Rating: 
Summary: Wow...
Review: Written as an autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, whose mother's death at the moment of Daisy's birth makes for the most gripping opening scene I've ever read, The Stone Diaries is superb from beginning to end. Just read those 20 or so pages, and you'll be hooked for the rest of the book.
Carol Shields won the Pulitzer for this novel, a creative and highly original style of narrative that many others have tried unsuccessfully to duplicate. Stone Diaries wanders all the way through Daisy's rather extraordinary life, both her on-the-surface role as daughter, wife, and mother as well as her rich and vividly-described inner life. When you reluctantly come to the end, you'll probably sit back as I did, stare into space, and just sigh, "Wow..."
Rating: 
Summary: Technically well-written but not a memorable story
Review: I was disappointed in The Stone Diaries--especially after a really good start to the story (Daisy's birth and the descriptions of Mercy). I am a voracious reader and have a degree in English Lit. Although I thought that The Stone Diaries was well written, technically, and it was a readable story, it was forgettable. I finished the book last week, and the other day I was trying to remember what book I had just finished, and for the life of me, I couldn't remember. It's not the sad or mundane life of Daisy that left me unaffected...I think it was the difficulty to relate to the characters and the author's failure to make them sympathetic. I like historical novels with fact mixed with fiction. However, with the Stone Diaries, I was uncertain whether Daisy was a real person, and I was baffled by the photos. I will not run out and read any more of Carol Shields' books. I like to read novels that will make me look at life differently and help me to understand people better. The Stone Diaries was okay, but I can't imagine how it won the Pulitzer Prize.
Rating: 
Summary: The story of a life waiting to find it's potential.
Review: As others have said, this is the life story of an ordinary woman: Daisy Goodwill Flett. Her birth, childhood, marriages, children and Florida retirement. Nothing spectacular there, but it is exactly this quiet normality which is the most interesting part of the book. Daisy's mother grew up in an orphanage, where all the children with untraceable parents were given the surname "Stone". This is where the book's title comes from. Daisy, like her mother, is an orphan of sorts - but in an emotional sense. She feels somehow disconnected from the events in her life and the people she knows. As the book tells us, " 'Moving right along' is what she murmurs to herself these days - on her way to Hairworks for her weekly shampoo and set, on her way to the post office or her doctor's appointment or downstairs to the club room for her daily round of bridge. Moving right along, and along, and along. The way she's done all her life. Numbly. Without thinking." Hence, Daisy reveal little about herself in this "autobiography", except that she struggles to find any meaning to her life. She never expresses her thoughts on what happens to her, nor why she makes certain decisions. This role is left to her family and friends, who populate the book with bursts of feeling. Each of them spills forth how they feel about people, decisions they've made, their dreams, their actions. They all mention Daisy and her life, but assign their own meaning to it, distorted by how her actions affect them.
The peripheral characters all seem to have vibrant lives - although nothing extraordinary happens to them either, they "feel" alive. The contrast underlines how the main character feels somehow lacking and "left out" of her own life.
Having said that, the book is not depressing at all. It was well written, I loved the peripheral characters, and if anything, it left me thinking. At the end I wondered - how many others go through life feeling it simply wash over them, thinking there should be more to it, but never finding out what? This is a "quiet" autobiography, not prone to overwhelming action, but it is worthwhile nonetheless. The only gripe I had was that I found the photos didn't really match with the characters - it was obvious they had been randomly assembled from other sources to "fit" the descriptions ( according to the reading guide anyway). But still, give it your time and you will be rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: A refreshing style, superbly written
Review: I love quirky characters and this story started out with some real doozies!! I was intrigued and suspected I'd like this book, but it got better. Then it got worse. But such is life. This fictional story is "written by" Daisy in a very unemotional manner, as if she were dead and simply reporting the facts of her life. But that doesn't mean it was a boring narration, nor do I feel that the narrator was particularly unsatisfied with her life. The author jumps decades, changes writing style (letters, 1st person, 3rd person, other characters narrating, etc.) and this kept me interested! My favorite chapter was when Daisy became depressed and many people in her life tried to analyze what was causing her depression. Of course they each had their own self-centered perception that gave great insight into their pshyche! Unfortunately, the next chapter took a nose dive. Her father-in-law alive at the age of 115? Her circumstance in going to the Island where he lived? Just by coincident, staying in the hotel next door to his nursing home? I don't know why this gifted author went so wacky in this chapter. There wasn't really a point in Daisy meeting her father-in-law. I just don't get it. The final chapter was sad, but what else can you expect from a chapter titled "Death?" I enjoyed this book, in spite of one major dip - but that wouldn't stop me from recommening it to any reader who enjoys subtleties, beautiful writing and quirky characters. But stay away if you're addicted to dramatic plot development or happy endings!
Rating:
Summary: "Most (wo)men lead lives of quiet desperation."
Review: I enjoyed this book. I thought it was well-written. I enjoyed the more experimental chapters the most. The section on Daisy's depression in particular was amazing. What really got me though was the reading group guide. It showed me just how little of this book I had understood. I recommend looking at the guide after reading the book because the questions it raised really deepened my understanding of the book. Plus, I never would have noticed that Cuyler was taller than Mercy in the photograph on my own! For people looking for a book with an exciting plot, this is not the book for you. For those who enjoy exploring the sometimes mundane and trivial, this is a gem of a book. I am woman. Hear me whisper.
Rating:
Summary: Neither touchy nor feely...
