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Unless
by Carol Shields
List Price: $13.95
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0007154615
Publisher: Fourth Estate
I'm not interested, the way some people are, in being sad. I've had a look, and there's nothing down that road. Well now! What about the ripping sound behind my eyes, the starchy tearing of fabric, end to end; what about the need I have to curl up my knees when I sleep?
For all of her life, 44 year old Reta Winters has enjoyed the useful monotony of happiness: a loving family, good friends, growing success as a writer of light 'summertime' fiction. But this placid existence is cracked wide open when her beloved eldest daughter, Norah, drops out to sit on a gritty street corner, silent but for the sign around her neck that reads 'GOODNESS.' Reta's search for what drove her daughter to such a desperate statement turns into an unflinching and surprisingly funny meditation on where we find meaning and hope.
Warmth, passion and wisdom come together in Shields' remarkably supple prose. Unless, a harrowing but ultimately consoling story of one family's anguish and healing, proves her mastery of extraordinary fictions about ordinary life.
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Goodness:
1. Many definitions for goodness are raised in the novel. Do you think that Reta ever comes to a conclusion about what goodness is? If not, do you think she has realized anything about the nature of goodness?
2. What do you think Norah means when she talks to her mother about not being able to love anyone enough because she loves the world more? Do you think that Reta understands what Norah is saying?
3. How would you characterize Norah's relationship with her mother? How do you feel about Tom and Reta's response to Norah's leaving? Would you describe them as 'good' parents?
4. Why do you think Norah decides to abandon her life and stand on a street corner? What do you think that "goodness" means to her? Does it matter that we never learn why the woman on the Toronto street corner set herself on fire?
Distraction:
5. Why do you think Reta spends so much time thinking about Mrs. McGinn and the envelope she found behind the radiator, even after she realizes that it's just a baby shower invitation? How much of what we know about Norah comes from Reta's imagination?
6. Why do you think it's so important for Reta to buy the perfect scarf for Norah? Do you think the scarf matters?
Men and women:
7. Do you think there's any significance to the fact that Tom and Reta aren't married?
8. Consider the scene when Reta has the theory of relativity explained to her by Colin Glass. Do you think that Reta understands what Colin is saying? How would you describe the nature of Reta's tone in this exchange?
Work:
9. Compare Reta and Danielle Westerman. Name the attributes you do and don't admire in each of them.
10. How serious do you think Reta is about her work? What do you think about the fact that she writes (but does not send) various letters about woman writers not being taken seriously?
11. What's the impact of Reta Winters being introduced through a list of her literary achievements?
Writers writing about writers writing about writers:
12. Are there ever times when you feel like Carol Shields is narrating the book? If so, can you identify particular moments when this happens? Do you consider this mixed narrative style effective? Why or why not?
Silence:
13. Do you have any ideas about why Lois is silent for most of the novel? What do you think about the fact that she basically tells her entire life to Arthur Springer?
14. The novel's epigraph reads "If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrels heartbeat and we should die of that roar that lies on the other side of that silence". What do you think of this quote? Do you think it's an appropriate introduction to the novel?
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"Marvelously idiosyncratic, passionate and wise, Shields' tenth novel rollicks from beginning to end with sauciness and wit."
—Book Magazine
"A landmark book...yet another noteworthy addition to Shields's impressive body of work."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A fine book, poignant, witty, rich in character, vivid in its sense of place...surprisingly suspenseful."
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"All novelists worth their fictional salt can create fine characters; Carol Shields creates lives. "
—New York Times Book Review
"A thing of beauty—lucidly written, artfully ordered, riddled with riddles and undergirded with dark layers of philosophical meditations."
—Los Angeles Times
"Nothing short of astonishing."
—The New Yorker
"The best of her novels...fearless, smart, funny, beautifully written."
—New Orleans Times-Picayune
"Remarkably subtle and unsettling...one of those books that make you regret that reading is a solitary pleasure."
—Christian Science Monitor
"Luminous ... Shields is a consummate master of tone and acute psychological insight."
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A luminous novel ...Shields writes with clarity, intelligence and generosity, finding meaning in most mundane details of home life."
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"When Shields is good she is very good. There are nuggets of pure gold in Unless."
—Newark Star Ledger
"An engaging, memorable novel."
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A novel of...assured intelligence and defiant vivacity."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"A superb new novel...a graceful coda, an arabesque performed over an abyss."
—Time Magazine
"Relentlessly fine...imagined with style and vigor, melancholoy and wisdom."
—San Diego Union-Tribune
"Often quietly heartbreaking...often, bitingly humorous."
—Kirkus (starred review)
"A brave, profound, and quirky novel with an undercurrent of the deeply amusing."
—Anita Shreve, author of Sea Glass
"A wonderful, powerful book, written in a style which combines simplicity and elegance. I found it deeply moving."
—Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat
"With a poet's precision, Shields dissects grief and makes coping with bad luck feel like domestic heroism."
—People
"Some hefty perceptions, fortunately shared with us in this fine novel."
—Washington Post Book World
"The Stone Diaries reminds us again why literature matters."
—New York Times Book Review
"Finely detailed, thoughtful and sometimes even humorous, this book is highly recommended for all fiction collections."
—Library Journal
"Shields's novels and short stories are intensely imagined, humanely generous, beautifully sustained and impeccably detailed."
—Publishers Weekly
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