Collected Stories

by Carol Shields, Margareth Atwood (Foreword)

For the first time all of Carol Shields’ remarkable short stories – some previously unpublished – are gathered together in one volume.

‘Carol Shields’ stories have given me happiness, not just pleasure’ Alice Munro
In the Collected Stories we bring together Carol Shields’ original short-story volumes, Various Miracles, The Orange Fish and Dressing Up for the Carnival, as well as many stories not previously published in the UK, including ‘Segue’, her last work.

In these stories the author combines the dazzling virtuosity and wise maturity that won so many readers to her prize-winning novels such as The Stone Diaries and Unless.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Literature, Literary Fiction, Anthologies, Canadian Literature

594 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

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

[Old Man JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinarily good collection of exceptional short stories. This is one of those collections that is difficult to select a favorite story but, as I scroll through the list of story titles, I will, probably, go with Hazel. This is a story about a woman whose husband has died and, so, she decides to find a job and ends up working as a kitchen appliance demonstrator. But, really, there are several that I could have chosen as a favorite. What I really liked about this collection was the wide range of subject matter which included several stories that could be classified as unusual. For example, one titled Words that had a man deciding to protest global warming with a vow of silence which created problems with his wife, another titled Scenes that told a womans life story through one or two paragraph snippets of events that were completely unrelated to each other. Another story that was quite unique was titled Love so Fleeting, Love so Fine that was about a man who sees a sign in a shoe store window that says "Wendy is back" and he begins imagining who Wendy is and where she's been and assigning her various traits that lead him into believing he is in love with her. Anyway, you get the idea, this is a great collection of stories by the amazing Carol Shields.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection contains Shields' three previously published short story books plus one never before published story. These are literature and are for the most part character studies or reflections on the mundane aspects of life. We also get stories of middle-aged couples and widows. I found the first two collections highly entertaining but the third book and the new story were not to my tastes for the most part. She wrote a lot about writers, which I enjoyed and grammar, which I did not. Well worth the read of the Canadian iconic author who was on par with Atwood during her lifetime.

1. Segue (2003) - A 63-year-old woman, a poet, muses on her and her ageing and older husband, a writer, life. Pretty much boring
(1/5)

Various Miracles (1985)
2. Various Miracles - A series of unrelated coincidences or 'miracles'. Entertaining. (3/5)

3. Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass - A look at how other people see Mrs. Turner and the full life she has lived. A wonderful character study that circles back to where it started and ended with a big smile on my face. (5/5)

4. Accidents - A couple vacation in the south of France each year. This year they both have small but odd accidents and the man has a stay in the hospital rooming with a man who broke both his legs. Entertaining but uneventful. (3/5)

5. Sailors Lost at Sea - A Canadian girl living in France with her mother gets locked inside an abandoned 14th-century church. Lovely story. Imbued with Frenchness. (4/5)

6. Purple Blooms - A very short story with an idea rather than a plot. Are we all "the sum of our collective memories" or are we all "solitary specks of foam"? Not my kind of thing. (2/5)

7. Flitting Behavior - The story of an author and his terminally ill wife. Concentrates on how they wed and the final day. Enjoyable study on terminal illness but nothing happens. (3/5)

8. Pardon - This fun little story of a woman who goes to buy an "I'm Sorry" card and finds them all sold out then has a run of people saying I'm sorry to her then muses on the people she forgives. Was saying I'm sorry typically Canadian even back in the '80s? (3/5)

9. Words - A dystopian tale which I'm sure has some meaning that I don't get. The earth is warming and it is speaking causing the crust to crack open and bring forth fires. Ian takes a vow of silence at a symposium. (3/5)

10. Poaching - Two women travel around Great Britain picking up hitchhikers for their stories. Entertaining but short. (3/5)

11. Scenes - A character sketch of a 45-year-old woman through her memories. Enjoyable. (3/5)

12. Fragility - A couple visit Vancouver looking for a house after he is transferred. Their terminally ill son has died within the year. A good, bittersweet story. (4/5)

13. The Metaphor is Dead -- Pass It On - A three-page satire on grammar and metaphors. (0/5)

14. A Wood (with Anne Giardini) - So much is in this story but its base is about a woman who is about to play, on the violin, her compositions and her two brothers who still live at home although Papa is no longer there. Beautiful story that says so much about their upbringing. (5/5)

15. Love So Fleeting, Love So Fine - A man sees a sign in an orthopaedic shoe store which days, 'Wendy is back!" And he starts to imagine Wendy as his lost love. Made me think about times when I make up little stories about things. (3/5)

16. Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls - A woman gets a letter from her sister who went to a doll factory in Japan. Then the woman reminisces about the role of dolls throughout her life. Has a feeling of melancholy. (3/5)

17. Invitations - A woman receives daily an invitation for Saturday night, each more exciting than the previous. A reminiscent story of nostalgia. A weird ending though. (3/5)

18. Taking the Train - Gwen goes to Calgary to visit a long-time friend. I don't get the point of this. Nothing happens. (2/5)

19. Home - At the same moment each passenger on a plane experiences complete happiness while a boy below in Greenland sees a bright transparent plane in the sky. Same lovely flowing language of Shield's writing but is rather dull. (2/5)

