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Various Miracles
A collection of short stories by the author of "The Stone Diaries", runner-up for the Booker Prize in 1993. The stories are all concerned with moments when ordinary people face extraordinary wild coincidences, declarations of love, and startling revelations.
242 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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344 people want to read
About the author
Carol Shields
71 books664 followersCarol 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
January 24, 2024
(3.5) I believe it was in 2008–10 that I first binged on Carol Shields’s work, including her complete stories, though I’ve retained no memory of them. Now that I’ve read so much more by Shields, sometimes twice, I’m better able to track her themes across the body of work. Various Miracles was published in 1985, when Shields was 50. She was still a decade from finding success for her best-known works and so far had published poetry, criticism and several novels.
The title story’s string of coincidences and the final story, sharing a title with one of her poetry volumes (“Others”), neatly express the book’s concerns with chance and how we relate to other people and imagine their lives. I was disoriented by first starting the UK paperback (Fourth Estate, 1994). I had no idea it’s a selection; a number of the stories appear in the Collected volume under her next title, The Orange Fish. Before I realized that, I’d read two interlopers, including “Hazel,” which also spotlights the theme of coincidence. “Everything is an accident, Hazel would be willing to say if asked. Her whole life is an accident, and by accident she has blundered into the heart of it,” stumbling into a sales career during her widowhood.
The third story, indeed, is explicitly called “Accidents,” and “Scenes” echoes the opening story by presenting Frances’ life as a process of arbitrary accretion. “There are people who think such scenes are ornaments suspended from lives that are otherwise busy and useful. Frances knows perfectly well that they are what a life is made of, one fitting against the next like English paving-stones.” I asked myself whether such a vision of life rang true for me, comparing with two comedians’ diaries I’m reading at the moment (A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris and Went to London, Took the Dog by Nina Stibbe) and with my mother’s journals, and pondering what’s more important: Random happenings and encounters? (That’s mostly where those authors locate humour.) Or what one does, thinks and feels? I prefer self-reflection on who one is becoming, but the recording of one’s life and times is also valuable. There’s a balance to be struck there somewhere; I’m still working on it in my own journal.
I noted a few other recurring elements in the stories: travel, especially to France (4 stories); male narrators or main characters (5 stories); and an obsession with language. The irony to “The Metaphor Is Dead—Pass It On” is that the professor’s diatribe is full of figurative language. The writer antihero of “Flitting Behaviour,” Meershank, is insufferable with his puns and lavish prose, but learns the worth of simple phrases as he and his loved ones compare their hearing of his wife’s last words. “Words” started out like a climate fable, but I decided it’s more of an allegorical satire about words as so much hot air. Such flash fictions, also including “Pardon” (a spate of apologies), “Invitations” (a feast-or-famine social calendar), and “Purple Blooms” (everyone’s reading the same Mexican poet), felt slight. In a book of 21 stories, some are always bound to pale.
By contrast, my favourites went deep with a few characters, or reflected on the writer’s craft. “Fragility” has a couple moving from Toronto to Vancouver, starting a new life and looking for a house that gives off good vibrations (not “a divorce house”). The slow reveal of the catalyzing incident with their son is devastating. With “Others,” Shields (or editors) saved the best for last. On honeymoon in France, Robert and Lila help a fellow English-speaking couple by cashing a check for them. Every year thereafter, Nigel and Jane send them a Christmas card, winging its way from England to Canada. Robert and Lila romanticize these people they met all of once. The plot turns on what is in those pithy 1–2-sentence annual updates versus what remains unspoken. “Love so Fleeting, Love so Fine,” too, involves filling in an entire backstory for an unknown character. Another favourite was “Poaching,” about friends touring England and picking up hitchhikers, whose stories they appropriate.
