The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields)

Member Name: andyk910

Product:	The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
Date:	29/06/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A book of large scope and small, fascinating detail

Disadvantages: Takes a little getting into

The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields

A Pulitzer Prize winning novel (1995)

This book is in the form of an autobiography of a woman called Daisy Goodwill Flett, born in Manitoba in Canada in 1905 and who dies in Florida in the 1990's. It is a fictionalised biography but compelling in its details and narrative power. There are even photographs of 'the family' - but it is just a novel.

The story describes several sweeps - the sweep of most of the 20th century and massive changes that were brought about in travel, communication, gender roles and so forth; the sweep of the life changes from a poor family to affluence and even relative wealth; the sweep of North American and world history through their period and how much - and how little - ordinary lives are impacted by it.

Because this is fiction we can share in more of Daisy's life than any autobiography could ever tell, so we are present when her mother gives birth to her, dying in the process, and are still present to see what remains of Daisy and her life and affairs after her death. Between the two, much of what happens is pedestrian - she marries, she is widowed, remarries, has children, is widowed again - but it is nevertheless compelling and that is because of the strength of the writing. The facts may be bald - like the circumstances of the death of her first husband - but the manner of it and more importantly how it felt for her, its impact, the actions taken by the other players of the drama; these all inform the reader and engage far more powerfully.

Stone - her mother's maiden name and the material in which her father works - provide another theme running through the book and her father in law - another stone mason - seems to have emerged from the stones of the wild islands of northern Scotland and finally retreats there, too. The building of stone monuments and their relative permanence acts as a counter-point to the fragility of flesh and memory.

For the scope and scale alone, this book would justify a read. The style is also clever and engaging and the personalities fascinating - you don't always like them but you do want to know what happens to them and where they go. They engage and they come alive and that is due to the quality of the writing and characterisation.

And if nothing else - and there is much else - I particularly enjoyed the lists and obituary notices and detritus of a life in the final post-mortem chapter,
including a humorous and wry list of things Daisy never did and now surely never will.

If written this well, the story of most of us would be as broad, as sweeping and as interesting and as I say the story is not often remarkable, it is just well told and compelling. I certainly wanted to know how it came out and what happened to the people involved, all the people who impact on or matter to Daisy Goodwill Flett.

It was Lewis Carroll in Alice who said "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop" - and here Shields does and it is a rich, enjoyable and worthwhile journey between the two points.

Details

I bought this as part of The Perennial Collection of 10 or so novels by women authors, all so far very good. I got them through The Book People and I think I paid £10 for the whole set, phenomenal value. These are published by Harper Perennial and the cover price is £7.99 although I know it is on offer at £5.99 on Amazon.

ISBN 978-0-00-781545-6

A recommended read.

Summary: Worth the effort, very rewarding