something I’m very interested by, and which I’ve been trying to read all the winners of. (Awkwardly constructed sentence, sorry, but can’t think of a way to fix it without splitting it into two sentences, which is boring. Onwards!) This book, Larry’s Party, won that prize in 1998. One of the things that interested me most about the panel at the festival was the series of statistics on women writers and their books. Amid the usual depressing factoids about number of women published vs. shortlisted for prizes, there was this: of those women who are on lists for prizes, the majority of them—I can’t remember the figure, infuriatingly, but it is well above half—have written their books about male protagonists.

Read the rest of the review here: https://ellethinks.wordpress.com/2016...

[Marguerite Hargreaves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Larry's Party was better than OK, right up till the ending, though Larry the character still seemed fairly flat, apart from his profession of designing and installing mazes (insert appropriate pun here). But Carol Shields totally lost me at the event called Larry's party, where the dialogue turned a bit Noel Coward. I felt as though I had to find my way out of a literary thicket.

I did like this:
"He loves the Latin roll of the words in his mouth -- Leguminosae -- and he loves himself for being a man capable of remembering these rare words, for being alert, for paying attention, particularly since he has not always in his life paid sufficient attention."

and this:
"He blinked the image away, holding the lids of his eyes open against exhaustion, and letting those eyes fill with slow sadness. Getting older was to witness the steady decline of limitless possibility. That's all it was."

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like the structure of this book - each chapter about something to do with Larry, and written as if the reader hadn't read any of the previous chapters - so there was time catching up and filling in on information that the reader already knew. A booksey technique that didn't work.

And then there was the neat ending. Far far too neat. Shields must have wanted full-circle contentment for Larry or something, and in order to give him that, had to make sure all the other characters who spun around him, were also suitably satisfied.

Lots has been made about this being story about an ordinary man in an ordinary life, to whom nothing much happens. That was one of the best things about this book, which if the truth is told, I couldn't wait to finish, so that I could start something else.

Sorry, Dad, if you're reading this; thanks for the birthday present!

Oh, and I really didn't like the horizontal lines at the top and bottom of every page in my edition.

[❀ Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Larry's Party is a book of reflection, aging and acceptance. It is about relationships, attachments and life happening in a circuitous way, with both planning and spontaneity. Larry travels through the twists and turns of life, thinking about his parents, spending time as a florist, a spouse (x2), a dad and living both his life as his career, as a maze builder.

The book is full of interesting characters, places, mazes and choices, ending at a party when his family, current "good friend" and ex-wives come together for a cacophony of chatter, leading to clarity.

Coincidentally, I like that he refers to July 20, 1996 as his "great day of awakening" as this is the date of our wedding anniversary and we just celebrated out 25th which is also a time of reflection.

I also chuckled when he mentioned a statistical average of reading "4.3" books in a year... that is certainly not an average in this group!!