This doesn’t always feel like a cohesive collection; I think it could stand to lose a good 5–6 stories and perhaps group the others more effectively. But for the way her central subjects were starting to coalesce, and for a handful of very powerful stories, I’d rate it more highly than I originally did, and can recommend that Shields fans seek it out.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
The title story’s string of coincidences and the final story, sharing a title with one of her poetry volumes (“Others”), neatly express the book’s concerns with chance and how we relate to other people and imagine their lives. I was disoriented by first starting the UK paperback (Fourth Estate, 1994). I had no idea it’s a selection; a number of the stories appear in the Collected volume under her next title, The Orange Fish. Before I realized that, I’d read two interlopers, including “Hazel,” which also spotlights the theme of coincidence. “Everything is an accident, Hazel would be willing to say if asked. Her whole life is an accident, and by accident she has blundered into the heart of it,” stumbling into a sales career during her widowhood.
The third story, indeed, is explicitly called “Accidents,” and “Scenes” echoes the opening story by presenting Frances’ life as a process of arbitrary accretion. “There are people who think such scenes are ornaments suspended from lives that are otherwise busy and useful. Frances knows perfectly well that they are what a life is made of, one fitting against the next like English paving-stones.” I asked myself whether such a vision of life rang true for me, comparing with two comedians’ diaries I’m reading at the moment (A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris and Went to London, Took the Dog by Nina Stibbe) and with my mother’s journals, and pondering what’s more important: Random happenings and encounters? (That’s mostly where those authors locate humour.) Or what one does, thinks and feels? I prefer self-reflection on who one is becoming, but the recording of one’s life and times is also valuable. There’s a balance to be struck there somewhere; I’m still working on it in my own journal.
I noted a few other recurring elements in the stories: travel, especially to France (4 stories); male narrators or main characters (5 stories); and an obsession with language. The irony to “The Metaphor Is Dead—Pass It On” is that the professor’s diatribe is full of figurative language. The writer antihero of “Flitting Behaviour,” Meershank, is insufferable with his puns and lavish prose, but learns the worth of simple phrases as he and his loved ones compare their hearing of his wife’s last words. “Words” started out like a climate fable, but I decided it’s more of an allegorical satire about words as so much hot air. Such flash fictions, also including “Pardon” (a spate of apologies), “Invitations” (a feast-or-famine social calendar), and “Purple Blooms” (everyone’s reading the same Mexican poet), felt slight. In a book of 21 stories, some are always bound to pale.
By contrast, my favourites went deep with a few characters, or reflected on the writer’s craft. “Fragility” has a couple moving from Toronto to Vancouver, starting a new life and looking for a house that gives off good vibrations (not “a divorce house”). The slow reveal of the catalyzing incident with their son is devastating. With “Others,” Shields (or editors) saved the best for last. On honeymoon in France, Robert and Lila help a fellow English-speaking couple by cashing a check for them. Every year thereafter, Nigel and Jane send them a Christmas card, winging its way from England to Canada. Robert and Lila romanticize these people they met all of once. The plot turns on what is in those pithy 1–2-sentence annual updates versus what remains unspoken. “Love so Fleeting, Love so Fine,” too, involves filling in an entire backstory for an unknown character. Another favourite was “Poaching,” about friends touring England and picking up hitchhikers, whose stories they appropriate.
This doesn’t always feel like a cohesive collection; I think it could stand to lose a good 5–6 stories and perhaps group the others more effectively. But for the way her central subjects were starting to coalesce, and for a handful of very powerful stories, I’d rate it more highly than I originally did, and can recommend that Shields fans seek it out.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
May 21, 2018
Slice of life is such a peculiar and kind of violent description of a certain kind of storytelling and yet for the lack of a fancier nomenclature there it is. That’s what these stories are. In the best possible way. This collection has sat on my Kindle patiently for quite a while and today was the day to check it out. First time reading the author, had no idea what to expect and was absolutely won over with the stunning beauty and observational power of these tales of everyday lives. Not all, but overwhelming majority of these stories are very quiet slices of life. No, ok, not that…they are windows into other lives, fictional, but for the most part very real (with a few fascinating surreal ones for good measure) lives, ordinary enough to be relatable yet extraordinary in their descriptive ability owning mainly to the absolutely stunning command of language. This collection was not merely quotable, it was a sheer pleasure to read and anyone with passion for great literature or even just a working appreciation of terrific writing or just basic love of words would certainly agree…this was lovely. Something about it, a particular cadence of narrative, that puts me in mind of classical music. Again, in the best possible way. The author left a significant body of works, including 10 novels one of which was short listed for Man Booker, plays, essays and two more short story collections, which is awesome to know upon freshly discovering a great author. Very enjoyable read. Recommended.
