Happenstance: Two Novels in One About a Marriage in Transition

by Carol Shields

Portrays the changes in a marriage, involving new evaluations of friends, family, career associates, and particularly the partners themselves, when the loving wife goes away for a short time and the happily married husband has a mid-life crisis

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, 20th Century, Marriage

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

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

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems a pity to give this 4 stars because the writing is very, very good. I've read quite a few of Shields' novels, and her focus is always this close inspection of relationships between quite ordinary people. The novel is written in two parts and even presented in some editions as two novels - basically the Husband's story, followed by the Wife's story - Jack and Brenda Bowman. The story follows 5 days when Brenda goes on a "business" trip to Philadelphia and Jack is left to deal with all the intricacies of their home-life - their two teenage children, plus neighbours.

The novel uses this 5 day inversion of the traditional roles in a marriage to explore how individuals cope with the restrictions of tasks assigned according to gender. And here lies the problem - the whole comes across as dated. The ideas are just not very original - at least to me and in the current year of 2021. The book was first published in 1980. So, unfortunately the idea of the man coping well with the demands of his daughters' needlecraft class and his surly, spoilt son - it just no longer very new.

Likewise Brenda's plan to have a fling in the 5 days of her freedom, which does not go to plan - also somehow comes across as a little stale. She meets up with an eminent Metallurgist at the same hotel but it seems that he is quite clearly on the hunt for a lone female - and once Brenda discovers the reason for his lonely hunt - she needs to reassess the benefits and qualities of her own marriage. Some of the plot aims to be funny - a missing red coat; discovered later on Brenda's missing room-mate Vera of Virginia, who just happens to end up with Barry's room-share. The hotel was doubled booked with 2 conferences.

And then there are other inversions - the Handcrafters' Guild is not about little women sitting at home tirelessly hand-sewing quilts; No - there are several lectures with the theme of - what is art?- and whether the created object has a lower rendering in the Art World because it has a function - this is discussed and debated in very intellectual terms - at the National Handicrafts Exhibition.

There is a rather strange and to my taste, a boring story about a certain Larry Carpenter - a successful neighbour who attempts suicide - it doesn't seem to slot in very well with the other dissections of people's lives - where Shield's focus is always on the intricacies and intimacies of marriage.

I enjoyed this - but can't quite give it the full 5 stars.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first novel I ever read by Shields, back in about 2006. My Penguin paperback gives the wife’s story first and then you flip it over to read the husband’s story. But the opposite reflects the actual publishing order: Happenstance is Jack’s story; two years later came Brenda’s story in A Fairly Conventional Woman. The obvious inheritor of the pair is A Celibate Season with the dual male/female narratives, and the setups are indeed similar: a man is left at home alone with his teenage kids, having to cope with chores and an unexpected houseguest.

What I remembered beforehand: The wife goes to a quilting conference; an image of a hotel corridor and elevator. How funny that I’d remembered Brenda’s story better than Jack’s, yet on a reread found it much less memorable than Happenstance. I also assumed that I’d conclude A Celibate Season was an unnecessary reworking, but actually I think it was more successful than A Fairly Conventional Woman.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contemplative. Thought provoking. Slightly depressing.

The first book of the year is complete. I'm ecstatic and relieved. This book was not what I assumed it would be. I must admit I was curious and excited about reading a two sided book. I thought one side is the wife, flipping the book upside/backwards we read the husband, is pretty clever. Why not? There are two sides to every story. I'm going to read the wife's point of view and then the husbands for the same situation. But this is not what this actually is. It is a wife's thoughts and a husbands but not in that manner. It would make sense that there is some common "Happenstance" that the reader reads the male vs female point of view. But it was not like this. I can only think of one commonality between both of their stories and to me it doesn't count as a plot. Yes, I am stating that I found this quite plotless. I found myself asking this various times as I pushed and plodded through this book.
What I observed from this book is this.
Brenda and Jack Bowman are a couple who live in Chicago with their two teen children in 1978. Jack works at some type of historical research institute. Brenda used to be a typist but is now a homemaker who is rediscovering her identity through the art of professional quilting. They are both in their 40's. All their friends are in their 40's. Quite frankly this is a book that centers around the thoughts, feelings and contemplations of middle age. Being months away from this magical year myself (Sarcasm!) at first I found I related to so many of the thoughts and contemplations that I told myself I liked this book. However after a while it was down right depressing! Ugg! Yes upon the dawn of that monumental decade one is full of reflection. I assume this to be normal. Maybe in 78' it was the end of the road or something but in 2015 it's really not the case. These people sounded very dated. I couldn't wait to finish this thing. I didn't want to stop because for some reason I felt as a soon member of the club I owed these people the kindness of finishing their story but I'll say it wasn't a moment too soon. I seriously felt depressed by their musings.

