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Η δημοκρατία του έρωτα
'Οταν δύο στραπατσαρισμένοι βετεράνοι των πολέμων της αρδιάς παραδίνονται στο αίσθημα, ο έρωτας σηκώνει απρόσμενα το κεφάλι του...
Εκείνη δυσκολεύεται να δεσμευτεί. Οι ερωτικές ιστορίες της, όσο ευχάριστες και αν είναι. δεν πάνε ποτέ καλά.
Εκείνος δεσμεύεται πολύ εύκολα. Στα σαράντα του, είναι βετεράνος τριών γάμων, με κλίση στις δύσκολες γυναίκες.
Εκείνη λαογράφος, ζει βυθισμένη στο μυθικό θαλάσσιο κόσμο με τις γοργόνες.
Εκείνος ραδιοπαρουσιαστής, ζει βυθισμένος στον υπερμοντέρνο, εκκεντρικό κόσμο των ανθρώπων της νύχτας και στις απελπιστικές συγκεντρώσεις μιας λέσχης εργένηδων.
Κι οι δύο προβληματίζονται για τη δυνατότητα ρομαντισμού και έρωτα στον εικοστό αιώνα. Όταν ξαφνικά τους χτυπάσει ο κεραυνός - κανένα πρόβλημα...Αλλά επεμβαίνει η πραγματικότητα κι ανακαλύπτουν πως για μια σταθερή θέση στη δημοκρατία του έρωτα απαιτείται κάτι παραπάνω από την εύνοια της τύχης κι ένα κεραυνοβόλο χτύπημα αισθήματος.
Εκείνη δυσκολεύεται να δεσμευτεί. Οι ερωτικές ιστορίες της, όσο ευχάριστες και αν είναι. δεν πάνε ποτέ καλά.
Εκείνος δεσμεύεται πολύ εύκολα. Στα σαράντα του, είναι βετεράνος τριών γάμων, με κλίση στις δύσκολες γυναίκες.
Εκείνη λαογράφος, ζει βυθισμένη στο μυθικό θαλάσσιο κόσμο με τις γοργόνες.
Εκείνος ραδιοπαρουσιαστής, ζει βυθισμένος στον υπερμοντέρνο, εκκεντρικό κόσμο των ανθρώπων της νύχτας και στις απελπιστικές συγκεντρώσεις μιας λέσχης εργένηδων.
Κι οι δύο προβληματίζονται για τη δυνατότητα ρομαντισμού και έρωτα στον εικοστό αιώνα. Όταν ξαφνικά τους χτυπάσει ο κεραυνός - κανένα πρόβλημα...Αλλά επεμβαίνει η πραγματικότητα κι ανακαλύπτουν πως για μια σταθερή θέση στη δημοκρατία του έρωτα απαιτείται κάτι παραπάνω από την εύνοια της τύχης κι ένα κεραυνοβόλο χτύπημα αισθήματος.
423 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
85 people are currently reading
2557 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 271 reviews
October 25, 2022
Oh my God. Oh my God. I don't know why nobody ever recommended Carol Shields to me before. All these English professors, all these CANADIAN LITERATURE professors in my life and they didn't threaten me with bodily harm for not reading this marvel. If someone had beaten me over the head every day for a year until I read this book, right now I would be thanking them and apologizing. I owe my friend Jenny my firstborn child for telling me casually "I think you'll really like it!". Oh my God.
Carol Shields is a wonder. She doesn't just rank as one of the Canadian greats, like Alice Munro or Margaret Atwood, but she should be held in regard equal to Austen and Dickens. I felt like screaming every page; I was like that Jenny Slate meme where she screams about NASA. Every turn of phrase felt miraculous, everything made me ache in the most beautiful and amazing way. I know I read a lot, but I have not had such an intensely pleasurable reading experience in a long time. I could not stop smiling in admiration, could not stop thinking about this book and blessing its existence. Now to read everything else Carol Shields ever wrote - possibly after rereading this right now.
Carol Shields is a wonder. She doesn't just rank as one of the Canadian greats, like Alice Munro or Margaret Atwood, but she should be held in regard equal to Austen and Dickens. I felt like screaming every page; I was like that Jenny Slate meme where she screams about NASA. Every turn of phrase felt miraculous, everything made me ache in the most beautiful and amazing way. I know I read a lot, but I have not had such an intensely pleasurable reading experience in a long time. I could not stop smiling in admiration, could not stop thinking about this book and blessing its existence. Now to read everything else Carol Shields ever wrote - possibly after rereading this right now.
April 5, 2021
Not one of my favorites from Shields, but still enjoyable and reminiscent of Anne Tyler’s The Accidental Tourist. Her chapters alternate between the perspectives of radio disc jockey Tom Avery and folklorist/mermaid researcher Fay McLeod, two Winnipeg lonely hearts who each have their share of broken relationships behind them – including three divorces for Tom and a string of long-term live-in boyfriends for Fay. It’s clear they’re going to meet and fall in love (almost exactly halfway through), but Shields is careful to interrogate myths of love at first sight and happily ever after. As a colleague asks Fay, “wasn’t it you who told me that it was impossible to speak of love in the twentieth century except ironically?”
I especially liked the surprising interconnectedness of everyone in Winnipeg, the subplot about Fay’s parents’ marriage, and the habit of recording minor characters’ monologues (friends, family, radio listeners, colleagues, whoever) word for word without Fay or Tom’s words in edgewise. My major points of criticism would be that Tom sometimes feels like a caricature – the male/female dynamic is not quite as successful here as in Happenstance, which also divides the perspective half and half male/female – and that I wasn’t entirely sure what all the mermaid material was meant to achieve. However, as usual, Shields impresses me with her understanding of relationships and her broad compassion for the human lot, as in the quotes below:
Tom: “He looked hard in the bathroom mirror and said to himself: All I have is this self. Not another thing. Just this irreducible droning self.”
Tom’s colleague: “People wake up feeling ugly and lonely and weak and they’d just as soon hide out at home, right? But all they have to do is reconnect. Get their hearts restarted. It’s hard work being a person, you have to do it every single day.”
“The problem with stories of romance is that lovers are always shown in isolation: two individuals made suddenly mythic by the size of their ardor, an ardor that is declared to be secretive or else incomprehensible to the rest of the wide buzzing world. And the moment love is seized upon and named, the lovers are magically released from a need for dentists, for tax advisers, for shoe salesmen, for anyone who stands outside their immediate sphere of passion.”
I especially liked the surprising interconnectedness of everyone in Winnipeg, the subplot about Fay’s parents’ marriage, and the habit of recording minor characters’ monologues (friends, family, radio listeners, colleagues, whoever) word for word without Fay or Tom’s words in edgewise. My major points of criticism would be that Tom sometimes feels like a caricature – the male/female dynamic is not quite as successful here as in Happenstance, which also divides the perspective half and half male/female – and that I wasn’t entirely sure what all the mermaid material was meant to achieve. However, as usual, Shields impresses me with her understanding of relationships and her broad compassion for the human lot, as in the quotes below:
Tom: “He looked hard in the bathroom mirror and said to himself: All I have is this self. Not another thing. Just this irreducible droning self.”
Tom’s colleague: “People wake up feeling ugly and lonely and weak and they’d just as soon hide out at home, right? But all they have to do is reconnect. Get their hearts restarted. It’s hard work being a person, you have to do it every single day.”
“The problem with stories of romance is that lovers are always shown in isolation: two individuals made suddenly mythic by the size of their ardor, an ardor that is declared to be secretive or else incomprehensible to the rest of the wide buzzing world. And the moment love is seized upon and named, the lovers are magically released from a need for dentists, for tax advisers, for shoe salesmen, for anyone who stands outside their immediate sphere of passion.”