Review: This book seems to be primarily about the impossibility of writing a definitive autobiography or, for that matter, a definitive biography. It also raises questions as to the certainty offered by what could naively be taken as objective facts, in the context of biography or history, such as the photographs reproduced in the text (W.G.Sebald uses the same device in his works). Self-consciously, it corporates many forms of writing too, including letters, reviews, first and third person narratives - there are links here to so-called Menippean satires or 'anatomies', to use Northrop Frye's term, the point being that the book might well harbour ambitions to comment on larger issues than the mere lives of its characters - as a guess, possibly the relationship between Canada and the USA; I say 'guess' as I am unsure whether any of such ambition is fulfilled.
*
Perhaps it's worth mentioning how this book came to my attention. A chance meeting with a Professor of Literature saw her recommend this as "possibly the best novel ever written about women", and Shields cited as her favourite living writer alongside Alice Munro - both these writers are Canadians, as was the good Professor, so I took all this with the proverbial salty grain. Still, it was hard not to sneak a look.
*
My biggest surprise was that I found very little insight into the inner lives of women. The protagonist, and possible narrator, Daisy, is not revealing of her inner life; indeed, she is quite opaque; alluding to what I've said above, I think we are meant to see her largely through the eyes of others, or, perhaps, through the distorted lens of hindsight - yet this vantage is all too distant for any intimate revelations. The male characters fared little better. Of course, this might all be quite deliberate: I wondered if the very title, 'The Stone Diaries', refers to the author's embodied view of humanity in general, that is, that people are 'stony', with cold relations to each other the norm, and interiors unavailable for view, save through being crushed. In any case, this was not, ultimately, a warm book in my experience.
*
The tone of the book changes as it progresses. The early chapters are most distant in time and most distant in tone. As the present day approaches, the tone begins to breathe with life, ironically, as it happens, as the subject matter deals more with illness and, finally, with death. Again, this seems a calculated ploy on the author's part, and no doubt relates to the underlying concerns with the uncertainty of putatively objective history.
*
The writing style itself is serviceable, with some felicities of expression, but with an overall inclination to the self-effacing, if not the outright pedestrian. It might be fairer to say that a delight in wordplay is not the author's preoccupation.
*
In sum, I think this is a much more 'theoretic' work than is implied in general reviews. As such, some of its apparent weaknesses are actually serving to illustrate more abstract concerns. Taken purely as a story, however, 'The Stone Diaries' seems wanting in empathy and insight, and taken in terms of sheer literary bravura it also seems a little tired.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not necessarily worth the Pulitzer
Review: This was my first experience reading Carol Shields, and while I found her use of language quite poetic and insightful, and her characterizations interesting and believeable, I came away from the book somewhat disappointed because I felt I hadn't really gotten to know Daisy Goodwill Flett in an "intimate" way. Although I see her as the main character, she was elusive, perhaps because she was something of a bystander in her own life. Then again, given the period in which she lived, that is probably not too surprising. Perhaps I missed some vital element of emotional depth in Daisy, but others who read the book with me in a book club had similar feelings. While Ms. Shields is certainly gifted with language and the art of story-telling, I wouldn't personally consider this a Pulitzer-worthy book, although I would still recommend it as a worthy read. Like other readers, I was also surprised by the use of photographs in the book, and had to double-check that it was actually a work of fiction. It was particularly interesting that there was no photo of the shadowy Daisy!
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down, but don't know why
Review: This book engaged me. I read it during every spare moment I had. But I kept asking myself the same question -- why am I so compelled to read this book? The main characters are dullards who don't appear to have much of an emotional life. It is basically the story of someone living their unremarkable life on auto-pilot. So why couldn't I put the book down? I have several theories:
1. The writing is very rich and engaging. The prose is excellent. The author takes you down several different paths to tell one story. I always found the visit with these emotionally flat characters to be an interesting journey nonetheless.
2. I wanted to find out what was going to happen at the end. I wondered if the main characters might have an apocalyptic emotional experience sometime during their lives.
3. It was interesting reading about lives, lifestyles, social mores, etc. during various times in the last century. The descriptions of sexual feelings and behaviors was well told. I compared their lifestyles to my own and thought how lucky I am to live in my generation.
4. Back to the writing. I felt that the author really got me into the heads of these characters, to the extent that she wanted to. I felt that I wasn't so much an observer in their lives, I was a participant with them. I was living their lives with them, from their own perspective, even dying with the main character.
5. Now that I think of it, my mood was kind of down while reading this book. Maybe I just wanted to hurry up and finish the book so I could return to my own life.
You would like this book if you enjoy historical fiction. Like to get into the heads of your characters. Love good writing. Are experiencing a transition in your lifes journey. If you are a woman-wife-mother, you might more closely relate to this book.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Review: The Stone Diaries is a beautiful novel, rich, satisfying, well-written and thought-provoking. It's a pseudo-autobiography of sorts, narrated omniciently, telling the life story of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a woman born in 1905. It's a cleverly told tale, not experimental really, just a bit different. Every once in a while Daisy intrudes as an active narrator, but for the most part the narrator separates herself from actually having lived the story. Daisy leads an ordinary life, full of both good and bad times, she marries, has children, grows older, nothing special or unique really, yet the story of her life, the way it is told to us, is special, is unique. Reading the novel is almost like flipping through a family photo album--stories begin, lead back into the past, come back to the present--yet, the narrative voice is so strong and clear in the novel, that you won't ever lose your way. This is a wonderful novel. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: 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.
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