I'm giving this a 2 stars. The idea of a two sided book is very clever but I feel it should have been used better for some heightened plot shown from two sides. Some may find all this "thought" relative. I who am accused myself sometimes of "overthinking" found this book completely overthought. It was almost a ramble. I'm glad to finish and proceed on to something more distracting vs so very contemplative. Just my thoughts.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

These two stories are the lives of ordinary people doing their ordinary things. The husband, Jack, is a historian, a father of two teenagers, and a son to aging parents. His half of the book is his inner dialogue during a week where his wife is away (one of the only times she's been away in their 20 years of marriage). The wife, Brenda, is a stay-at-home spouse, quilter gaining recognition, mother of two teenagers, and only daughter of a now-deceased single mother. I loved reading the perspectives on a basically happy marriage and happy family that reflected the boredom and annoyance that comes with family life without anything earth-shattering or foundation shaking. Yes, people can get annoyed with each other, yet still overall be happy with their family and their chosen path. Carol Shields makes these characters believable.

There's something hopelessly (and perhaps wonderfully) naive and innocent about these characters. Is there anyone today who at 19 would meet a future spouse and not know the details of the mechanics of sex? Is there anyone now who would find a book on marital relationships and read it excitedly with her fiance?

The different memories of past stories and the way those retellings are told over and over so that they become the fabric of a shared history is examined repeatedly in this book. Shields captures this often unremarked upon phenomenon with elegance and honesty.

Lovely book.

[Priscilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

From my perspective, the first half, the wife's story, is five stars; the second half, the husband's story, is two stars. I read an interview where Shields said she didn't feel comfortable writing from a man's point of view, because men and women are so vastly different from one another. She eventually did write from a man's point of view to wonderful effect in Larry's Party, but in this early attempt, she does seem to flounder a bit. As always, the writing is wonderful, and there are moments in both sections that absolutely shine. What I love about Shields is her willingness to try different structural things and explore minutiae without apology.

[Darlene Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, happenstance is a chance or a chance situation, especially one producing a good result. Carol Sheilds is a master storyteller who has created a story out of chance encounters and situations. Told through the point of view of the husband and the wife, it makes for an enjoyable read. The author takes ordinary things and situations and turns them into extraordinary snippets of life. Her description of a sky before a snowfall, "A grey comfortless sky pressed through the trees with the density of packed satin." And I loved this description of snow, "...the drifted peaks around the sides of houses and trees had the Dream Whip perfection..." Carol Sheilds has written the best description of a writer procrastinating I have ever read, which left me laughing and nodding my head. This is a slice of suburban life in the late 70s which were not always the good old days. Funny, poignant and endearing.

[Hannah Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Read the husband’s side first - fine, enjoyable even - but really loved the voice in the wife’s side. So many stop-you-in-your-tracks-sentences.

[Rochelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book. I enjoyed reading his story more than her story. A lot more was going on at home than with her. I know it was written in the 70s, but I was once again a little annoyed at times by the woman protagonist’s seeming dependence on her husband At least in her mind, she was dependent on him. (Noticed this in a couple of Margaret Atwood’s earlier books and that annoyed me too). Then I read his side and it turns out he’s very dependent on her emotionally. Good to see both spouses’ perspectives on the same subjects, reminds us of how as close as two people can be we each live in our own realities.

[Anne]

Happenstance is the story of five days in the life of two people: Brenda, who is a professional quilter and has left for a craft conference in a different city, and Jack, her husband, a historian who is now alone with their two children for the first time.

Originally, these two parts were published separately, but I read a version that combined the two. I decided to read the husband's story first. In spite of darker elements, this part was a warm bath, just a wonderful place to spend time in because of the family dynamic. The wife's story was taking place more in her mind - her isolation from her family for those few days made her think about her life in retrospect, which is something she otherwise doesn't do.

