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Summary: The Tale of An Amazing Woman!
Review: There is a lot to say abou this book. For the most part, I thought it possessed a wonderful description of the life of Daisy Goodwill Flett. Although there were times when it did not hold my full attention, and I felt it could have easily been made clearer and more interesting, the book was excellent. Towards the end, though, I began to get bored and uninterested. Oh well, read it and see what you think! It definitely deserves your time, especially if you are a compassionate person. It definitely made me want to examine my life and realize what is truly important to me.
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Summary: Symbolism
Review: Did anyone pick up on the symbolism in this book? Man=stone, emotionally distant. Woman=plant, life. At the end of the story, the granddaughter and grandson are looking for a rock that contains plant life, or the combination of the stone and the plant. How many other symbolic plant/stone references did you find?
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Summary: Impressively Crafty
Review: At first I had trouble navigating this book, having just finished Angela's Ashes, a work that leaves you with the author's breath still warm in your ear. The Stone Diaries by contrast seemed distant, as if I were looking through the wrong end of the binoculars. My final sense is of an impressive piece of craftmanship, one that experiments with voice and perspective in a big way, which employs symbolism, irony and characterization in workmanlike fashion. As for that first impression--distance--it plays out the theme of knowing the self and others. The writer took a lot of risks here and for the most part, they pay off. It's nice to see risk-taking in an era of what Tom Wolfe once termed "anesthetic" fiction.
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Summary: hmmm
Review: While I understand why people who loved this book did love it, I admit that I closed the book feeling sort of puzzled. I knew exactly what I was getting into, and did not expect a heart-stopping pageturned, but I did expect a narrator who had some understand of her own life. The author continually reminds you that Daisy does not understand, and does not consider herself to be in control of, her own life, and I found this puzzling and mildly depressing. However, it was also thought-provoking to realize that I felt I could see Daisy much more clearly through the eyes of the other characters than through her own insight, which perhaps is the author's whole point. I would recommend this as an interesting, mull-it-over kind of book, but I didn't find it uplifting, except perhaps as a cautionary tale: it made me more resolved to be in charge of, and aware of, my own life. Maybe that's not such a small thing.
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Summary: an account of different phases every womenencounter
Review: Reading through the pages of the book is like questioning to myself whether or not I am living my life to the fullest.Whether or not I regretted every decision I so far made.The book which lucidly narrates the life of Daisy Flett gives a refreshing idea to the readers about how our decisions and choices affect our present lives.About how we revolutionized ourselves in every endeavours we embark.It shows the ups and downs of life and makes you wonder about your own perspectives on it.A book like "The Stone Diaries" will surely make you review your own life.
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Summary: A THOUGHFUL STORY
Review: As a man, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this story of women's lives. Some readers might say that the book was not very dramatic. I would agree, but in that regard it is like my life. It made me think about how my life story would sound. The main character also reminded me of my mother who grew up in the Midwest and lived a worthwhile life. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and recommend it to readers who are interested in a thoughtful story
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Summary: I read this book for an English OAC Independant Study
Review: I've never been a fan of narratives and therefore this novel was a dramatic change of genre. I must say that I kept waiting for some dramatic event to happen and I was kind of dissapointed when it didn't. I must say though, that the beauty of the book isn't quite what's written but what the story and Daisy make you reflect upon when you have completed it. It's not often that a book does that.
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Summary: What is autobiography?
Review: I think this is one of the most amazing books ever created, but I find that reviews, both positive and negative (not just those here, but everywhere) tend to miss what I see as the core of the book. Yes, it is incredibly well-written, yes, we see the events of a woman's life unfold, certainly, very little happens, and the narrative shifts in puzzling ways between characters, points of view, and style. But that is precisely the point: what Carol Shields does that is so revolutionary is overturn the very concept of what 'biography' or 'autobiography' mean. We associate those genres with great minds, significant historical figures; we expect the minute description of a human life to be about someone extraordinary, either because of what they did or because of the insight with which they thought. But what about a 'biography'/'autobiography' of a completely ordinary woman, one to whom nothing particularly exciting happens in her life and, though not unintelligent, certainly not a great mind? Is such a book even possible? Carol Shields answers yes, but what happens is that we learn who Daisy is not so much by her own life in and of itself, or by her thoughts, as by those of the people around her. Daisy does not think very much about herself; she is not self-analytical in the way we would expect an autobiographer to be, and thus rather than a straightforward diary the book combines first and third-person narrative. In fact, most of the other characters in the book are more interesting than Daisy is herself, and we see her not so much as a striking character in her own right but as one person in a flow of many. The stories of all of these characters, brought together into the story of 'Daisy', convey a rich survey of human emotion and experience. One leaves the book not completely sure of who Daisy herself is--which raises the questions, what does it take for a person to be a definable entity, and what makes human life meaningful? Are people only worthy of attention if we can point to something distinctive about them, and is a book only worth reading if it focuses on such a person? Some would answer yes, and I would certainly not recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an exciting story or a unified narrative. Yet to my mind the book as a whole is deeply compelling both as an example of purely good writing and, more significantly, as a study of what it means to analyze and present human personality.
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Summary: not pulitzer material
Review: I read Stone Diaries as a school project. While there are many interesting characters along the way I was waiting for something big to happen. Usually this is assumption made with pulitzer books. It is not that this book is horrible..it just seems unrealistic at times and leaves you with a very dull, empty ending. I suggest the much less "prize-acclaimed" yet far more deserving, Larry's Party by Shields. IN my opinion it deserved to win the Giller.
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Summary: Much over-rated and empty at the core!
Review: The Stone Diaries is a book that seemed wonderfully well-written and engrossing at first. The more I read, however, the less I cared about the characters. Couldn't finish the book and felt that it's praise was undeserved. A very empty book!
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