The Stone Diaries

Just because a book has won a Pulitzer (like this one) is no guarantee that I'll like it. In fact, I often steer clear of books that have won major awards; it seems that they rarely live up to the hype.The Stone Diaries is an exception. THis book is worth reading just to experience Shields' prose style. Her voice is like no one else's: incredibly self-assured and intelligent without ever seeming pretentious. She uses words many writers have probably never even heard of (keep your dictionary handy) while managing to keep her work lively and readable.This is "experimental" fiction (another thing I usually avoid, but again, The Stone Diaries is an exception). At first, the novel seems to have a conventional plot, but as you read, you'll find your expectations are constantly subverted-- one of the great pleasures of this book. In the end, you'll find the book has challenged more than your views about fiction. You may find yourself questioning much deeper beliefs, perhaps asking, along with the protagonist, Daisy Goodwill: "What is the story of a life?". Like all great novels, this one deals in existential topics. What is life really about? Why are we here? What does an individual life --that seemingly random sequence of events-- really amount to? And, like the masterpiece it is, this book will disturb your mind with questions, without offering easy answers. If you're looking for a quick read at the airport or the beauty salon, this is not the book for you. But if you appreciate exquisite writing that makes you ponder deeper truths, try the Stone Diaries.

It's sad when it takes the death of an author to bring her work to my attention. Carol Shields recent passing, and the accolades by some of my favorite authors about her writing inspired me to select one book of hers to read. Fortunately, I picked the Stone Diaries, and simply could not put it down until the last memorable word.Shields picks the most unlikely person to feature in a fictional book, Daisy Stone, whose life is mundane if not predictable. After an incredible birth and beginning, we travel with her through different years of her life, somewhat seemingly picked randomly. As we read each chapter, and witness the unveiling of her life, we begin to appreciate and realize that Daisy's life isn't extraordinary, but plain and common. What is extraordinary is that Shields chooses to give a character like Daisy this incredible voice. Underrepresented in literature, women like these exist, they exist yesterday and will exist tomorrow. Sure, they have moments of brightness in their lives, in which we see in Daisy, but it never goes over the top. What amazed me about this book was Shields extremely fluid writing style allows you to flow through this story as if it were unfolding before your very eyes. She allows different characters to pick up the story line, and share their viewpoints. Sometimes we hear Daisy, sometimes we hear a third person narrator. Sometimes we aren't even privy to who is speaking. Shields takes amazing leaps in her writing, trusting her reader to make those connections.I'm saddened by the loss of Carol Shields, but gladdened to know that she's left gifts of literature to discover. In the meantime, if you want a broad, amazing story, pick up Stone Diaries.

This book spans the life of Daisy Goodwill, from her birth in Manitoba to her journey with her father to Indiana, throughout her years as a wife, mother, and widow. The novel opens dramatically with her birth in 1905, continuing with her childhood in 1916, her first marriage in 1927, then to raising her children in 1947, and to her career as a columnist from 1955-1964, and then to retirement in 1977. The family tree, photos, and letters add to the realism and the book feels biographical. Daisy is an ordinary woman, but she has a story worth telling. Her story is about the human condition and life's meanings. Shields writes with wit, intelligent, and great insight, weaving Daisy's simple life into a great tale about women and life's deeper meanings. You are left wanting more when the novel is done. Shields has captured the life of a woman who seems so complicated, and yet when read against the culture she lived in and with the insight we are given, she is complicated beyond being able to completely be sure we've got her character down.

I so loved this book that I am reading it for, I think, the third time! Carol Shields has an unbelievable style of writing, which is gripping and smooth and easy to read, but intellectually stimulating and thought provoking. Most lives don't have amazing things happen in them, but wouldn't it be terribly sad if our lives weren't interesting in the ordinary, everyday things that happen to us? Daisy is an example of how an ordinary life can be extraordinary in its simpleness, and I can't wait to read the rest of Carol Shield's books.

This is the best contemporary novel that I have read in years. Many of those who indicate here that they did not enjoy The Stone Diaries are critical of what they perceive as the author's failure to thoroughly explore the protagonist's character and the greater meaning behind her life and death. To the contrary, the brilliance of this novel lies precisely in Shields' insistence on telling the truest story she can imagine, a story unencumbered by traditional literary devices such as fate and redemption, a story of the unsatisfying life of a most devastatingly unremarkable woman. With stunning detail and profoundly emotional deliberation, Shields delves into a very basic yet disturbingly unsatisfying aspect of human experience: that often in life, love goes unfelt or unexpressed, meaning is elusive and resolution is not achieved.