Carol Shields did something special here. Out of five pretty mundane days on both ends, she creates a marriage, and she is especially good at focussing on what each of them doesn't know or underestimates or doesn't consider about the other person. She didn't stick to this too schematically, fortunately, she only pinpoints some aspects that show how people can be married for twenty years and still not know every single thing about each other.

I also love her sense of humour and irony. For example, she creates a historian who doesn't trust the written text and keeps trying to convince his best friend of the lack of reliability that is "the historical record". (Related point: Shields is so good at keeping lightness from turning into levity).

What I also like is that although she created these characters, Shields doesn't really form any judgment in the two novellas. In all their clarity and simplicity, the stories make you consider your own values about life, values, choices, family, and relationships.

It's my goal to read every novel Shields has written, but if I've warmed you to Shields and you only want to read one, please read The Stone Diaries, my favourite of hers so far.

[Elizabeth Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather than reading the wife's story and then the husband's story (or vice versa), I read a few chapters of one and then a few chapters of the other, back and forth, until I reached the end. I'm glad I read it this way because I enjoyed comparing what each was doing/thinking at roughly the same point in time. Shields writes both dialogue and interior thought very well. Her characters, especially Jack and Brenda, feel completely alive and well fleshed out. She makes seemingly ordinary lives interesting.

I must say that one of my complaints about much contemporary literary fiction is the language. I realize that in today's world many people curse/use vulgar words frequently, but I grow tired of seeing it in print. I think Shield's book would have felt just as authentic minus the cussing.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is hard to review, mainly because I really enjoyed the husband's story (which I read first), which had humour, pathos, and original and captivating scenes, such as the long walk home though the snow, and the sub-plot of Bernie Koltz's marital woes. Then I read the wife's story, and found Brenda Bowman and her quilts and her 'not-an-actual-affair and no real damage done' dalliance with Barry Ollershaw to be really tedious. Odd! Same author, same novel, but one half immensely enjoyable, and the other an unrewarding chore. Carol Shields is a great writer, and I loved all the retro details - very well done - and the parents' struggles to relate to their just-become-teenaged children. So overall this was really good. I just felt Brenda Bowman was so .. bland. Even when she turned Barry on with her green polyester blouse, it sadly failed to set my pulse racing.

[Tuike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ehdin nykyisellään lukea fyysistä kirjaa oikeastaan vain iltaisin nukkumaan mennessä, usein niin väsyneenä, että kaikki koukeroinen ja kokeileva jää kesken. Nappasin sattumalta kirjahyllystä tämän ja tykkäsin kovasti. Tämä oli ns. "vanha kunnon" ihmissuhderomaani elämästä, perheestä, ja siitä minne oma minuus vuosien pyörityksessä piiloutuu. Toimiva rakenne, hyvä lause, elävät hahmot ja tarkat havainnot. Ammattilaisen työtä, jonka parissa oli ihana viettää aikaa.

[Masha Shollar · Rating 5 out of 5]

My third Shields novel this year and I can’t say enough what a master she was. Bertha and Jack Bowman tell the story of the same five day span, during which Bertha leaves Chicago for a quilting expo, while Jack deals with their teenage children, professional malaise, and the near suicide of a neighbor. The way Shields shines a spotlight on the domestic (and what some might dismiss as mundane) is a good reminder of the inherent drama, power, wonder, pain, etc of everyday life. I’ve noticed, too, that her novels feature creative pursuits often dismissed as “womanly” — in Stone Diaries, gardening, and in this novel, quilting. But Shields gives these quotidian creative pursuits the same scope and respect as any other, more classically respected, medium.
Happenstance was incredible for its flipped perspective, for the way in which we get to see the same marriage but from two unique perspectives. Bertha and Jack examine themselves both as individuals and as partners, and both feel like real people, struggling to understand and communicate. It’s a difficult balancing act I don’t think I’ve seen elsewhere except maybe Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge by Evan Connell.
I can’t recommend this book enough and will definitely be reading more of this phenomenal writer’s work.

[BookBagGirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carol Shields is the Midas of the mundane. On the cover of my copy, Happenstance is described as “two novels in one about a marriage in transition.” Indeed, depending on which way you turn and open the book, you will get 200 pages narrated by Jack or Brenda Bowman. In the husband’s story, Jack is “at home coping with domestic crises and two uncouth adolescents while immobilized by self-doubt and questioning his worth as an historian. In the wife’s story, Brenda, “traveling alone for the first time, is in a strange city grappling with an array of emotions and toying with the idea of an affair.” It is hardly a tantalizing premise, and spoiler alert: absolutely nothing sensational happens. Then why read Happenstance, why claim it is exceptional? Without glibness or Hobbesian gloom, in the grand scheme of things, human beings fortunate enough to have steady food and shelter will mostly lead small, quietly intricate lives. Shields establishes this as a rarity, then renders the details fascinating. It is no coincidence that Brenda is a quilt maker, and Jack is a historian. Shields gives slow, subtle nods to various catastrophic pasts/realities, then seems to asks, what happens when devastating external interferences are peeled away? For the vast majority of humanity, the Bowmans exist in a (suburban) utopia. Their problems are pared down to the most inevitable of things: losing parents, rearing offspring, struggling to forge connections, processing one’s own impending mortality. Shields' handling of universal hurdles is remarkable. No flashy plotlines, no distracting postmodern pretensions. Just clear, crisp realist prose with a few brilliant dips into surrealist imagery. Another type of two for one: Sheilds held double citizenship (Canadian&US) making it possible for her to win the most prestigious prizes in both counties (GG&Pulitzer). She damned well deserved them. Forgive the flight of fancy, but when I read her work I am tempted to picture her chucking at aspiring writers, saying “Kids, don’t try this at home.You will lapse into trite, sentimental, boring, worthless BS. Yes, go experiment with regurgitating a dictionary or puncturing new holes in the collective moral code. You need superhuman insight to write about mundane things.”

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a delightful surprise. It closely meets my criteria for an enjoyable book/movie in being the story of basically dull people to whom nothing much happens - in other words, people like me who are changed by life events. The book is set during one week in 1978 (book was published in 1980) in a Chicago suburb. In a rather hokey fashion that I liked, the book is divided into two parts - one related by the wife and one by the husband. You read one part and then turn the book upside down and read the other part - in this way you really are not told which to read first. I read the Wife's story first and wonder how the book would have been different it I had read it in the opposite order.

Brenda Bowman is a housewife, a bit behind the times - she seems to have missed out on women's liberation but recognizes that she is out of sync with, and not particularly interest in, history. She attends a craft convention in Philadelphia where, generally non-reflective, she has a chance to review her life and marriage. I loved her thought that marriage is shared stories.

Meanwhile, her husband Jack is back in Chicago with the two children and his job as a historian and has an eventful week. Jack is a pseudo-intellectual, rather inept at life, and given to reviewing life rather than living it, and defining terms rather than experiencing them. The week's events push him a bit closer to life as it happens.

Very enjoyable reading. Near perfect scene with Jack and his father.

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book featuring two perspectives of one occurrence. Jack and Brenda Bowman each tell their own story of what happened when Brenda traveled to Philadelphia to attend a quilt makers convention from their home in Chicago. Brenda told about the overbooked hotel she was staying in and how she had to double up with another quilt maker named Verna who she never met until her stay was almost over and about a flirtatious relationship she had with a man named Barry. Jack's story was about maintaining the home front while his wife was at the convention, such as his attempts to deal with minor crises that his two children were going through as well as dealing with his best friend, Bernie, who was having marital problems. Carol Shields writes with a great subtle humor that makes her books very enjoyable reads.

[K8E · Rating 3 out of 5]

The descriptive writing in this story was incredible. The storyline was idle and not too predictable because almost nothing happened. The way the two stories were presented through the eyes of the wife and then the husband was original and interesting to see the juxtaposition. No real conclusion to the stories, and one thing I have realized is that these older books are steeped on fatphobia. "The best thing that happened all week (while the wife was gone) was that Laurie (the daughter) is on here way to thinness, she will fast for one week." WTFFFFFFFFFFFF.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very odd not being able to find the edition I have but the story was a good one. Read the Husband's account first and then his wife's.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Goodreads system ate my review and I don't have time to reconstruct it. Too bad--it was a good review.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curious word, this - happenstance. How did we know that we needed the word? What also confuses me about this book is that the first part, Husband's Story, was published two years before the wife's; it seems, separately. Yet now they are in one volume (and it does not matter which novel you start with).
Having read both stories, I'm slightly disappointed, yet strangely moved and in awe. In awe of the author because in most novels something dramatic happens but this book is about ordinary people and only fairly mundane things happen to them. Don't get me wrong, what happens may be of importance to the characters but the reader is likely to think of the book as about ordinary people and ordinary lives. This in fact the strength of the book. When did you last read a novel about ordinary people? That was also interesting? And so well written?

[Vivienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carol Shields has written some excellent novels, The Stone Diaries, Unless; this one, is not, for me, to that standard, although enjoyable.
The interesting structure of the novel, has two halves written quite separately, about a week in the lives of Brenda and Jack Bowman, during which time Brenda is in Philadelphia at a quilt show, and Jack is home dealing with their normal lives and looking after their two teenage children.
The two stories hardly ever converge in content. In fact not much happens as far as the plot is concerned, but what is fascinating and, I think, Shields' greatest strength, is her ability to put her readers so convincingly inside the heads and private thoughts of her characters. We get to know both Brenda and Jack so well: their outlook on life, their insecurities, their feelings for each other, their children, other people and themselves.
While there is a degree of nostalgia in this book, it is definitely not sugary sweet, and, though not one of Shields' best, it is engaging and entertaining. ***

[Maria Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darn: I just wrote my review on the wrong book, i guess there is :Happenstance" and then there is, "Happenstance: Two Novels in One about a marriage in Transition".
I'll just quickly rehash, what i said about Happenstance:
The late great Shields has been one to play around with forms and conventions, and I think that here in this book it works most successfully of the Shields novels I've previously read. (The Stone Diaries, while interesting and award-winning, contained some jarring photographs in the middle that added nothing and actually took away from the book, in my opinion. Tell me don't show me!) I recall other playful devices, in Swan, for example, though the details are sketchy to me now.
I found this "two novels in one about a marriage in transition" to work on so many levels, including the fact that the reader has to make choices about how s/he reads this book, and therefore takes part in the process in a reader participation sort of way, beyond just ordinary reading, whatever that means: do you keep a dictionary nearby, do you read to fall asleep at night, etc? Do you understand some or any of what you are reading? We ALL participate in any reading we do, as Shields herself would certainly agree, but here you actually have to decide whose story to read first, the husband Jack's or the wife Brenda's. I started with Brenda but did not stick with her straight through to the middle but switched to Jack when the descriptions of quilting became a bit soporific to me. I ended up going back and forth, a few chapters of Jack, a few chapters of Brenda, all the way through and can't imagine having enjoyed a different way as much as I did this way. This is a two-bookmark book to be savored. It's funny, it's deep, it's playful, it gives one lots to think about, regarding marriages and conventions, as well as the whole idea of History having so many different versions.

[Cris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring. Passé. Much ado about nothing. Banal.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The unusual structure of this book is more than a gimmick. It speaks loads to the universal dilemma of differing perspectives.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite read of 2002. It's the story of the daily happenings in a marriage told both from the husband and the wife's points of view.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Carol Shields style of writing. Subtle and beautiful.

[Auntie H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the novel I expected. With 2 covers it felt weird to finish a book with the bookmark in the middle.

I thought I’d experience the same 6 days of family life from the male and female perspective. Instead Brenda is travelling to a quilting conference and Jack is at home with their teenage children. (Written in the 1980s and contemporary for the time this probably felt a refreshing role reversal).

Decided to read Jack‘s story first as it was written first. For me, his procrastination over his book, though believable was tedious. His decision to walk 10 miles homeliness the worst snowstorm in years was stupid. Bernie‘s separation from his wife and sofa serving, spending time with Larry Carpenter and his wife no longer surprising.

Brenda‘s story was much quicker to read and much more superficial except when she was reflecting on her marriage.

Pluses and minuses on both sides probably evened out. Will see what happens as I reflect in later months. I don’t expect much to stick but am glad I read it.