October 13, 2025
If you haven't looked, the first line of the GR description reads: The stories collected here offer an entrancing look at some of the various miracles of everyday life, the quirks of chance and coincidence, life's setbacks and improvisations. The quirks of chance and coincidence are especially prevalent in the title story, which appears first in the collection. When I'd finished reading it, I knew I would love this book. I'd like to say something about one section of that first story, but to do so would be a spoiler. So here is the sort of coincidence of that first story. Several times during the days I was reading this I got a notification that someone liked my 2009 review of Foreign Affairs. Its first sentence : In the first few pages, I was amused to find one of the two primary characters reading The Singapore Grip - the novel I had finished just prior to starting this.
The stories, for the most part, are people just living their lives. There are no huge joys to celebrate, but neither are there depths of depression with which to sympathize. I underscored a few places. There was one story that started WENDY IS BACK! the sign said. It caught his eye. The man doesn't know who Wendy is nor where she has been. As he walks along he makes up a story about Wendy. I thought about his making up a story and that probably many authors start with this sort of simple thing that becomes a story or a novel.
The last story ended thusly:
Did I say I knew I would love this collection? Did you think I'd give it fewer than 5 stars?
The stories, for the most part, are people just living their lives. There are no huge joys to celebrate, but neither are there depths of depression with which to sympathize. I underscored a few places. There was one story that started WENDY IS BACK! the sign said. It caught his eye. The man doesn't know who Wendy is nor where she has been. As he walks along he makes up a story about Wendy. I thought about his making up a story and that probably many authors start with this sort of simple thing that becomes a story or a novel.
The last story ended thusly:
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.The title of that story is Others. I know I am lucky to be one of those others.
Did I say I knew I would love this collection? Did you think I'd give it fewer than 5 stars?
February 4, 2009
My favourite collection of short stories ever. 'Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass' is a gem ...
January 22, 2025
„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. Sitting in a room that was slowly growing dark, they found themselves wishing they could measure its pure anchoring force or account for its random visitations. Of course they could not—which was why, after a time, they began to talk about other things: the weather, would it snow, would the wind continue its bitter course, would the creek freeze over, would there be another power cut, what would happen during the night.”
Absolutely incredible. Not much is going on and yet everything is happening. The mundane is magical. Life is a series of accidents and coincidences and still we're all connected. Reminded me so much of Lorrie Moore and Mavis Gallant. I'm so glad to have discovered Carol Shields.
Absolutely incredible. Not much is going on and yet everything is happening. The mundane is magical. Life is a series of accidents and coincidences and still we're all connected. Reminded me so much of Lorrie Moore and Mavis Gallant. I'm so glad to have discovered Carol Shields.
December 31, 2024
So satisfying to finish a book right before the new year. This collection of short stories was very compelling, largely containing the perspectives of people whose lives are very different from my own. Shields has an amazing ability to convey so much character in few words and to then offer some very succinct thoughts about existence and the inner lives of people. Great read, felt I learned something about writing
June 23, 2023
Carol Shields was such an exceptional short story writer that, even though I had already read this collection of stories in her Collected Stories book a while back, I enjoyed reading them again, immensely. She has a very unique quality to her writing and keeps a constant flow of very subtle humor going just under the surface. Some of the stories I liked best are: Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass that begins with Mrs. Turner cutting her grass and slowly begins unraveling her life story, The Metaphor is Dead - Pass It On about a professor giving a lecture about how the metaphor is dead in a speech filled with metaphors and Fragility about a couple that are planning to move to Vancouver and so have flown to Vancouver to go house hunting.
April 19, 2023
Loved “Unless” and a rare occasion where I didn’t like the short stories as much as an author’s long form work - I found it almost too abbreviated with not enough world building. The last story “Others” gets five stars from me and is one I’m sure I’ll revisit.
May 31, 2022
Review to come...
January 17, 2025
Oh Carol Shields and your wonderful brain and your wonderful short stories.
September 8, 2016
Strange and strangely affecting little stories.