May 8, 2008
This book made me fall in love with romance stories and made me want to go out and read as many as I could find until I remembered that the reason I don't read stories centred around romance in the first place is because 99.9% of them are, in my opinion, crap and uninteresting. This book is obviously in the other .1%. This is how all romances should read, as a real story that takes more into consideration than simply getting two characters together.
November 6, 2013
If I had to describe this book in just one word, it would be an "eh." It's not that the book is bad, per se; it's just that I personally felt like it wasn't really about much of anything at all. Basically, two ordinary people living perfectly normal lives are discussed at length; then they meet, and the plot becomes highly improbable. I know it's supposed to be romantic and about love and stuff, but to me, it just went from feeling uninteresting to outright fake. Tom was more interesting to me than Fay. Tom comes off as a likeable, simple kind of guy, while Fay just seems sort of cold and self-serving. I found myself wanting to know more about Tom's past relationships than his interactions with Fay. I also found Tom's disc jockey job intriguing; if Fay's work with mermaids was supposed to be relevant to the story, I never figured out how.
In spite of my lackluster emotions regarding The Republic of Love, I did find some poignancy in a few of its moments; this quote kind of sums up for me what I think Carol Shields was trying to accomplish:
"We've got to get back to neighborliness. We've lost it. Saying good morning to each other? Saying how do you do, how are you feeling, how's the world treating you? Recycling plastic bags is peanuts, ditto with phosphate-free detergent. We're always hollering these days about the infrastructure of our cities, but love's got an infrastructure, too. Love your neighbor, let him love you back a little. Love's the greenest stuff going. Let's hear it for love."
In spite of my lackluster emotions regarding The Republic of Love, I did find some poignancy in a few of its moments; this quote kind of sums up for me what I think Carol Shields was trying to accomplish:
"We've got to get back to neighborliness. We've lost it. Saying good morning to each other? Saying how do you do, how are you feeling, how's the world treating you? Recycling plastic bags is peanuts, ditto with phosphate-free detergent. We're always hollering these days about the infrastructure of our cities, but love's got an infrastructure, too. Love your neighbor, let him love you back a little. Love's the greenest stuff going. Let's hear it for love."
February 11, 2013
I should start with a disclaimer. I hate fictional love stories. They make me puke. I never read a straight romance. Every time I pick up a romance by a respected not-known-for-romance author, I'm hoping for something better, something deeper, something less treacly. Almost every time I'm let down.
This is yet another romance where the meet-cute happens, of all clichéd things, among children. The heroine is charmingly holding balloons, and kids are clamoring around her. The hero is equally charmingly bumbling about looking for his godson. Bam! They're in love. They have one conversation maybe lasting an hour, one hug, and suddenly they're in love. They continue being ecstatically in love until one of them is suddenly not certain. But that happens to only last two chapters, and they're back together again. The only difference in this coma-inducing love story is that this meeting doesn't happen until the middle of the novel.
The chapters are lessons in how to write so many words, and yet reveal nothing about anything. The characters are given backgrounds, she's a mermaid folklorist, he a radio deejay. She has commitment phobia, he commits too easily. Her family is a close knit one, his is not so, but it's still not horrid. Why does she not commit? Why does he commit so easily? Not addressed with anything resembling depth. Why does he push Fay so much into yet another wedding? Why does she not put a check to it if she was so unsure about the whole thing? Not addressed with anything resembling depth. Why does she leave? Why does she come back? What does Tom feel about getting jilted, practically at the altar? What does it do to his trust? Not addressed with anything resembling depth. And the main thing - why is this relationship different from any of their previous relationships? Not addressed at all.
I'm tired of reading this over and over again and taking it on faith that these characters care about each other. I can't figure out why so many of these authors, some of them even authors who have written beautiful love stories in novels that don't focus on romance, forget about how much work, how much compromise and how much bloody-mindedness it takes for a relationship to work. Instead they just focus on the physical aspect, and how they can't live without each other, and so on and so forth, until of course, there's a bit of drama that's resolved in a couple of sentences or two. I could take this nonsensical story if only the writing had been better, but as I referred to it earlier, coma-inducing is how it is. I have a stubborn streak when it comes to finishing bad books, and that is the sole reason I even bothered to reach the end, even though I knew exactly how it would turn out, including the bit of drama.
Such a disappointing read. My anticipation for Unless and The Stone Diaries has gone down considerably.
This is yet another romance where the meet-cute happens, of all clichéd things, among children. The heroine is charmingly holding balloons, and kids are clamoring around her. The hero is equally charmingly bumbling about looking for his godson. Bam! They're in love. They have one conversation maybe lasting an hour, one hug, and suddenly they're in love. They continue being ecstatically in love until one of them is suddenly not certain. But that happens to only last two chapters, and they're back together again. The only difference in this coma-inducing love story is that this meeting doesn't happen until the middle of the novel.
The chapters are lessons in how to write so many words, and yet reveal nothing about anything. The characters are given backgrounds, she's a mermaid folklorist, he a radio deejay. She has commitment phobia, he commits too easily. Her family is a close knit one, his is not so, but it's still not horrid. Why does she not commit? Why does he commit so easily? Not addressed with anything resembling depth. Why does he push Fay so much into yet another wedding? Why does she not put a check to it if she was so unsure about the whole thing? Not addressed with anything resembling depth. Why does she leave? Why does she come back? What does Tom feel about getting jilted, practically at the altar? What does it do to his trust? Not addressed with anything resembling depth. And the main thing - why is this relationship different from any of their previous relationships? Not addressed at all.
I'm tired of reading this over and over again and taking it on faith that these characters care about each other. I can't figure out why so many of these authors, some of them even authors who have written beautiful love stories in novels that don't focus on romance, forget about how much work, how much compromise and how much bloody-mindedness it takes for a relationship to work. Instead they just focus on the physical aspect, and how they can't live without each other, and so on and so forth, until of course, there's a bit of drama that's resolved in a couple of sentences or two. I could take this nonsensical story if only the writing had been better, but as I referred to it earlier, coma-inducing is how it is. I have a stubborn streak when it comes to finishing bad books, and that is the sole reason I even bothered to reach the end, even though I knew exactly how it would turn out, including the bit of drama.
Such a disappointing read. My anticipation for Unless and The Stone Diaries has gone down considerably.
May 4, 2022
I went into reading this book blind, not reading the back cover blurb.
I’ve only read “Unless” by Carol Shields. And I really like that one!
I cannot say the same about this one.
I kept waiting for it to go somewhere. Keep trying to keep tracks of who had been married to whom and…it felt like I was on a on the merry-go-round… Tom-Sheila-Sammy- Fritzi- Peter-Faye…..
Toward the last one third of the book, I found myself skimming, hoping for something to grab me because by this time I was just bored with the characters and all the details.
This book just wasn’t for me. ☹
I’ve only read “Unless” by Carol Shields. And I really like that one!
I cannot say the same about this one.
I kept waiting for it to go somewhere. Keep trying to keep tracks of who had been married to whom and…it felt like I was on a on the merry-go-round… Tom-Sheila-Sammy- Fritzi- Peter-Faye…..
Toward the last one third of the book, I found myself skimming, hoping for something to grab me because by this time I was just bored with the characters and all the details.
This book just wasn’t for me. ☹
March 26, 2009
I really, really wanted to love this book. I loved reading The Stone Diaries and Unless. They had characters that felt real and problems that I became passionately interested in.
The Republic of Love, not so much.
Tom and Fay were lovely people, but as soon as they got together, I lost interest. I skimmed the rest of the book, saw what troubles lay ahead for our hero and heroine and proceeded to check out. Maybe it was Winnipeg. It just seemed so dang dull, but Shields insisted on making it a character all its own. Maybe it seemed like Fay deserved way better than Tom - her folklorist character seemed way cooler than his disc jockey character. I wanted The African Queen but ended up with Failure to Launch.