Cross: Pg 188 wife’s story. Fire engines, building evacuated. “It could be a bomb scare. Large Irish population in Philadelphia” Yes 80’s were a difficult time historically. unfortunately bomb scare’s still happen but this extra sentence feels unnecessary stereotyping.

jack’s story
pg 33Jack found a new package of Swiss cheese in the refrigerator,

Brenda’s story
Pg 48 McGinnis family. Milt worked at same Institute as Jack. “The family had spent 2 years in Zurich, and the children, ….., had shaken hands gravely.”

Pg 83 Laurie’s room. “All that dotted Swiss, those ruffles; “

Pg 67 His voice sounded faintly English, the way he pronounced elevator - elevatah. OK we find he is Canadian so using elevator however he pronounced it makes sense. Faintly makes it excusable - its lift in British English.

Quite a lot of typos in y paperback of the wife’s story which was irritating

[Ledayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a hard one to review. I found some of the book delightful and some of it excruciatingly boring. By the end, it was all I could do to finish it.

The set-up -- two novels in one (one about the wife, Brenda, and one about her husband, Jack) -- is interesting and never felt gimmicky. I was intrigued by the idea that it didn't matter which one I read first. (I started with Brenda.) There were certain ideas that I suspect will stick with me -- like Brenda's musing on being born too late to be able to embrace the steady and understandable view of womanhood of earlier times but too early to be able to fully live into something different. Shields bring to life an era and the ways it shapes and restricts and releases people. That was particularly interesting to me since it is an era just out of view for me. It was my parents' generation, and the book helped me to think more deeply about what their lives must have been like. And there were little details of life that rang so true as to be deeply poignant and moving.

And yet -- I found myself slogging through most of Jack's story, finishing it mostly because I had started it and don't give up easily. Perhaps part of my struggle was that I found Brenda to be a truly interesting character and Jack to be an insipid and annoying drip. What did Brenda ever see in him?That's part of the point, I think, but I still did not enjoy reading "Jack's novel" for the most part.

I am not sorry to have read it, but I wouldn't suggest it to anyone else.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

rounded up from 4.5 stars

“Happenstance, The Husband’s Story was first published in Canada by McGraw-Hill Ryerson in 1980. Happenstance, The Wife’s Story was first published as A Fairly Conventional Woman in Canada by Macmillan of Canada 1982. This volume first published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate Limited 1991.

Published back to front, but the need for publishing info constructs the book so that most will start with the wife’s story. I read in order of publication (ie husband first). I'm glad I did.

In 1978 Jack and Brenda Bowman, have been married for 20 years and have 2 kids (Rob 14 and Laurie 12), and live in a suburb of Chicago built in the 1920s. Brenda, a quilter, has gone to Philly for 5 days to attend a craft conference, leaving Jack with the kids. This time apart is unusual for them.

While Brenda is away, Jack deals with his “best friend” Bernie’s marriage break-up, a giant snow-storm, and the news that an old girlfriend is publishing a book on the very area that he is writing his (stalled) one: Indian trading practices. (In the end, Harriet is writing about India, Jack about the Great Lakes indigenous peoples.)

Brenda deals with running into an old friend who is attending another conference in the same hotel and flirts with the possibility of being unfaithful.

I loved the concept of this completed novel. Shields' books aren't high-octane plots but her writing is gorgeous and she had an amazing insight into human nature.

[Kelly Brill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the Good Neighbor Thrift Shop for my vacation - so glad I did! Carol Shields writes a unique story about a rather ordinary married couple living in an inner-ring suburb of Chicago in the early 1970's. Both facing rather mild mid-life crises, Shields tells their stories in parallel books. I happened to read the woman's story first and was drawn into Brenda's life - she's a traditional mom/wife of her day. What little career she had she set aside when she married...but she's discovered quilting and is quite good and creative. The novel is set in a five-day period when she attends a national quilters' convention in Philadelphia.

Jack is a historian who realizes (suspects?) his life is a little less interesting than most of the people around him. Shields does an equally good job of portraying his inner life, and intertwining details of the cultural/social milieu in which the family lives (people reading Ms. magazine, neighbors and their infidelities...).

I enjoyed this book, though it feels a little dated. I especially appreciated the tenderness between Jack and Brenda - in the end, a hopeful story about marriage.