20. The Journal - Sally and Harold are on vacation and she keeps a journal where her husband becomes H. This was just dull. (2/5)

21. Salt - At a men's club dinner the narrator asks a theologian why Lot's wife was turned into salt specifically. The diners then start discussing. I love theology so this was a fun read for me. (4/5)

22. Others - Ultimately a sad story that follows the marriage of Robert and Lila. I loved this.(5/5)

The Orange Fish (1989)
23. The Orange Fish - A couple is feeling downhearted thinking their 40th birthdays are fast approaching so they decide to get a picture for the blank wall in the kitchen. They come back with a lithograph of an orange fish. A depressing story when you think about it but enjoyable (3/5)

24. Chemistry - A man thinks back to an advanced recorder class he belonged to at the Y. This is much longer than any story so far. The start is about the music which is boring and too long. Then it goes on to the class, the individual students, and their weekly evening after class at a pub. Very good. (4/5)

25. Hazel - Another long story, this time about Hazel. A recently widowed housewife who enters the workforce. Excellent. I loved this. (5/5)

26. Today is the Day - today is the day all the village women plant blister lilies by the side of the road. They work in harmony all day long to the horizon. I'm not exactly a gardening person so may have missed some meanings however the story was quaint. (2/5)

27. Hinterland - A couple in their fifties goes to Paris, not for the first time, for their end-of-summer holiday. A story of longtime couples and ageing. Very good (4/5)

28. Block Out - Meershank, a prolific writer of humourous novels, gets writer's block on vacation in Portugal. This was very funny. (4/5)

29. Collision - The beginning is a very boring and highbrow discussion of the world being full of the biographical details of our lives. The story becomes more entertaining as it rests on the lives of two people and ends with their biographies briefly meeting. (3/5)

30. Good Manners - A brief character study of a woman who has taught manners for many years. Dull. (2/5)

31. Times of Sickness and Health - A woman thinks back to memories of her past bookended with a ballet recital when she was five. Enjoyable. (3/5)

32. Family Secrets - A woman starts focusing on the unknown sickness that her young mother had that caused her to take a year off from teaching. An enjoyable story that brings forward the illnesses and treatments of the mid-1920s. (3/5)

33. Fuel For the Fire - A woman narrates about her family's New Year's dinner in Winnipeg. A quaint, nostalgic story. (4/5)

33. Milk Bread Beer Ice - On the fifth day of driving south, Barbara thinks about words: their meanings, entomology, their place in conversation, etc. I'm a word person too and highly identified with Barbara but ultimately the story was boring. (2/5)

Dressing Up For the Carnival (2000)
34. Dressing Up For the Carnival - Short paragraph-length character sketches of people in a town. A story of nothing but beautifully written, like many stories here. (3/5)

35. A Scarf - A woman goes on a mission while on a book tour to find the perfect scarf for her daughter. A relatable story for anyone who has gone shopping for an exact item. Enjoyable. (4/5)

36. Weather - A very weak story. The meteorologists go on strike and there is no weather and the people miss it. (2/5)

37. Flatties: Their Various Forms and Uses - Like a folktale which tells how the different groups are baking flatbread. What one thing they did do differently with the recipe and the horseshoe Rather dull. (1/5)

38. Dying for Love - A series of vignettes of three women about to commit suicide for love and then change their minds. The decision to live is almost romantic. Stirring story. (5/5)

39. Ilk - This is a second story about grammar, writing to be precise, the narrative. Doesn't mean anything to me but she keeps referring to the person whom she's speaking to's wife's suicide. So interesting but too deep for me. (3/5)

40. Stop! - Not even three pages long, this is like a fairytale about a queen who is allergic to everything. Not up to par with the rest of Shield's work. (1/5)

41. Mirrors - A middle-aged couple has no mirrors in their summer house. This strengthens their relationship as they become more alike. (2/5)

42. The Harp - Very short. A woman walking by is hit with a harp falling from a window. Various people react. These very short stories don't do much for me. (2/5)

43. Our Men and Women - Strange little story of weather people: the earthquake guy, the rain woman, the fireman, etc. Boring. (2/5)

44. Keys - The place that keys have in our lives. Meh. (2/5)

45. Absence - Another grammar piece and very short. A woman tries to write a story without using the letter "I" since it's broken on her keyboard. Written without the letter "I". Dull. (1/5)

46. Windows - A window tax has been imposed and an artist couple struggle. As a rebellion against the tax, the masses have boarded their windows up. Mostly a discussion of natural light and art. Quite boring. I enjoyed the end though. (2/5)

47. Reportage - A coliseum is found in southern Manitoba and we read the opinions of the people involved. Witty. (3/5)

48. Edith-Esther - Finally an actual story. An 80-year-old writer's biographer keeps calling her early in the morning trying to get her to mention any spiritual beliefs she has and she is adamant she doesn't have any. Thought-provoking. (4/5)

49. New Music - A series of vignettes about a couple who have little in common. She is just finishing a biography. Typical of the author's work. Well written with little plot. (3/5)

50. Soup du Jour - Talks about the simple everyday things in life with a complicated set of people. Dull. (2/5)

51. Invention - Starts briefly with a story of how the narrator's grandmother invented the steering wheel muff. Then ventures into grammar again with an ancestor who invented the hyphen and finally talks of other inventions. Apart from the grammar section quite good. (3/5)