I feel bad because even Shields herself mentions in the novel that no one respects love. I do. I do respect love, but maybe not uncharismatic love in Winnipeg.
The Republic of Love, not so much.
Tom and Fay were lovely people, but as soon as they got together, I lost interest. I skimmed the rest of the book, saw what troubles lay ahead for our hero and heroine and proceeded to check out. Maybe it was Winnipeg. It just seemed so dang dull, but Shields insisted on making it a character all its own. Maybe it seemed like Fay deserved way better than Tom - her folklorist character seemed way cooler than his disc jockey character. I wanted The African Queen but ended up with Failure to Launch.
I feel bad because even Shields herself mentions in the novel that no one respects love. I do. I do respect love, but maybe not uncharismatic love in Winnipeg.
August 10, 2012
Carol Shields just rocks my world. The only reason why I didn't give this book five stars is that it stopped being awesome when the whole romance thing started near the end. You know it's going to happen, and it's nice for the characters, but I just loved the two of them so much as characters that I didn't want to see them get boring the way couples in books do once they've found each other -- like, their centers of gravity just alter and there they go: insular and boring. I might be talking about more than just characters in books when I say that.
But until they meet and go through the usual stuff, which happens in the last 1/4 of the book, I get to live in their brains and feel amazed at how much we are all alike when you get down to it.
The literary world lost a wondrous, kind writer when Shields died.
But until they meet and go through the usual stuff, which happens in the last 1/4 of the book, I get to live in their brains and feel amazed at how much we are all alike when you get down to it.
The literary world lost a wondrous, kind writer when Shields died.
April 7, 2014
What a wonderful surprise
I had never heard of Carol Shields before reading this book and was delighted to find out such a quiet treasure in its pages. I myself have never been particularly lucky in love and felt drawn to the real fragility that held so many of the romances in this novel together. I suppose it just seemed very genuine to me. A wonderful discovery. I cannot wait to try another of her novels.
I had never heard of Carol Shields before reading this book and was delighted to find out such a quiet treasure in its pages. I myself have never been particularly lucky in love and felt drawn to the real fragility that held so many of the romances in this novel together. I suppose it just seemed very genuine to me. A wonderful discovery. I cannot wait to try another of her novels.
December 16, 2009
Whenever I open a book by Carol Shields, I prepare myself to walk into a folksy Midwest version of "The Ya-Ya Sisterhood," starring sassy old biddies who turn scrapbooking a full-contact sport.
I'm not sure where I got the idea that she writes Hot Flash Fiction, but I'm always wrong, and I've never been more pleasantly surprised by a book than I was by her 1994 novel "The Republic of Love.
Bits of the lives of the two main characters, Fay and Tom, are revealed in alternating chapters. Fay is a folklorist with an emphasis in mermaid-ology, who has recently broken up with another in a long line of longterm boyfriends. She wakes up one day and realizes she doesn't love Peter anymore, and ends things amicably. She relishes the idea of making just a single serving of toast.
Tom, a popular third-shift DJ, half-assed runner, frequent cafe diner, is thrice divorced, which he blames on a string of bad luck. He's been attending newly single classes for two years.
The two travel in barely connected social circles. In fact, Fay's exboyfriend Peter was once married to Fritzi, the woman Tom's former wife's husband left her for. Exactly: Winnipeg as an incest-seasoned dating pool.
They don't meet and fall in love. They meet, eventually, and then just are in love. Tom makes a grand gesture and Fay counters with her own. Unfortunately, this happens with too many pages left in the book for a reader to get too comfortable with the hearts and flowers.
Nonetheless, this thing the quintessential dopey-grin love story.
Shields created such wholly likable characters in this story in a way that is so tricky and Charles Baxter-ian to do. Fay and Tom aren't annoyingly anything or self-righteous, or condescending. They are just two super nice moderately attractive people with cool hobbies that I got pretty rah! rah! about -- so much so that I felt personally invested in the outcome of their story.
There is something about the phrase "love story," and especially admitting to loving a love story, that feels like it should be quantified or ironic. This is something Shields seems aware of:
"But Fay's noticed something she's never noticed before. That love is not, anywhere, taken seriously. It's not respected. It's the one thing in the world everyone wants -- she's convinced of that -- but for some reason people are obliged to pretend that love is trifling and foolish. ... We pretend it's not there, the thunderous passions that enter a life and alter its course. Love belongs in an amateur operetta, on the inside of a jokey greeting card, or in the annals of an old-fashioned poetry society. ... It's womanish, it's embarrassing, something to jeer at, something for jerks. Just a love story, people say about a book they happen to be reading, or caught reading."
I'm not sure where I got the idea that she writes Hot Flash Fiction, but I'm always wrong, and I've never been more pleasantly surprised by a book than I was by her 1994 novel "The Republic of Love.
Bits of the lives of the two main characters, Fay and Tom, are revealed in alternating chapters. Fay is a folklorist with an emphasis in mermaid-ology, who has recently broken up with another in a long line of longterm boyfriends. She wakes up one day and realizes she doesn't love Peter anymore, and ends things amicably. She relishes the idea of making just a single serving of toast.
Tom, a popular third-shift DJ, half-assed runner, frequent cafe diner, is thrice divorced, which he blames on a string of bad luck. He's been attending newly single classes for two years.
The two travel in barely connected social circles. In fact, Fay's exboyfriend Peter was once married to Fritzi, the woman Tom's former wife's husband left her for. Exactly: Winnipeg as an incest-seasoned dating pool.
They don't meet and fall in love. They meet, eventually, and then just are in love. Tom makes a grand gesture and Fay counters with her own. Unfortunately, this happens with too many pages left in the book for a reader to get too comfortable with the hearts and flowers.
Nonetheless, this thing the quintessential dopey-grin love story.
Shields created such wholly likable characters in this story in a way that is so tricky and Charles Baxter-ian to do. Fay and Tom aren't annoyingly anything or self-righteous, or condescending. They are just two super nice moderately attractive people with cool hobbies that I got pretty rah! rah! about -- so much so that I felt personally invested in the outcome of their story.
There is something about the phrase "love story," and especially admitting to loving a love story, that feels like it should be quantified or ironic. This is something Shields seems aware of:
"But Fay's noticed something she's never noticed before. That love is not, anywhere, taken seriously. It's not respected. It's the one thing in the world everyone wants -- she's convinced of that -- but for some reason people are obliged to pretend that love is trifling and foolish. ... We pretend it's not there, the thunderous passions that enter a life and alter its course. Love belongs in an amateur operetta, on the inside of a jokey greeting card, or in the annals of an old-fashioned poetry society. ... It's womanish, it's embarrassing, something to jeer at, something for jerks. Just a love story, people say about a book they happen to be reading, or caught reading."
October 28, 2011
A 'literary' novel, but I just found it so dull. The lists of food in a cupboard, clothes in a wardrobe, bored me to tears. There was an anniversary party where she listed most of the guests who attended, most of whom we hadn't met before, so what. The main characters weren't dislikeable, but this story was just so stretched out with pointless detail that I couldn't care whether they got together or not. It seemed less like a love affair, more like two lonely people deciding to make a tentative go of it.
May 22, 2020
I loved this. It was a 4 up until the last 100 pages and then ramped up to 5 stars! What a beautiful character drive story! The descriptions of Winnipeg were such a major part of the story, the city was a character itself.
July 8, 2022
This novel published in 1992 is a story about romantic love, but not the gushy, saccharine mushy type, more the type that two people find in a new relationship in midlife after having already experienced life as a couple with other people. This is the story of Faith and Tom, who do not meet until part way through the book. They are two pretty ordinary people living in a Canadian city, people easy to relate to because they are so much like many of the people we already know. Both are recovering from previous relationships and still hoping to fall in love again and experience a romantic relationship with that one special person that will be with them till the end of their days.