I particularly like the title story (I don't even know why), "Mrs. Turner Cuting the Grass" (a lesson about the lack of ordinar-ness in ordinary people's lives), and "Love so Fleeting, Love so fine" (something everyone has done at one point or another in their lives).
I particularly like the title story (I don't even know why), "Mrs. Turner Cuting the Grass" (a lesson about the lack of ordinar-ness in ordinary people's lives), and "Love so Fleeting, Love so fine" (something everyone has done at one point or another in their lives).
September 15, 2017
I am fascinated by Carol Shields, and am building a picture of her art and talent with each additional book of hers I read. These short stories--or vignettes, perhaps, as many are more about extremely subtle feelings than about "happenings"--are as well-crafted as the Shields novels I've read. I do think she has gotten even better over time. Here, the stories illuminate the smallest moments and truths in such a way that they do seem to be miracles. Many of the stories end in a rather offhand, "unfinished" manner, as if we were glimpsing the scenes or thoughts from the windows of a moving bus or train, inexplicably but serendipitously blessed to be witnesses to the ordinarily unseen.
May 31, 2020
This is the first collection of short stories that I’ve read as a mature(ish) reader. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I was going to.
However, I can absolutely acknowledge the mastery of Shield’s writing and I truly admire her eye for detail. I found myself constantly wanting to underline pieces of her writing, and that signals great writing.
The stories, to me, just felt a little flat and lacklustre and I just didn’t connect to anything. I don’t know if this is an experience connected to Shield’s writing or if short stories just do not do it for me. I will have to read more short stories to find out.
I’m definitely going to try a novel by Shields.
However, I can absolutely acknowledge the mastery of Shield’s writing and I truly admire her eye for detail. I found myself constantly wanting to underline pieces of her writing, and that signals great writing.
The stories, to me, just felt a little flat and lacklustre and I just didn’t connect to anything. I don’t know if this is an experience connected to Shield’s writing or if short stories just do not do it for me. I will have to read more short stories to find out.
I’m definitely going to try a novel by Shields.
May 7, 2018
I describe these short stories as intensive character studies, rather than sweeping essays. After a while, the tone of each of the stories start to blend, and soon the moral or observation in each story is predictable. My biggest critique of the stories is that they often read as though the writing was for itself, rather than a goal larger than its immediate sentence. That said, I do have to reiterate that the stories are superb character studies.
April 3, 2021
Carol Shields, a Canadian author, is not as well known in the US as she should be. That is a shame since her writing is smart, and she has a great sense of humor. The stories in this collection vary in tone and length. A few stand out by their originality; a few stand out because of the pathos of their characters. Well worth reading, as is her book "Unless" and the well-known "Stone Diaries."
September 20, 2025
I’m not quite sure what prompted me to read this short-story collection, other than a vague familiarity with the author’s name. In any case, I only finished it to be able to say that I finished it. Most of the stories were passable, none were great, and quite a few were little more than sketches with little or no plot.
July 7, 2019
A superb collection of short stories
Carol Shields was a talented writer. Her short stories are subtle but have quite an impact on the reader. In this collection, I particularly liked "Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls."
Carol Shields was a talented writer. Her short stories are subtle but have quite an impact on the reader. In this collection, I particularly liked "Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls."
September 9, 2024
I’ve enjoyed reading lots of novels by Carol Shields and felt in the mood for some short stories. Sadly I found most of this collection rather repetitive and I thought the title story Various Miracles was quite weak.
November 24, 2019
You are always safe in Carol Shields hand.
December 6, 2019
Entertaining.
Read
October 15, 2020I may go back to this downloaded book later. Short stories are not my favorite genre.
October 29, 2020
Stunning writing.
July 1, 2024
CS always seems to get it just right. Just minutiae of everyday life but so well observed.
November 1, 2023
carol shields is always brilliant. her cadence and description of the mundane always floors me.
May 19, 2015
Unbelievable! This isn't the best example of the writing, but a taste, nonetheless, of a bombastic instructor. This particular story is only four pages in length. I read "The Stone Diaries" years ago by Carol Shields, and loved every word.