52. Death of an Artist - Starting with the viewing of a late poet the story follows his "anti-diaries" backwards from his 80s to childhood by decade. This is an excellent rumination on an ordinary but extraordinary life. (5/5)

53. The Next Best Kiss - A couple meet at a convention and quickly hook up. He moves to her city and they get along but know it will end. They are academics and have lots of conversations. We go back and see the woman's previous relationships. Entertaining (4/5)

54. Eros - At a dinner party Ann sits next to a single man. The talk turns to sex when sexual awakening and knowledge occur. Ann thinks of her various awakenings through her childhood to her knowledge of her wedding knight. At a certain point, she finds her hand in the man's naked lap. Again very entertaining. (4/5)

55. Dressing Down - The narrator tells of his grandparents as nudists. The grandfather started the club in southern Ontario and had to talk his new bride into the business. She was completely against it but eventually was talked into it. An intelligent story finished the collection. (4/5)

[Judith Shadford · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing collection ranging from one story in which the letter "i" is omitted...and a super story it is...to the initial story "Segue"--so beautifully written (about composing a sonnet on the aging of her body) with all of Shields' command of language.
In "Soup du Jour" a little boy is sent to the store to get something...he can't remember what. "He freezes, hugs the points of his elbows, thinking hard, bringing the whole of his ten years into play...." And then he remembers: "At that moment the word celery arrives, fully shaped, extracted cleanly from the black crack in the pavement.... The boy's gratitude is thunderous."
That's why Carol Shields must never leave our circle of truly great writers.

[Jenny Shank · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news...


A writer's triumph
New collection showcases Shields' tremendous talent
Jenny Shank, Special to the News
Published February 18, 2005 at midnight

Of the three great contemporary Canadian fiction writers - Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood and Carol Shields - Shields is probably the most obscure to American audiences. That is, if anyone who has won a Pulitzer Prize - as the American-born Shields did in 1995 for Stone Diaries - can be called obscure.

While The New Yorker seems to publish everything Munro pens, and Atwood has earned an avid following that throngs to her American book-tour appearances, Shields published most of her short stories in Canadian literary journals with little fanfare.

Shields' subject matter, which most often focused on realistic portrayals of family life, was quieter than the sweeping fantasies Atwood creates, and Shields' narrative approach was more straightforward than the structurally dazzling technique Munro has cultivated.

Shields died in 2003 of cancer, not long after the publication of her final, triumphant novel Unless. Now her three collections of short stories along with a new story have been gathered into one book. Shields' Collected Stories proves her writing to be as refined as we knew it to be, but more surprising, daring and varied than we may have supposed.

These stories reveal an entirely different Shields than those only familiar with a handful of her 10 novels would recognize. The clarity and elegance of her writing is the same in both genres, but in her short fiction, Shields stretches out a bit, often leaving the terrain of realism and leading the reader into the realm of the almost-possible. Although Shields wrote witty novels, her humor is even more abundant in her stories.

The story "The Orange Fish" from the 1989 collection of the same name is just about as delightful as it could possibly be. In it, a husband and wife who describe themselves as "deep in our thirties," are vaguely dissatisfied with their lives. The narrator reports that upon remembering that his 40th birthday was approaching, he "felt a flare of panic in my upper colon." To relieve their angst, the couple decides to do a bit of home decorating. They buy a lithograph titled The Orange Fish.

"I wish somehow you might see this fish," the narrator tells the reader. He "has about him a wet, dense look of health . . . He possesses a Buddha-like sense of being in the right place, the only place. His center, that is, where you might imagine his heart to be, is sweetly orange in color, and this color diminishes slightly as it flows toward the semi-transparency of fins and the round, ridged, non-appraising mouth. But it was his eye I most appreciated, the kind of wide, ungreedy eye I would like to be able to turn onto the world."

The lithograph brings the couple joy and somehow sparks up their love life, but they are "ritualistically careful" not to speak about the magic of the fish. They receive a notice in the mail that details the monthly meetings of the nine other owners of original fish lithographs.

At the meeting, the other owners offer testimonials about how the presence of the fish has affected them, from a troubled teen with an expletive tattooed on his forehead who finds purpose in life, to an elderly person who says, "My life has been altered and given direction."

Of course, no one can keep a fabulous secret forever, and the night of the meeting, "in another part of the city, ten thousand posters of the orange fish were rolling off a press."

The fish becomes so popular that it is soon ubiquitous, and it even turns up on a postage stamp, until the image is finally worn out. "The Orange Fish" is funny, touching, melancholic and refreshing, displaying all the best qualities of Shields' fiction.

In "Invitations," a single young woman who has just moved to a city and knows few people begins to receive unexpected invitations in the mail.

First, she discovers a mailing list-generated postcard inviting her to an art opening, and she decides attending it "would be better than spending Saturday evening in her new apartment, sitting in an armchair with a book and feeling loneliness drink her drop by drop."

Next, she is invited to a cocktail party, then an informal dinner, then a formal dinner party, and finally, a gala in her honor, all for the same Saturday night. She ends up overwhelmed by her choices and stays home to read Jane Austen after all.