Fay MacLeod is a thirty-five-year-old folklorist who studies and researches mermaids. She has just ended her relationship with Peter, a man she has lived with for three years but no longer loves. Fay has had several very acceptable live-in boyfriends but has never married and some of her friends believe she is scared of commitment. But Fay feels she has still not met her true love, the one man meant for her.
Tom Avery is a forty-year-old successful nighttime host on a Winnipeg radio station. During his time on the air, he entertains his listeners with pleasant small talk and sentimental songs. His audience is often the lonely and the lovelorn, evidenced by some of the cards he receives from strangers and insomniacs. Tom is a decent, big hearted man, who despite being divorced for the third time, still believes he will meet “the one” who will be his great love, he just hasn’t found her yet. Despite his failed experiences at marriage, Tom is neither cynical nor jaded and believes love is still in his future.
In alternating chapters readers get to know Fay and Tom who both lead ordinary lives. Fay enjoys having bran muffins with her Dad. Tom enjoys a Saturday morning jog. Both put a concerted effort into their professional lives. Fay is portrayed as a hard-working, organized academic as she researches material for her book on mermaids. Tom is described as someone who is earnest, concerned and kind in his interactions with his late-night listeners. We experience the ordinary moments that make these two, the people they have become as individuals before they ever meet. We learn about their positive as well as negative traits, their strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. We hear about their friends, family and other attachments, their successes and failures. And then the two meet at a child’s birthday party and make an instant connection. They learn that even though they live not far from one another in the same area of Winnipeg, and have mutual acquaintances, they have surprisingly never met. As readers expect, they begin a romance.
Shields covers their day to day lives as the connection between them grows from their initial infatuation to their engagement and marriage, covering all the complications and bumps in the road along the way. The narrative moves at a slow pace, reflecting the rhythms of time as they get to know one another. But their story is never boring. It proceeds at the rate of the two people who are beginning to know one another as the days pass, allowing us to better understand their slowly emerging relationship which has its humourous as well as loving moments. Shields is not shy about describing the experience of falling in love, the irrational, crazy, giddy feelings that come with sensing something special is developing, when everything seems crazy, but all is right with the world.
Everyone aspires to the experience of romantic love with all its ecstatic, wonderful, confusing, disappointing and bizarre moments. Some may be reluctant to admit it, but everyone wants to experience it for themselves. Shields has selected a title that serves to underline the belief that everyone has the right and deserves the chance to love and be loved. She has chosen Fay and Tom to press her point. Neither is anyone special, they are just are ordinary people who live in a small city of Winnipeg with half a million other people, not a large exciting metropolis like Toronto or Vancouver. Her point being that love can happen to anyone and this is what it feels like to experience it.
This was the first book I read by Carol Shields and I can still remember how much I enjoyed it. I was a little uncertain when I started it, not interested in reading a so-called romance. But this is something entirely different. It is well written and compulsively readable, a book to be enjoyed. I have searched out and read much of Shield’s other work, but this was my first step into the world of her writing, one that made me a fan.
Fay MacLeod is a thirty-five-year-old folklorist who studies and researches mermaids. She has just ended her relationship with Peter, a man she has lived with for three years but no longer loves. Fay has had several very acceptable live-in boyfriends but has never married and some of her friends believe she is scared of commitment. But Fay feels she has still not met her true love, the one man meant for her.
Tom Avery is a forty-year-old successful nighttime host on a Winnipeg radio station. During his time on the air, he entertains his listeners with pleasant small talk and sentimental songs. His audience is often the lonely and the lovelorn, evidenced by some of the cards he receives from strangers and insomniacs. Tom is a decent, big hearted man, who despite being divorced for the third time, still believes he will meet “the one” who will be his great love, he just hasn’t found her yet. Despite his failed experiences at marriage, Tom is neither cynical nor jaded and believes love is still in his future.
In alternating chapters readers get to know Fay and Tom who both lead ordinary lives. Fay enjoys having bran muffins with her Dad. Tom enjoys a Saturday morning jog. Both put a concerted effort into their professional lives. Fay is portrayed as a hard-working, organized academic as she researches material for her book on mermaids. Tom is described as someone who is earnest, concerned and kind in his interactions with his late-night listeners. We experience the ordinary moments that make these two, the people they have become as individuals before they ever meet. We learn about their positive as well as negative traits, their strengths, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. We hear about their friends, family and other attachments, their successes and failures. And then the two meet at a child’s birthday party and make an instant connection. They learn that even though they live not far from one another in the same area of Winnipeg, and have mutual acquaintances, they have surprisingly never met. As readers expect, they begin a romance.
Shields covers their day to day lives as the connection between them grows from their initial infatuation to their engagement and marriage, covering all the complications and bumps in the road along the way. The narrative moves at a slow pace, reflecting the rhythms of time as they get to know one another. But their story is never boring. It proceeds at the rate of the two people who are beginning to know one another as the days pass, allowing us to better understand their slowly emerging relationship which has its humourous as well as loving moments. Shields is not shy about describing the experience of falling in love, the irrational, crazy, giddy feelings that come with sensing something special is developing, when everything seems crazy, but all is right with the world.
Everyone aspires to the experience of romantic love with all its ecstatic, wonderful, confusing, disappointing and bizarre moments. Some may be reluctant to admit it, but everyone wants to experience it for themselves. Shields has selected a title that serves to underline the belief that everyone has the right and deserves the chance to love and be loved. She has chosen Fay and Tom to press her point. Neither is anyone special, they are just are ordinary people who live in a small city of Winnipeg with half a million other people, not a large exciting metropolis like Toronto or Vancouver. Her point being that love can happen to anyone and this is what it feels like to experience it.
This was the first book I read by Carol Shields and I can still remember how much I enjoyed it. I was a little uncertain when I started it, not interested in reading a so-called romance. But this is something entirely different. It is well written and compulsively readable, a book to be enjoyed. I have searched out and read much of Shield’s other work, but this was my first step into the world of her writing, one that made me a fan.
January 19, 2008
I absolutely ADORED this book. I think I'm becoming quiet the Carol Shields fan! ;-) This is about Tom, a night-time DJ, and Fay, a mermaid specialist (Carol's characters always have the *most* interesting jobs and eccentric interests! *smile*). Both are currently single, Tom after three failed marriages, and Fay, who's never been brave enough to walk the aisle but also has several apparently serious relationships that haven't lasted. And they live right across the street from each other in Winnipeg. Shields makes great commentary on what love is all about, why people need it so badly, how we pursue or run away from it, how do people get together, and why do they come apart
again. Fascinating reading, and I don't think you could find two more utterly likable characters. By the time they fell in love, I was already in love with both of them individually, then I fell in love with them falling in love (grin), and I fell in love with this book and with this author too. These two characters are SO real to me, I feel like I should just drive up to Winnipeg next weekend, and pop in on them for a visit. :-)
again. Fascinating reading, and I don't think you could find two more utterly likable characters. By the time they fell in love, I was already in love with both of them individually, then I fell in love with them falling in love (grin), and I fell in love with this book and with this author too. These two characters are SO real to me, I feel like I should just drive up to Winnipeg next weekend, and pop in on them for a visit. :-)
February 3, 2011
Such a positive hopefull book! Full of flawed but likeable 3-dimensional characters, with a usual variety of professions (anthropologist, DJ, computer programmer, lawyer, dry cleaner) and traits (one character has a stutter, not crucial to the plot but just because in real life some people do.) -- Shields builds a believable community of real people whom I would like to know. Set most definitely in Winnepeg, which becomes as real as the characters, rather some generic "Anywhere, USA" background. A serious literary book that unapologetically believes in the power of romantic love. I loved it even more the second time round, and just thinking abouta it puts a smile on my face.
February 26, 2012
I loved this book for its treatment of love in a way that was not corny or surreal. This was a book about two ordinary, flawed human beings who brought with them their tangled, messy pasts and somehow ended up happy together. I adore Carol Shield's writing; the words seem to flow effortlessly and I will be reading her other books as soon as I can get my hands on them.
February 1, 2017
I enjoyed reading this book. It took me awhile as I enjoyed the prose and wanted to make sure I was getting as much out of it as I could. To be honest, a book like this I would have normally stopped reading. Not a lot of action....BUT...there was something about these characters that kept me reading. I really enjoyed them and their story.
April 14, 2010
Adult content. A great "Winnipeg" book by a wonderful writer and person (and former professor). I reread this overlooked novel for a CanLit course I'm taking right now.
April 10, 2024
Γράφει ωραία η Κάρολ Σιλντς. Γράφει με μια σιγουριά, μια σταθερότητα εντυπωσιακή, του τύπου: “το κατέχω το θέμα “Sex and the city” και θα στο διηγηθώ όπως θέλω εγώ, με το πάσο μου. Έχω δαμάσει τα άλογα του έργου μου και θα οδηγήσω το άρμα σαν να είναι μηχανή του γκαζόν, ακριβώς εκεί που θέλω - για να δεις που ακριβώς, θα πρέπει να κάνεις υπομονή”.. Εντάξει Κάρολ, δεν βαρέθηκα, αν και έως τη σελίδα 200 της «Δημοκρατίας» ακόμα ούτε ένα “γεια!” δεν είχαν πει (μεταξύ τους) οι πρωταγωνιστές, late bloomers είναι κι αυτοί;
ΤΑ ΒΑΣΙΚΑ ΠΡΟΣΩΠΑ ΤΟΥ ΔΡΑΜΑΤΟΣ:
Ι. Ο Τομ, ή, τι πρόκειται να συμβεί όταν έχεις ανοίξει όλα σου τα πανιά - και τη Μαΐστρα και το μπαλόνι και το φανελάκι του παππού μαζί - και πλέεις ανέμελος, κατευθείαν προς το μάτι της καταιγίδας:
« Ποτέ δεν θα ξαναπαντρευόταν μία γυναίκα που δεν θα νοιάζονταν να πάει τα ρούχα της στο καθαριστήριο ή μία γυναίκα που έκρυβε ένα μπουκάλι brandy στο ντουλάπι με τα ασπρόρουχα ή μια γυναίκα που για εντελώς άγνωστο λόγο δεν είχε ιδέα από μικρές πράξεις τρυφερότητας, όπως να του ισιώνει το γιακά του πανωφοριού, ή να τινάζει τη σκόνη από το μανίκι του… Δικαιούνταν μερικές ανέσεις. Ήταν ήμερος και καλόβολος, ναι, αλλά δεν είχε δικαίωμα να περιμένει λίγη αφθονία και τάξη, φρεσκοπλυμένα και φρεσκοσιδερωμένα ρούχα; Γιατί όχι; Οι άλλοι τα είχαν αυτά τα πράγματα. Δούλευε σκληρά 5 νύχτες την εβδομάδα. Είχε καλό μισθό. Είχε λεφτά στην τράπεζα. Ήταν τρέλα του να ζει με τον τρόπο που ζούσε. Ήταν ταπεινωτικό, εξουθενωτικό, τον έκανε να νιώθει μόνος και εγκαταλειμμένος. Ποτέ πια, Γαλανομάτη Μάγκα μου, ποτέ πια.. σελ. 174.
Ναι Τομ, ότι πεις..
ΙΙ. Η Φαίη, ή, τι πρόκειται να συμβεί όταν έχεις IQ άνω του 160 και ζεις στον Καναδά:
«Είναι εξαντλητική η μάχη να δώσεις ένα σχήμα στον εαυτό σου. Είναι και καταθλιπτική, σαν άσχημο μεγάλο φόρεμα, που είσαι αναγκασμένη να το φοράς χρόνια ολάκερα» .. 189
Καρολ, όλοι οι ήρωες σου είναι τόσο εγκεφαλικοί που διαβάζοντας την ιστορία τους, ένοιωθα σαν μπαμπουίνος (που διαβάζει). Μπορεί και να είμαι, αλλά δεν θα αναρωτιόμουν για την προέλευση των πλακακίων της σκάλας, βγαίνοντας από έναν χωρισμό..
Όλα γλυκούλικα, ζεστούλικα, υγρούλικα (απ τα δακρυάκια) και.. αληθινά, πράγματι. Τόσο αληθινά, που με έπιασε ένα vertigo, με την καλή έννοια. Εννοώ, και εγώ ο ίδιος δεν είμαι κανένας Κοζακος να καλπάζω με υψωμένη τη χατζάρα στην Κοζακία, ένας από αυτούς τους πρωτοκοσμίτες είμαι, λίγο -πολύ..
Και Καρολ, γράφεις τόσο καλά που, για τρεις νύχτες έγινα ένας απ αυτούς (πιο τριχωτός, εντάξει). Τόσο καλά που, μεταφέρθηκα νοερά (άντε πάλι) σε μια ταινία, το: As good as it gets, όπου ο Νίκολσον λέει στον συνομιλητή του: That might just be as good as it gets… από δω και πέρα είναι κατηφόρα, μαν..
Γράφει ωραία η Κάρολ Σιλντς, αλλά νομίζω ότι θέλω να πάρω το κόκκινο χάπι. Κάρολ, κράτα το μπλε για την Carrie Bradshaw..
Ξηροκάρπια:
«Τι σημαίνει να είσαι ρομαντικός την τελευταία δεκαετία του 20ου αιώνα; Αυτή την ερώτηση έκανε η Φαίη στον αδερφό της, τον Κλάιντ. «Να πιστεύεις ότι τα πάντα μπορούν να μας συμβούν» είπε εκείνος και της έριξε μια ματιά».. σελ 50
«Ο έρωτας είναι εγωιστικός. Ο έρωτας είναι επικίνδυνος, άβολος και σπάταλος. Όταν ερωτευόμαστε βάζουμε ένα πιστόλι στο κεφάλι μας. Ο έρωτας καίει, μας κάνει ανόητους, μας κάνει πάντα να περιμένουμε. Αρρωσταίνει, μας αρρωσταίνει, είναι η απαρχή μιας σοβαρής αρρώστιας, Είναι Η Ίδια Η Αρρώστια..
ΤΑ ΒΑΣΙΚΑ ΠΡΟΣΩΠΑ ΤΟΥ ΔΡΑΜΑΤΟΣ:
Ι. Ο Τομ, ή, τι πρόκειται να συμβεί όταν έχεις ανοίξει όλα σου τα πανιά - και τη Μαΐστρα και το μπαλόνι και το φανελάκι του παππού μαζί - και πλέεις ανέμελος, κατευθείαν προς το μάτι της καταιγίδας:
« Ποτέ δεν θα ξαναπαντρευόταν μία γυναίκα που δεν θα νοιάζονταν να πάει τα ρούχα της στο καθαριστήριο ή μία γυναίκα που έκρυβε ένα μπουκάλι brandy στο ντουλάπι με τα ασπρόρουχα ή μια γυναίκα που για εντελώς άγνωστο λόγο δεν είχε ιδέα από μικρές πράξεις τρυφερότητας, όπως να του ισιώνει το γιακά του πανωφοριού, ή να τινάζει τη σκόνη από το μανίκι του… Δικαιούνταν μερικές ανέσεις. Ήταν ήμερος και καλόβολος, ναι, αλλά δεν είχε δικαίωμα να περιμένει λίγη αφθονία και τάξη, φρεσκοπλυμένα και φρεσκοσιδερωμένα ρούχα; Γιατί όχι; Οι άλλοι τα είχαν αυτά τα πράγματα. Δούλευε σκληρά 5 νύχτες την εβδομάδα. Είχε καλό μισθό. Είχε λεφτά στην τράπεζα. Ήταν τρέλα του να ζει με τον τρόπο που ζούσε. Ήταν ταπεινωτικό, εξουθενωτικό, τον έκανε να νιώθει μόνος και εγκαταλειμμένος. Ποτέ πια, Γαλανομάτη Μάγκα μου, ποτέ πια.. σελ. 174.