“THE METAPHOR IS DEAD,” bellowed the gargantuan professor, his walrus mustache dancing and his thundery eyebrows knitting together rapaciously. “Those accustomed to lunching at the high table of literature will now be able to nosh at the trough on a streamlined sub minus the pickle. Banished is that imperial albatross, that dragooned double agent, that muddy mirror lit by the false flashing signal like and by that even more presumptuous little sugar lump as . The gates are open, and the prisoner, freed of his shackles, has departed without so much as a goodbye wave to those who would take a simple pomegranate and insist it be the universe.
“THE METAPHOR IS DEAD,” bellowed the gargantuan professor, his walrus mustache dancing and his thundery eyebrows knitting together rapaciously. “Those accustomed to lunching at the high table of literature will now be able to nosh at the trough on a streamlined sub minus the pickle. Banished is that imperial albatross, that dragooned double agent, that muddy mirror lit by the false flashing signal like and by that even more presumptuous little sugar lump as . The gates are open, and the prisoner, freed of his shackles, has departed without so much as a goodbye wave to those who would take a simple pomegranate and insist it be the universe.
March 20, 2014
Most of the stories in "Various Miracles" provide insight into characters whose plain or
predictable lives/situations are revealed to be unique or exceptional in some way. The stories are haunting, spiritual somehow, and Shields' writing is - as always - magnificent. She has a light touch so that the writing seems effortless, but the content is never "light". There's an undercurrent
of significance and sadness...I can understand why it's hard for people to describe this book. My advice is to read the stories slowly (as another commentator suggested)and let them soak in. If you are prone to nostalgia, someone who likes to reflect on your "ordinary" life, I don't think you'll be disappointed with this collection.
predictable lives/situations are revealed to be unique or exceptional in some way. The stories are haunting, spiritual somehow, and Shields' writing is - as always - magnificent. She has a light touch so that the writing seems effortless, but the content is never "light". There's an undercurrent
of significance and sadness...I can understand why it's hard for people to describe this book. My advice is to read the stories slowly (as another commentator suggested)and let them soak in. If you are prone to nostalgia, someone who likes to reflect on your "ordinary" life, I don't think you'll be disappointed with this collection.
August 4, 2019
I found Shield's breathless wonder of the universe and its little and large connections a refreshing break from the often bleak nature of well-known short stories. Though not all of her stories impressed me, the shorter ones certainly packed in a lot of joy.
Notable Stories
• Various Miracles – the uplifting title story best represents the positive tone of the entire collection.
• Love So Fleeting, Love So Fine – I often wonder about strange but cute signs in the same way as in this tale.
• Chemistry – the 2nd person address is unique and I really felt for the whimper of an ending.
Notable Stories
• Various Miracles – the uplifting title story best represents the positive tone of the entire collection.
• Love So Fleeting, Love So Fine – I often wonder about strange but cute signs in the same way as in this tale.
• Chemistry – the 2nd person address is unique and I really felt for the whimper of an ending.
July 27, 2007
I'm having a hard time characterizing this collection of stories. They're quiet stories about average people, but there's a twist of wonder and magic and even whimsy in them that never failed to catch me off guard.
A couple blurbs on the back cover do a pretty good job: Alice Munro says "There's something so bountiful and surprising about [these stories], like the beautiful broken light of a prism"; James Wilcox says, "With deft, luminous prose Carol Shields creates a tangential world of real charm and mystery."
A couple blurbs on the back cover do a pretty good job: Alice Munro says "There's something so bountiful and surprising about [these stories], like the beautiful broken light of a prism"; James Wilcox says, "With deft, luminous prose Carol Shields creates a tangential world of real charm and mystery."
May 22, 2015
"The previous tenant had left behind a single item, which was a paperback copy of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, a book that, oddly enough, she had always intended to read. She couldn't help feeling there had been something deliberate - and something imperative, too - about this abandoned book, as though it had been specifically intended for her and that she was being enjoined to take it seriously". From the short story "Invitations" pg. 139
September 1, 2016
I enjoy reading Shields. This is the first short story collection of hers that I've read, so it's also brought a new side of her writing to my attention. somehow her style in some of these stories even remind me of Vonnegut. It's as if the story gets away for awhile and runs wild until the writer gets a hold of it again and brings it back to earth. I like the unpredictability in these various miracles.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews