Small Ceremonies

I have not yet read anything by Carol Shields that I have not liked, so this book was no exception in that regard. As always, her characters are flawed, and likeable more because of that than anything else. Judith Gill, the main character in this book finds herself looking at her life in an almost bewildered way. She knows she should be happy, but wonders if she truly is. Shields has injected the novel with her usual dose of satire on academia, but one of the most wonderful things is how she pokes fun at herself here. One of the characters, a successful fiction writer keeps a terrible secret - I don't want to give anything away here, let me leave it at: Carol Shields was born in the US!

Carol Shields welcomes us in her first novel to the Ontario home of Judith Gill, and the table is set for a wonderful read. Shields's prose is tight and flows on humor, descriptive genius and observations that qualify as wisdom for any age. Lots goes on in this somewhat messy, subversive house: biographer and frustrated novelist Judith spins a tale of rude surprises, unexpected joys and everyday living over a 12 month period, laced with the anxious stuff of families. Husband Martin,academic and expert on "Paradise Lost"; teenage daughter Meredith, like her mother a "repository of innocence and knowledge"; and son Richard, 12 and "sour with love." The Gills in Shields's hands are enough to keep the novel charged, but visitors add to the flow: fellow-authors, academics, best friends, family and in-laws. Judith considers herself a prying spy; she ferrets for nuggets of enlightenment from those around her,and the results are wry and wise comments on life's long list of ironies. Shield's narrative entertains and delights with the ease of a life-long runner out for a jog; she lets her characters get lost in living, to enjoy the hilly and strenuous course. At the end of Small Ceremonies, after being enchanted by a maturing Judith and her eye for people and her faith in them, I knew more about life than when I began. Shields is an accessible author, somewhat quirky and without airs, a Canadian who keeps pace with Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro by being this person you'd really would have liked to have met.

Small Ceremonies is a book to get lost in. Carol Shields has a way of making honouring everyday rituals, conversations and events and presenting them to the reader in a way that makes us savour her characters and stories. Like all Shields' novels, poems and plays, the irresitable Small Cermeonies, leads to contstant searching for more Carol Shields works. To publishers - devout readers want out of print works reprinted!

The first Carol Shields book I read was "The Stone Diaries" which of course deserved all its awards. Then "Larry's Party" which, though it was somewhat ignored by the literary press, was every bit as enjoyable as "Diaries." By then I had realized that Shields is one of our greatest living novelists. I picked up "Small Ceremonies" knowing it was nearly 25 years old -- her first published novel -- and expecting it to be less than those two later books. I was wrong. "Small Ceremonies" is simply a terrific book. Buy it. Read it.

This book was an interesting look at how someone goes about discovering who they are later in life. A biographer who can only look at other people's lives through items or other people's writings. Her complaint of not having the chance to actually ever have met her latest subject makes for a nice ending when she lets another writer know what she does about his facade. Carol Shields writing is always clear, concise and tells a touching story. If you haven't read Small Ceremonies or Stone Diaries, you are missing some of the best fiction writing I have experienced in a while.