Ναι Τομ, ότι πεις..
ΙΙ. Η Φαίη, ή, τι πρόκειται να συμβεί όταν έχεις IQ άνω του 160 και ζεις στον Καναδά:
«Είναι εξαντλητική η μάχη να δώσεις ένα σχήμα στον εαυτό σου. Είναι και καταθλιπτική, σαν άσχημο μεγάλο φόρεμα, που είσαι αναγκασμένη να το φοράς χρόνια ολάκερα» .. 189
Καρολ, όλοι οι ήρωες σου είναι τόσο εγκεφαλικοί που διαβάζοντας την ιστορία τους, ένοιωθα σαν μπαμπουίνος (που διαβάζει). Μπορεί και να είμαι, αλλά δεν θα αναρωτιόμουν για την προέλευση των πλακακίων της σκάλας, βγαίνοντας από έναν χωρισμό..
Όλα γλυκούλικα, ζεστούλικα, υγρούλικα (απ τα δακρυάκια) και.. αληθινά, πράγματι. Τόσο αληθινά, που με έπιασε ένα vertigo, με την καλή έννοια. Εννοώ, και εγώ ο ίδιος δεν είμαι κανένας Κοζακος να καλπάζω με υψωμένη τη χατζάρα στην Κοζακία, ένας από αυτούς τους πρωτοκοσμίτες είμαι, λίγο -πολύ..
Και Καρολ, γράφεις τόσο καλά που, για τρεις νύχτες έγινα ένας απ αυτούς (πιο τριχωτός, εντάξει). Τόσο καλά που, μεταφέρθηκα νοερά (άντε πάλι) σε μια ταινία, το: As good as it gets, όπου ο Νίκολσον λέει στον συνομιλητή του: That might just be as good as it gets… από δω και πέρα είναι κατηφόρα, μαν..
Γράφει ωραία η Κάρολ Σιλντς, αλλά νομίζω ότι θέλω να πάρω το κόκκινο χάπι. Κάρολ, κράτα το μπλε για την Carrie Bradshaw..
Ξηροκάρπια:
«Τι σημαίνει να είσαι ρομαντικός την τελευταία δεκαετία του 20ου αιώνα; Αυτή την ερώτηση έκανε η Φαίη στον αδερφό της, τον Κλάιντ. «Να πιστεύεις ότι τα πάντα μπορούν να μας συμβούν» είπε εκείνος και της έριξε μια ματιά».. σελ 50
«Ο έρωτας είναι εγωιστικός. Ο έρωτας είναι επικίνδυνος, άβολος και σπάταλος. Όταν ερωτευόμαστε βάζουμε ένα πιστόλι στο κεφάλι μας. Ο έρωτας καίει, μας κάνει ανόητους, μας κάνει πάντα να περιμένουμε. Αρρωσταίνει, μας αρρωσταίνει, είναι η απαρχή μιας σοβαρής αρρώστιας, Είναι Η Ίδια Η Αρρώστια..
August 31, 2018
The author does her usual class act of taking language and deconstructing it through a series of digressions linked to a story of everyday folk. In this case, the "love at first sight" couple do not even meet until well into the second half of the book. Carole Shields is again masterful in making the mundane riveting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2022
Got to p.185 and couldn't stand the boredom any longer. Didn't care about Fay or Tom at all.
April 27, 2024
Loved the writing, characters and humour. I’ll definitely read more Carol Shields. Sad that she has died but glad she left this behind.
July 12, 2025
give me 10 more years and i’ll be eating this up
August 9, 2025
Carol Shields is one of my Very Favorite Authors and this novel reinforced my opinion. Interesting characters, a flourishing plot, beautiful language, wise reflections on life.
March 30, 2012
Republics do not have kings or queens, nor princes or princesses, so, we must assume, fairytales are out. Winnipeg is not exactly a republic, and, at least in terms of their love lives, two residents of the city, Fay and Tom, seem to inhabit a world where fairytales are inconceivable. But that place might not be Winnipeg: it might be closer in to themselves.
Despite – or perhaps because of - having had a multitude of mothers, Tom has been married three times, each attempt turning success into apparent and mildly painful failure, with or sometimes without associated acrimony. For her part, Fay, at thirty-five, has had several relationships of varied length, but none has led to wedding bells, a fact that seems to trouble her, sometimes.
Tom is a radio presenter. He hosts one of those late night phone-ins aimed at insomniacs, but usually attracting the opinionated. His mood, his history, his takes on where life has taken him clearly influence his style. Rises or dips in his personal life are immediately apparent, communicated without trying. But do not assume that anything offers even influence to what the contributors say. Rest assured, they will offer precisely what they want, perhaps precisely what they have been fed, if only because they are all as self-absorbed as everyone else.
Fay works more regular hours. She is an ethnologist and works in a folklore centre. She is heavily into mermaids, and perhaps they are also into her. She researches the mermaid myth, catalogues sightings, interviews people who have seem them, travels the world giving papers on our social and psychological need to invent these creatures. Mermaids, though overtly sexual and obviously female, are eventually sexless, unless they have exaggerated tails. They are both alluring and inviting, but, being half fish, they are cold-blooded and cold. They tempt, but cannot satisfy.
Obviously Tom and Fay are going to meet. They, along with their accumulated baggage, join forces and, as a consequence, begin to see life differently. But each is still influenced by relatives, acquaintances, ex-partners, ex-in-laws, new partners, parents and anyone else who might have an opinion. They all count. They all influence, especially when stiffness of apparent resolve can be easily bent by contradiction, shock or surprise. And so Fay and Tom’s relationship develops to what Carol Shields deems it should become. Throughout The Republic Of Love is beautifully written. Carol Shields’s prose is often witty, elegant, telling, funny, incisive or provocative all in one. A single sentence can turn on itself to frighten or mock its own beginning.
This is a book worth reading for its style alone. But it offers more than elegance of expression. These characters have all the confused confident complexity, the undirected and variable resolve we would expect from non-ideological adults in the last decade of the twentieth century. It would be interesting to revisit them twenty years on to see where they are now, to know if anything might have lasted. In The Republic Of Love they certainly come to life.
Despite – or perhaps because of - having had a multitude of mothers, Tom has been married three times, each attempt turning success into apparent and mildly painful failure, with or sometimes without associated acrimony. For her part, Fay, at thirty-five, has had several relationships of varied length, but none has led to wedding bells, a fact that seems to trouble her, sometimes.
Tom is a radio presenter. He hosts one of those late night phone-ins aimed at insomniacs, but usually attracting the opinionated. His mood, his history, his takes on where life has taken him clearly influence his style. Rises or dips in his personal life are immediately apparent, communicated without trying. But do not assume that anything offers even influence to what the contributors say. Rest assured, they will offer precisely what they want, perhaps precisely what they have been fed, if only because they are all as self-absorbed as everyone else.
Fay works more regular hours. She is an ethnologist and works in a folklore centre. She is heavily into mermaids, and perhaps they are also into her. She researches the mermaid myth, catalogues sightings, interviews people who have seem them, travels the world giving papers on our social and psychological need to invent these creatures. Mermaids, though overtly sexual and obviously female, are eventually sexless, unless they have exaggerated tails. They are both alluring and inviting, but, being half fish, they are cold-blooded and cold. They tempt, but cannot satisfy.
Obviously Tom and Fay are going to meet. They, along with their accumulated baggage, join forces and, as a consequence, begin to see life differently. But each is still influenced by relatives, acquaintances, ex-partners, ex-in-laws, new partners, parents and anyone else who might have an opinion. They all count. They all influence, especially when stiffness of apparent resolve can be easily bent by contradiction, shock or surprise. And so Fay and Tom’s relationship develops to what Carol Shields deems it should become. Throughout The Republic Of Love is beautifully written. Carol Shields’s prose is often witty, elegant, telling, funny, incisive or provocative all in one. A single sentence can turn on itself to frighten or mock its own beginning.
This is a book worth reading for its style alone. But it offers more than elegance of expression. These characters have all the confused confident complexity, the undirected and variable resolve we would expect from non-ideological adults in the last decade of the twentieth century. It would be interesting to revisit them twenty years on to see where they are now, to know if anything might have lasted. In The Republic Of Love they certainly come to life.
May 1, 2017
I didn't really buy it - that ending where everyone ends up in love and together. When Fay broke away from Tom - that was believable, if only because something very similar happened to me, but alas, or hooray, we did not end up together happily ever after. But I did find that sequence of chapters on the breakups the most riveting and convincing.
Unfortunately other stretches of chapters dragged by without engagement or depth. People were ciphers - she has commitment issues, he has commitment issues. But no one seemed to gain understanding of why they were like this, beyond mystical allusions to 27 mothers, and mermaids... somehow. Yes yes, I get Fay is supposed to be the mermaid, and somehow Tom is the lonely sailor on endless empty seas - - - but mermaids lure sailors to their death - I'm not sure how death fits into the overall story, unless it is death of the individual.
Hah. The father should've kept running, BiBi too. But no they all come back to the fold - driven by the fear of loneliness, or aloneness, rather than any realistic idea of love and commitment. Love as a bulwark against the horror...
Its insidious, feeding on people hopes. In the end it is insistent on the idea of it being the natural and healthy state for people to be together, of people belonging, of being claimed. Of it to be the way to be - happy? Content? Fulfilled? Authentic? - - - way too prescriptive and absolute and exclusive:
She lost me here completely in her novel. Actually wrote in the book, "Really!" - I never write in books, it feels faintly blasphemous. But the statement is outrageous. Like many people have a choice. Like being alone is the worst most horrible thing in the world - it's better to be in a shit relationship than none at all? Really? And it's odd she uses the word "abrogate" - it feels like an authorial intervention rather than anything Fay would say.
But I carried on reading with a sense of duty rather than engagement... The novel speaks of someone observing without insight. It does not speak to huge swathes of people who don't fit this lovely little smug niche. It reminds me of one of those Gothic novels held up for consideration in Austin's Northanger Abbey - its fantasy.
EDIT: since read Larry's Party and Unless - this one's definite a dud - these two are brilliant.
Unfortunately other stretches of chapters dragged by without engagement or depth. People were ciphers - she has commitment issues, he has commitment issues. But no one seemed to gain understanding of why they were like this, beyond mystical allusions to 27 mothers, and mermaids... somehow. Yes yes, I get Fay is supposed to be the mermaid, and somehow Tom is the lonely sailor on endless empty seas - - - but mermaids lure sailors to their death - I'm not sure how death fits into the overall story, unless it is death of the individual.
Hah. The father should've kept running, BiBi too. But no they all come back to the fold - driven by the fear of loneliness, or aloneness, rather than any realistic idea of love and commitment. Love as a bulwark against the horror...
Its insidious, feeding on people hopes. In the end it is insistent on the idea of it being the natural and healthy state for people to be together, of people belonging, of being claimed. Of it to be the way to be - happy? Content? Fulfilled? Authentic? - - - way too prescriptive and absolute and exclusive:
“it is impossible for us to live outside the culture we're born into. Our communities claim us from the start, extending a Thousand tentacles of possession, and Fay, a reasonable, intelligent woman, has long recognised that reverence for individualism is one of the prime perversions of contemporary society. It is a logical and foolish. Oh yes. You're bound to each other biologically and socially, intellectually and spiritually, and to abrogate our supporting network is to destroy ourselves”
She lost me here completely in her novel. Actually wrote in the book, "Really!" - I never write in books, it feels faintly blasphemous. But the statement is outrageous. Like many people have a choice. Like being alone is the worst most horrible thing in the world - it's better to be in a shit relationship than none at all? Really? And it's odd she uses the word "abrogate" - it feels like an authorial intervention rather than anything Fay would say.
But I carried on reading with a sense of duty rather than engagement... The novel speaks of someone observing without insight. It does not speak to huge swathes of people who don't fit this lovely little smug niche. It reminds me of one of those Gothic novels held up for consideration in Austin's Northanger Abbey - its fantasy.
EDIT: since read Larry's Party and Unless - this one's definite a dud - these two are brilliant.
December 8, 2011
Per chi aspetta fin dall'inizio del libro la storia d'amore tra Fay e Tom, allora dovrà rassegnarsi ad attendere.
Si metta comodo in poltrona, e dimentichi la trama: se si cerca quella storia d'amore, ci vorrà tempo. Se si cerca semplicemente l'amore, nelle sue infinite sfumature, allora sarà accontentato.
E' questo il romanzo giusto, se si è superata magari la fase dell'adolescenza e della post adolescenza e si è nel pieno delle facoltà mentali (in pratica se non si è infestati dalle scelte prese di pancia e da ormoni impazziti).
Attenzione: con ciò non voglio dire che la Shields abbia scritto una storia per "vecchi". Assolutamente no.
Ma ci ha raccontato un amore forte e maturo, un amore appassionato ma adulto.
E questo amore, questa storia che dà il titolo al romanzo, non apparirà che a metà dello stesso. Su 400 pagine e più, i nostri protagonisti si incontreranno solo dopo la duecentesima.
Fino a quel momento sarà in scena comunque l'amore: quello vissuto o meno fino a quel momento da entrambi (lei, mai stata sposata; lui, già più di una volta); l'amore delle persone che li circondano... amore duraturo, eterno, amore abbandonato, amore sofferente...
Entrambi portano addosso il bagaglio non solo delle proprie esperienze ma anche di quelle che hanno vissuto accanto ad amici e parenti. Esperienze positive, negative: tutto e tutti hanno contribuito a farli incontrare e reagire a quell'incontro innamorandosi. Entrambi sono alle prese con un lavoro che occupa il loro tempo e la loro mente, coinvolgendoli, influenzandoli, dando loro risposte che a volte non cercavano, certezze che non credevano di avere. Tom, dj notturno a contatto con la musica e con gli ascoltatori della notte, Fay, ricercatrice appassionata di sirene, oggetto del libro che sta scrivendo.
Sembrano due vite che corrono su binari paralleli, eppure ad un certo punto quei binari si incrociano a discapito di qualsiasi legge matematica e iniziano a percorrere la stessa strada, insieme.
Una strada che non si presenta tutta rose e fiori, perché non è solo questo l'amore.
Una strada che bisogna voler percorrere con impegno, dedizione, passione. E a volte sarà difficile percorrerla, e si sentirà il bisogno di fermarsi, di deviare, di abbandonarla.
Non posso continuare: sarei ripetitiva, ridondante. La Shields ha preso un tema sfruttatissimo riuscendo a dargli forma, stile, originalità.
Ha saputo dare dignità a un sentimento fin troppo inflazionato anche nella letteratura. L'ha fatto con maestria e maturità.
Leggetelo.
qui:
http://cuoredinchiostro.blogspot.com/...