"Invitations" captures perfectly the awkwardness of being alone in a new place, and brings to life the fantasies people take with them on such moves: that in this new place they will be feted and their social life will catch fire, that in this new city they will also be entirely new.

There are 56 stories in this collection, each of them worthy of reflecting over, from "Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls," a grown woman's meditation on the dolls of her childhood, to "Chemistry," a poignant story of the fleeting, intense bond that develops among a group of adults in a weekly music class.

Although the lives Shields depicts may be vastly different in their particulars from those of her readers, her stories have an uncanny ability to launch the reader into his own memories, to evoke long-forgotten feelings.

Shields' Collected Stories makes you feel more keenly the premature loss of her tremendous talent.

Jenny Shank's short stories have appeared in magazines including CutBank and Michigan Quarterly Review, and one was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

[Philippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review published in the New Zealand Herald, 21 May 2005
"Delving into other lives"

Collected Stories
Carol Shields
(HarperCollins, $29.99)
Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson

So you think short stories aren't your thing? Have you ever tried Carol Shields? She is better known for her novels, like The Stone Diaries, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. But these stories are so thoughtful, exquisite and haunting that it's easy to keep turning the pages. This chunky paperback brings together Shields' three short story collections, plus several other stories including 'Segue', her last work before she died in 2003.
Carol Shields confides in her readers, chats to us as though we are old friends, lets us into the secrets of her characters' inner lives. She frequently uses an omniscient viewpoint, which allows her the freedom to jump around between characters, between continents. Occasionally she goes off on tangents and the story does a complete turnaround.
Themes rise and recede through the collection like tides in an ocean of family: women trying to fill the spaces in their sagging marriages, holidaying couples confronted by strange events, the ties and loyalties of sibling relationships.
Writers are disproportionately represented amongst the characters, and Shields pokes wry fun at them. There is a satirical story about an academic who talks about 'narrative enclosures' and 'fictive modules' over the top of a strong emotional subtext. There is a humorous novelist, Meershank, who is suddenly gripped by writer's block, and finds some pleasure in it. There is a first-time author on tour, whose meeting with an old friend from a writers' group has unexpected consequences.
Shields conveys the human goodness in everyone, even while describing their flaws. Take 'Mrs Turner Cutting the Grass', for example. Her organic neighbours cast judgements on the way Mrs Turner does her gardening; the teenage girls walking past are horrified that she exposes her cellulite by wearing shorts –"At her age. Doesn't she realise?" – and a professor of English from Massachusetts writes a patronising poem about Mrs Turner, whom he encountered on tour in Japan: "she of the pink pantsuit, the red toenails, the grapefruity buttocks, the overly bright souvenirs." Yet Mrs Turner emerges as the heroine of this story, a perfectly ordinary and happy human being who takes life as it comes.
Shields' writing is layered and subtle and invites re-reading. Every word seems carefully chosen, yet the effect is a seamless narrative, some stories even seeming to flow on into each other. Highly enjoyable.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are clever, lovely, and frank. Whenever I got tired of the hard action of high fantasy, or the bleakness of sci-fi, I came back to these stories. They restored my interest and faith in the beauty of language and also how slice-of-life stories can be touching without being cloying.

Compared to the other books I've been reading, these stories were very down-to-earth, although Shields does have a few amusing jaunts into magical realism. I liked how there wasn't something that had to happen or be revealed to make the stories worthwhile. It's hard to express how and why I love these stories. Small details, like the kinds of clothes a person wears or if they drink tea in the mornings, took me into the intimate lives of the characters in these short stories.

I bought this book heavily discounted at the BYU Bookstore when I was a student there. It sat on my shelf for a long time before I thought I should give it a try... and I'm so glad that I did. I'm glad there's still some whimsy to my book selections. The cover quote from Alice Munro didn't hurt either :-). I might try one of her novels next!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her story "Mirrors" won an O. Henry. Deservedly so. "Mirrors" is one of my all-time favorite short stories. It captures a long, enduring marriage in its few pages. And what Shields accomplished with the motif of the mirror is truly astounding. Ultimately, all marriages are mirrors and Shields deftly shows us how and why.

I've read and enjoyed all the collected stories of Carol Shields. She is perhaps more known for her novels, but I think it is in her short fiction where her skill truly shines. She reminds me of Alice Munro.

[Chantal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two things occurred to me as I read Carol Shields’ Collected Works. The first is that these stories struck me as not nearly as joyful as all the critics, and even the jacket cover claims them to be; and secondly: We’re all in this together. Among the fifty-six stories that make up Shields’ life collection of short stories, some are quirky and playful, many are hilarious, and a happy ending is almost guaranteed.
“Mirrors,” is a story about a husband and a wife who have forsworn mirrors in their summer home at Big Circle Lake. In just ten short pages (a handful of mirrorless scenes plucked from a thirty year relationship) Shields portrays a poignantly accurate portrait of married life. There’s the giddy purchase of a summer house, the elbow grease required to make it a home, and after the first year, a celebratory dinner at a restaurant wherein hangs a mirror to mark the fading of their individualities:
She’d heard of people who moved to foreign countries and forgot their own language, the simplest words lost: door, tree, sky. But to forget your own face? She smiled; her face smiled back; the delay of recognition felt like treasure….
Her husband turned then and looked into the mirror. He too seemed surprised. ‘Hello,’ he said fondly. ‘Hello, us.’

Then there are the children, an affair and the guilty impact of the affair before the children are grown and getting married themselves. Finally, in typical Shields fashion, the story ends on a happy note:
And then she had turned and glanced his way. Their eyes held, caught on the thread of a shared joke: the two of them at this moment had become each other, at home behind the screen of each other’s face. It was several seconds before he was able to look away.

But despite this pleasant conclusion, or rather implicit to it, a dark and complicated truth resonates from these ten pages: that the reality of marriage is variable; it is highs and lows; it is certainties and uncertainties. This truth is illuminated by the sentence that precedes this lovely conclusive moment, when the husband asked himself of the woman in the bed beside him: “Who was this person?” Such is the nature of Shields’ stories: they appear pleasant, often humorous, but always there is an acute truth that resounds from her narratives.
“All over town people are putting on their costumes,” begins “Dressing Up for the Carnival,” an enchanting story -- entirely cheerful for the buoyant prose, the upbeat pacing, and the colorful descriptions of various townspeople enjoying personally delightful moments.
…Tamara has flung open her closet door; just to see her standing there is to feel a squeeze of the heart. She loves her clothes… And the Borden sisters are back from their ski weekend in Happy Valley… And then there’s Wanda from the bank, who has been sent on the strangest of errands… Mr. Gilman is smiling too. His daughter-in-law, who considers him a prehistoric bore, has invited him to dinner… Jeanette Foster is sporting a smart chignon. Who does she think she is! Who does she thin she is?

Then, amongst all these jolly characters and a dozen delightful little scenes, we meet X: a contradictory character without a name. “We cannot live without our illusions, thinks X….” It is unique and profound comment in the midst of all this revelry – and an acutely observed truth of the trivial and commonplace moments we’ve just been privy to, a truth emphasized by X’s own personal glee: “…in the privacy of his bedroom, in the embrace of happiness, (he) waltzes about in his wife’s lace-trimmed nightgown. His wife is at bingo….”
X’s weighty observation, underscored by his perverse secret -- as hilarious as it is -- casts a pall over the merry characters that inhabit “Dressing Up for the Carnival” leaving this charming little story to cast a long and dark shadow which begs rumination.
Shield’s has a knack for creating interesting, eccentric, and very real characters. She has a talent for storytelling. She has a gift for prose. But what is most impressive is her ability to recognize the imperative truth intricate to a given moment -- whether that moment be the duration of a thirty year marriage, the split second of bliss for a closet full of clothes, or the moment when a husband’s “grief shifts subtly” having deciphered his wife’s last words as in “Flitting Behavior”.
Whatever the moment that a Carol Shields story illuminates, it is sure to be a subtle one, nothing unusually uncommon: a familiar moment, generally. These familiar scenes she writes about -- the commonplace, the domestic -- and the profound complexities she wrings from them remind us that we are not alone in our struggles. We all suffer this human condition, together.

[Totochelamouche · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It seemed to him that much human effort went into separating men from women, and he often wondered why and to what effectiveness."

"The sisters, and Malcolm too, made the most of their opportunities, never suspecting that their opportunities were limited."

"Kisses can be dropped on the tops of heads, and news brought from one person's world to another, but in the end it's a matter of waiting things out in an improvised shelter and thinking as kindly of yourself as possible."

"Other people - through carelessness or luck or distraction or necessity - invented keys, chairs, wheels, thermometers and the theory of evolution."

"She was at an age when eating and drinking should be done in private."

"Everywhere he sees slackers, defilers, and stumblers. His anger blazes just thinking of them."

"He would also like to tell them that other people's lives are seldom as settled as they appear."

"They would be disinclined to discuss between them how they've arrived at these harmonious choices in the matter of playgoing, how they are both a little proud, in fact, of their taste for serious drama, proud in the biblical pride sense."

"Not one of us was going to get what we wanted."

"The shriveled fate he sometimes sees for himself can be postponed if only he puts his mind to it."

""Milk ice bread beer," murmurs the exhausted Barbara, giving the phrase a heaving tune. She is diverted by the thought of these four purposeful commodities traded to a diminished and deprived public."

"Almost all her conversations are with herself."

"Prestologs floor him completely, the whole idea of manufacturing something for the purpose of burning it up."

""If you lose something," a girl named Patsy Tobin told her when she was about seven or eight, "just shut your eyes and pray to St. Anthony.""

"She's glad at these times that she has her work to distract her and deaden her thoughts."

"But the truth is, though it is very seldom admitted to, there is very little anyone can do for anyone else."

"Accustomed to Meershank's activity, she found its cessation worrying. She connected it with depression, and being a woman, particularly the woman she was, she linked his depression with herself, some failing on her part, some act omitted."

"The authentic world will sweep them away, attributing their brief incandescence to the lamplight or the shift of weather or the conjoined sense of having escaped what they didn't even know they dreaded."

"So this was what work was: a tw0-way bargain people made with the world, a way to reduce time to rubble."

"We hang on tighter to each other, since all we know of consequence tells us that we may not be this lavishly favored again."

"I loved you more than the others, but, like a monk, allowed myself no distinctions."

"They know after all this time about love - that it's dim and unreliable and little more than a reflection on the wall. It is also capricious, idiotic, sentimental, imperfect and inconstant, and most often seems to be the exclusive preserve of others."

"His disappointment, his difficulty, his lies, his drunkenness, his life sliding away from him down a long blind chute, made him decide that the time had come to buy a house."

"One year she sat down at Grandfather Westfield's roll-top desk and wrote 175 cards. So many friends, so many acquaintances! Still, she paused, lifting her head and melodramatically said to herself, "I am a lonely woman.""

"He wondered sometimes, when he went off in the mornings, especially in the winter, if work wasn't just a way of coping with time."

"That winter they sanded the living-room floor by hand. Later, this became their low-water mark: "Remember when we were so broke we couldn't afford to rent a floor sander?"

"The bundled luggage, the weight of the camera around the neck, the sheer cost of air fare make travelers eager to mill expansive commentary from minor observation."

"Their soft-sided luggage, their tennis rackets, their New York pallor and anxious brows expose in Josephe a buried vein of sadness, and one day she notices something frightening: 109 passengers step off the New York plane, and each of them - without exception - is wearing blue jeans."

""You're lucky to have a child. That's something I'm sorry I missed." Gweneth said this even though it wasn't true. (The lie bothered her not at all since she knew it did people good to be fulsomely envied.)"

""I don't have anything to show!" she confessed to an early lover, not sure whether she meant silverware or children or that hard lacquer she thought of as happiness."

"In this letter from Japan, she describes a curious mystical experience that caused her not exactly panic and not precisely pleasure, but that connected her for an instant with an area of original sensation, a rare enough event at our age."

"Walking along dark streets always made Stanley think of how piteously men and women struggle to make themselves known to one another, how lonely they can be."

"He spoke as though compelled to explain to us his exact reason for being where he was at that moment."

"He wondered if he were acquiring a reputation for stoicism, that contemptible trait."

"Print is her way of entering and escaping the world."

"Max laughed at that, laughed harder than I had expected. I gave him a small smile in return. He stopped laughing then and gulped his coffee, struggling to straighten his face. We have to be terribly careful after forty years together. We are both so easily injured."

"For my husband, Max, spartanness serves as a set of crossed fingers; he mustn't give way to greed or a taste for luxury, or it will eat him up the way it ate Bellow and Steinbeck."

"I have attempted in my life - at least in the last thirty years - to write one sonnet every fourteen days, and it is my especial (see Fowler's on the difference between especial and special) pleasure to spread the work out over the available working days."

"Max must surely hear the scattershot of my neighborhood greetings, so fond in their expression and so traditionally patterned, exactly what healthy, seasoned, amiable women learn to say in such chapters of their lives."

"The day bloomed into mildness, October 7, one year and one month after the September 11 tragedy - event, spectacle, whatever you choose to call it."

"And sadness had shrunk, become miniaturized and narrowly defined, a syndrome, a pathology - whereas once, in another time, in a more exuberant century, in a more innocent age, there existed great gusts of oxygen inside the sadness of ordinary people, carpenters, tradesmen, housewives and the like. Sadness was dignified; it was referred to as melancholy; it was described as autumnal in tome and tinged with woodsmoke."

"Earlier, while the men were doing the dishes and the kids were tearing around the house, I told her I was thinking of going back to work as soon as possible, not waiting till next fall after all. She listened hard. She has a lot of strong curiosity about her. "Don't rush," she said. "Work is only work.""

"Kay slipped quickly past a row of women who were saying things women had always said. The same things their mothers and grandmothers have said, shaking the same powder across their broad or narrow noses and peering at their dabbed, genetically condemned faces or at a broken nail, probably bitten, held up and examined in the weak light."

"It occurs to her that these children may be bluffing with their bright, winning curiosity, being playful and sly, and masking a deeper, more abject and injurious sense of bewilderment. There is, after all, so much authentic chaos to sort out, so much seething muddle and predicament that it is a wonder children survive their early ignorance. How do they bear it? You would think they would hold their breath out of sheer rage or hurl themselves down flights of stairs. You would think they'd get sick and die."

"The Sloans have been told that the bombs currently detonated in Paris are the size of three cigarette packets, and they naturally wonder what possible good these cursory inspections can do. They've concluded that the searches are symbolic, evidence that strict security measures are being observed, even though the situation is clearly impossible."

""At age fifty-five, the ability to penetrate and explore has left him, perhaps only temporarily - he hopes so. Mainly, as he sees it, he's forgotten how to pay attention, grown somehow incapacitated and lazy. At times, he can't believe his own laziness. He chides himself, his sins of omission. He is a man so lazy, so remiss, he couldn't be bothered last spring to step into his own backyard for a glimpse of Halley's comet."

"[...] a yellow-eyed madame guarding the toilette and demanding payment of Meg - who pretended not to understand - and who muttered fiercely into her saucer of coins, ça commence, ça commence, meaning Meg Sloan of Milwaukee and the tidal wave of penny-pinching tourists who would follow, the affluent poor, the educationally driven, budget-bound North Americans whom Europeans so resemble but refuse to acknowledge."

"Harold loves the nineteenth century, which he sees as an exuberant epoch that produced and embraced the person he would like to have been: gentleman, generalist, amateur naturalist, calm but skeptical observer of kingships, comets and constellations, of flora and fauna and humanistic philosophy, and at times he can scarcely understand how he's come to be a supervisor in the public school system on the continent of North America."

"Now the journalist was going home to his flat in Notting Hill Gate; in twenty-four hours he would be fingering his collection of tiny glass animals and thinking that, despite his relative anonymity, his relative loneliness, his relatively small income and the relatively scanty degree of recognition that had come his way - despite this, his prized core of neutrality was safe from invaders. And what did that mean? He asked himself this with the same winning interrogation he practiced on the famous. It meant happiness, or something akin to happiness."

"And once she sat in the Reading Room of the British Museum and examined a tiny nineteenth-century book of essays written by an obscure country clergyman. The binding had long since deteriorated, and the pages had been tied together by someone - who? - when? - with a piece of ribbon. Slowly, respectfully, she'd tried to undo the knot, but the ribbon was so stiff with age that it crumbled on the table into a kind of white powder. She had examined the severed pages with more tenderness and sense of privilege than she'd ever felt toward anything in her life, and it occurred to her that perhaps this is what mothers feel for the secret lives of their children. Surely - she glanced at Northie - such moments keep people from flying into pieces."

"On Saturday she surveyed the five invitations, which were arranged in a circle on her coffee table. These missives, so richly welcoming, persuading and honoring, had pleased her at first, then puzzled her. And now she felt for the first time directly threatened. Something or someone was conspiring to consume a portion of her life, or herself, in fact - entering her apartment and taking possession of her Saturday evening just as a thief might enter and carry off her stereo [...]"

"He seems - I can only guess at this from the way his face relaxes, his tongue caught in silence - to enjoy an account of my day of sonnet-making, as long as I remember to keep my merry voice, but he offers nothing in return about the contents of his briefcase and how the New Manuscript is progressing."

"I'm being cordial in a way that may be slightly dishonest but that keeps life from bearing down with its solemn weight, keeps it nosing forward, and overrides the worst possible story the day might otherwise offer, his story, that is, which could quickly turn dreary and strangulated without my floating social descant riding overhead on strings of nylon."

[Joana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really long collection of short-stories. I started reading it with great enjoyment but ended it somewhat bored. I'd advise anyone not to read this all in one go because it gets repetitive: many of the themes are found all throughout the book (namely practically all the stories are about a couple, often a middle-aged couple, travelling through Europe, or the characters are writers or great academics). I feel I'd have enjoyed it more if I had taken a break between the 3 books condensed in this edition.
Having said that, I'm a fan of Carol Shields and her style, some of the stories were very enjoyable. What I noticed about many of them was that they followed a certain pattern for most of the story but when you thought you'd get some conclusion the tone or the theme of the story changed in the last section and that left me unsatisfied. Perhaps it's because I'm not a big "believer" in short stories, they often leave me feeling like there's something missing. And even though I really enjoy themes of relationships, intimacy, marriage, etc, sometimes I wondered if there was something wrong in having a character that was single or unattached. Of course, you should write about what you know and Carol Shields did just that.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

Shields, a critically acclaimed Canadian writer who died in 2003, was best known for fictionalizing the lives of women. In this collection she shows her wider range. Most critics recommend these stories for any Shields fan and as a starting point for new readers. Only The New York Times Book Review described her work as "sometimes mannered linguistic musings" that "conjure up a very writerly writer honing her technical and theoretical skills and paying little attention to conventions of plot and character." Playing with language, exploring intimate relationships, and examining small town life through Shields's eyes are all contained in this volume.

In our profile and interview with Carol Shields in our Nov/Dec 2002 issue, we wrote Where to Start: "The Stone Diaries displays Shields's virtuosity in creating a life's history through intimate language and an intriguing format. Unless continues with unprecedented power as Shields's multi-layered narrative weaves Reta's story through the reader's consciousness."

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Drillon Kincaid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Are these short stories or mere observations? Most of these come across as premises, notes for a story that never develops. Those that most resemble stories are agonizingly, tediously similar: a married, heterosexual couple is situated in a foreign city (most often Paris) where each realizes over dinner, or coffee, or shopping that his or her situation is not really so bad as he, she thinks even if it often dull as dirt. That description fits the stories (though I remain hesitant to call them that): not terrible, but mundane and dull. That is those that resemble stories.Those that don't seem simply pointless.

Shields is a talented writer. She makes great use of language, she is observant, but... she is not a story teller. What she gives us for the most part is a rather hefty pile of notes, stories--as such--that seem unfinished, a series of underdeveloped ideas or a single idea that is worn through with overuse like a favourite shirt.

Her characters suffer this, too, the same people turning up with different names, costumes and careers, but the same people every time.

Read a few of these if you will, but only a few. Be selective.

[Georganne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved and still love Carol Shields' work. 'The Stone Diaries' was take your breath away beautiful all the way through, 'Larry's Party', and 'Unless' also great. So, I had high expectations for this story collection. It's ok in places, good to very good in others. Actually, it's a mixed bag, probably because it ranges over her whole career. Also, sometimes an author is a better novelist than short story writer or vise versa. I don't know. The truth is I haven't finished the book. I still enjoying reading the stories off and on and will continue to do so, but I'm tired of seeing it come up listed on goodreads as "currently reading". It's a hefty 608 pages of short stories. I'll let you know when I find some outstanding stories in this collection. In the mean time, if you are not familiar with this author (Canadian but born in US) who died way too soon in 2003, read 'The Stone Diaries' to realize the loss of a great talent, (a Pulitzer Prize winner if you need more convincing).

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not your typical short stories.
Very few had a plot or even central conflict. It's more like you're a fly and you buzz in and out of homes to witness snippets of life happening all over space and time.

Many of the characters are middle-aged, often divorced or in unhappy marriages (sometimes just co-habituating) and/or there has been infidelity in the relationships.

Some of the stories are peculiar, making me wonder if I totally missed the point once I got to the end. Perhaps I did, as I raced through many of the stories instead of slowly digesting them one by one.

I liked the one where the meterologists go on strike and there's no weather, the one where the writer avoids the letter I and narrates the experience. There were a few others, too, but on the whole, I'd say I am more of a short story traditionalist.

[Shehrezad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going ahead and marking this book as read now, even though I did not finish the entire collection. I read most of the stories in this collection. However, it is a book I will need to take a break from before coming back to it. I really enjoyed the stories. Carol Shields focuses on such positive, uplifting themes in her writing which I really needed at the time I picked up this collection. I like how she takes such commonplace occurrences and makes us see them in an enhanced way. It was really a treat to read some of these. There was a story at the beginning about a couple on holiday in Europe that really captured me. She really knows how to paint a character in a few short sentences and make her characters memorable.

I will most likely be returning to this book to finish reading the rest of the stories included. It was a delight to become acquainted with Shields' writing.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to read these, a few at a time and leaving it alone for a bit. Excellent.

I picked this up for $3 at Half Price. I don't like short stories, usually, but I love Carol Shields, and these are great so far!

[Liz Bracken · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world lost one of the great story tellers when Shields died a few years ago. Her gift for language and the turn of a phrase is brilliant.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This woman understands so much about the human condition! And her stories create 'perfect' moments in the lives of people we care about, and with whom we can empathise.

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 1 out of 5]

All right, I confess I didn't read it all. But after three short stories that went nowhere and did nothing, I truly didn't see the point. Don't bother.

[Mary Newcomer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second book by Carol Shields. I loved "The Stone Diaries". This book is quite different as
it is a collection of her short stories. I thoroughly enjoy reading short stories as it is such a change
from a novel. Of course, her writing is fantastic, but not all the stories are up to the same level of
craftsmanship and I think should have been taken out.
Needless to say, the vast majority of the stories are wonderful, little snapshots of life with all its ups and downs and complexity. I was disappointed by just a few of the stories.
I can only recommend the book to all.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved the first three-quarters of this wonderful collection, astounded by Shields' amazing prose, her ability to see the most mundane of things and bring them to life...but lost interest near the end. Not sure whether the stories weren't as good or whether I was needing a break from the strange mostly sad and lost characters inhabiting her collection. Highly recommended though and you must read her Stone Diaries - one of my top five books EVER.

[Kristal Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best short stories candle from Dressing Up for the Carnival, more magical realism and engaging stories. Overall, I find Carol’s short stories description heavy, and I should have read in three parts, not two (took another book break)..
Various Miracles: Words.
The Orange Fish: The Orange Fish, Hinterland
Dressing Up for the Carnival: Dressing Up for the Carnival, A Scarf, Ilk, Stop! Keys

[Professor Typewriter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkable Work.
I spent a year with this collection. Every Saturday morning—before sunrise—I read stories from a vastly underrated writer. Shields possessed the rare talent of creating a novel’s worth of content for each of her short stories. If a reader enjoys contemporary fiction they would do well to spend time with this collection.

[Kirjasieppo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel there's something for everyone in this collection of short stories. Some of these really spoke to me; I recognized myself in a remark here, a sentence there. Some I didn't relate to; some were long-winded. Still, the skill that Shields has in observing and describing human nature is undeniable.

[Cindy May · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this collection of short stories - my two favorites being "The Journal" and "Hinterland" because I felt I could really relate to both on such a personal level (esp "The Journal").

I would definitely recommend this book to others.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some stories I liked a lot, some I just couldn't read, but most were just OK.
Unfortunately, I read this immediately after Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, so this book suffered by comparison.

[Rod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended. Finely crafted to illuminate those everyday moments that make up so much of one's life. Loved the first two collections especially. The third--more experimental in nature--is very good, just didn't find it quite as powerful as the earlier stories.

[Lise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carol Shields is a maestro of writing. I would give this book 5 stars but I didn’t love every single story. That’s just the way it goes with short stories. This is one book I want to keep in my collection and read again.

[Monique Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious writing! I like to twirl it around in my glass like a fine wine! She perfected the art of the short story.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A diverse, if uneven, collection of short stories that run a gamut of experiences and feature an array of characters and perspectives.