Si metta comodo in poltrona, e dimentichi la trama: se si cerca quella storia d'amore, ci vorrà tempo. Se si cerca semplicemente l'amore, nelle sue infinite sfumature, allora sarà accontentato.
E' questo il romanzo giusto, se si è superata magari la fase dell'adolescenza e della post adolescenza e si è nel pieno delle facoltà mentali (in pratica se non si è infestati dalle scelte prese di pancia e da ormoni impazziti).
Attenzione: con ciò non voglio dire che la Shields abbia scritto una storia per "vecchi". Assolutamente no.
Ma ci ha raccontato un amore forte e maturo, un amore appassionato ma adulto.
E questo amore, questa storia che dà il titolo al romanzo, non apparirà che a metà dello stesso. Su 400 pagine e più, i nostri protagonisti si incontreranno solo dopo la duecentesima.
Fino a quel momento sarà in scena comunque l'amore: quello vissuto o meno fino a quel momento da entrambi (lei, mai stata sposata; lui, già più di una volta); l'amore delle persone che li circondano... amore duraturo, eterno, amore abbandonato, amore sofferente...
Entrambi portano addosso il bagaglio non solo delle proprie esperienze ma anche di quelle che hanno vissuto accanto ad amici e parenti. Esperienze positive, negative: tutto e tutti hanno contribuito a farli incontrare e reagire a quell'incontro innamorandosi. Entrambi sono alle prese con un lavoro che occupa il loro tempo e la loro mente, coinvolgendoli, influenzandoli, dando loro risposte che a volte non cercavano, certezze che non credevano di avere. Tom, dj notturno a contatto con la musica e con gli ascoltatori della notte, Fay, ricercatrice appassionata di sirene, oggetto del libro che sta scrivendo.
Sembrano due vite che corrono su binari paralleli, eppure ad un certo punto quei binari si incrociano a discapito di qualsiasi legge matematica e iniziano a percorrere la stessa strada, insieme.
Una strada che non si presenta tutta rose e fiori, perché non è solo questo l'amore.
Una strada che bisogna voler percorrere con impegno, dedizione, passione. E a volte sarà difficile percorrerla, e si sentirà il bisogno di fermarsi, di deviare, di abbandonarla.
Non posso continuare: sarei ripetitiva, ridondante. La Shields ha preso un tema sfruttatissimo riuscendo a dargli forma, stile, originalità.
Ha saputo dare dignità a un sentimento fin troppo inflazionato anche nella letteratura. L'ha fatto con maestria e maturità.
Leggetelo.
qui:
http://cuoredinchiostro.blogspot.com/...
June 7, 2025
It was the reference to mermaids that drew me to this book. The folklore and mythology around them was fascinating and I would have liked to have had more of this. The rest, as the title suggests, was a love story, ‘or just a love story’ to quote the lead character, Fay. Not my favourite genre admittedly. To describe the relationship as whirlwind is an understatement. Fay and Tom did not meet and fall in love, they met and were immediately in love.
What made it worthwhile was not the rather incredulous plot but the writing itself and in particular, the insightful observations. Why have I not read any Carol Shields before? I shall certainly look out some more.
What made it worthwhile was not the rather incredulous plot but the writing itself and in particular, the insightful observations. Why have I not read any Carol Shields before? I shall certainly look out some more.
November 17, 2008
I'm quite a sucker for old-fashioned love stories (having written one myself, as yet unpublished) but it's hard to find good ones. Of course there are mushy and formulaic romance novels galore but they are not what I'm talking about.
As Carol Shields herself writes here, "Love is not, anywhere, taken seriously. It's not respected. It's the one thing that everyone in the world wants but for some reason people are obliged to pretend that love is trifling and foolish. Work is important. Living arrangements are important. Wars and good sex and race relations and the environment are important, and so are health and fitness. Even minor shifts of faith or political intention are given a weight that is not accorded love. We turn our heads and pretend it's not there, the thunderous passions that enter a life and alter its course. Love belongs in an amateur operetta, on the inside of a jokey greeting card or in the annals of an old-fashioned poetry society. Moon and June and spoon and soon ... It's womanish, it's embarrassing, something jeer at, something for jerks."
That's very well put.
So to the story of Tom and Fay in Winnipeg, Canada, drifting through unsuccessful love affairs and marriages until fate makes their paths cross. Both are appealing and I believed in the passion that seizes them. I was a little less happy with the plot machinations. Of course, Shields follows the ancient formula of boy meets girl, boy parts from girl, boy and girl get back together. But she moves her characters around a bit like chessman -- the plot feels a little clunky -- you can see all the moving parts a bit too much. The minor characters in this book don't shine very much -- another weakness.
However, I have to applaud this novel. I read it on a plane and it kept my interest across the Atlantic. Bravo for a serious attempt to tackle love in an adult and intelligent way.
November 29, 2016
Carol Sheild’s “Republic of Love,” is much more than a love story. It is an ode to romance. And, by the way, it is a love story to Winnepeg, Canada.
“It’s Good Friday, a cold spring morning and Fay McLeod, a woman of thirty-five, is lying in bed beside a man she no longer loves. Yesterday she loved him, but today she doesn’t.” As Fay, a mermaid folklorist, moves on from this third live-in boyfriend, she wonders if she is capable of permanent attachment.
“This predicament, this loss and damage – it’s her own doing.” … “She know the old cliché: To fall in love is to fall out of love.”
Tom is a thrice divorced late night DJ/talk show host, who once was raised by 27 mothers! Alone so long he has lost his libido, he is told: “Love is the only enchantment.” And his reaction? “This, he said to himself, is how a Chinese gong must feel when it is struck by a hammer in its absolute center.”
In this small city, their friends know each other. They are often in the same place, but capricious love doesn’t allow them to meet. We watch their independence, their loneliness, their friends’ reactions and their self-doubt.
Here are some other quotes on love:
“Romance grabs on to people like a prize deformity; it keeps them on edge, taunts them, then slitheringly changes shape and withdraws. Roman – that holy thing. A cycle of rupture and reconciliation.”
“Love is shellfish. Love is dangerous, impractical, wasteful. Loving, we put a pistol to our heads. It burns, it makes us into fools, always it keeps us waiting. It sickens, it makes us sick, it’s the starts of a serious illness, its illness itself.”
Are you ready to start reading yet? This book is a fabulous demonstration of how language can capture the otherwise incomprehensible.
“It’s Good Friday, a cold spring morning and Fay McLeod, a woman of thirty-five, is lying in bed beside a man she no longer loves. Yesterday she loved him, but today she doesn’t.” As Fay, a mermaid folklorist, moves on from this third live-in boyfriend, she wonders if she is capable of permanent attachment.
“This predicament, this loss and damage – it’s her own doing.” … “She know the old cliché: To fall in love is to fall out of love.”
Tom is a thrice divorced late night DJ/talk show host, who once was raised by 27 mothers! Alone so long he has lost his libido, he is told: “Love is the only enchantment.” And his reaction? “This, he said to himself, is how a Chinese gong must feel when it is struck by a hammer in its absolute center.”
In this small city, their friends know each other. They are often in the same place, but capricious love doesn’t allow them to meet. We watch their independence, their loneliness, their friends’ reactions and their self-doubt.
Here are some other quotes on love:
“Romance grabs on to people like a prize deformity; it keeps them on edge, taunts them, then slitheringly changes shape and withdraws. Roman – that holy thing. A cycle of rupture and reconciliation.”
“Love is shellfish. Love is dangerous, impractical, wasteful. Loving, we put a pistol to our heads. It burns, it makes us into fools, always it keeps us waiting. It sickens, it makes us sick, it’s the starts of a serious illness, its illness itself.”
Are you ready to start reading yet? This book is a fabulous demonstration of how language can capture the otherwise incomprehensible.
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