The Stone Diaries (Penguin Audiobooks)

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Novel
Review: This novel was a fictional autobiography. The subject, Daisy, tells in vivid detail about her life -- from birth to death. Her life (and those of almost everyone around her) was interesting indeed. You grow to love this character throughout the book.

I was very sorry for the book to end. I wanted to keep on knowing Daisy. Excellent (but you already knew that because it won the Pulitzer Prize)!



Rating:
Summary: Well Executed
Review: My initial interest in this novel was its Pulitzer Prize winning status. The family tree in the beginning of the novel motivated me to read the first page (I'm working on a family tree of my relatives as of this writing). The first page led me to the next and each page thereafter held my attention. Although the story never took off for me in a suspenseful or dramatic way, Shields managed to keep me interested in Daisy's life until the very end.

Born from a Stone, into a life supported by stone, and ultimately returned to stone; so is the life of Daisy Goodwill Flett. From birth to death, Daisy lives the expected life of a North American woman during the first half of the twentieth century. The boldest decision Daisy makes in the novel is the decision to marry the man who acted as her uncle while she was being raised by the man and his mother. Now that's the kind of family dirt that could be the theme for a trashy daytime talk shows but Shields folds it into the story without much fan fare and with little shock effect (not unlike Daisy's life). For most of Daisy's life, events sort of happen to her and although her response to many of life's challenges are heroic in some aspects, she generally tends to live a life flat lined by responsibility for or to others until the death of her husband turns into an opportunity for her to start anew. Daisy's life as a working woman from 1955 to 1964 is the most vibrant and creatively rendered aspect of the novel. The author uses a series of letters to Daisy from various people to not only advance the story nine years but also to depict what life can be like when you are fully engaged with what brings you joy. When your life feels purposeful.

The lesson that I take away from Daisy's life is to be careful not to let life happen to you like an accident. It's important to try to exert some influence where you can or the everyday omission of influence can form a life of regrets that are only recognizable in death. "The Stone Diaries" is an immensely introspective examination of the cycles of life. Even though the lives of the characters are without much spark or excitement, they are portrayed in a way that compels you to take notice and to care. Whether it's the superb writing, the sublime story or the subdued pace, the novel works well and was a thoroughly enjoyable read.


Rating:
Summary: Great saga of the 20th century woman
Review: OK, I'm teach literature, so I'm not your average reader, but Stone Diaries ranks in my top five for modern women's fiction. Be patient with this novel; Shields rewards her readers with terrific insights and humor, and her breadth of knowledge and wisdom is astonishing. I've read it just once, but it remains in prominent place on my overloaded shelves so I can get back to it soon. The other four of my favorite 20th century novels about women: Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway; Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God; Drabble's Peppered Moth or Seven Sisters; and Atwood's Cat's Eye.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful prose, dull story
Review: This is a fictitious autobiography of Daisy Stone Goodwill, born at the beginning of the 20th century and living until the late 90's. I really must be becoming terribly thick as I can't (except for the fluid writing style) think why this book would win a Pulitzer Prize (1995) The lady in question went through her rather ordinary life, raising children, coping with a marriage which, like most, had its ups and downs, and generally just taking one day at a time, one event at a time, without questioning or wondering if that's all there is. I know that when I'm starting to find a book tedious, I tend to rush through it..perhaps that was my mistake, but why linger when nothing's happening..life's too short!

Rating:
Summary: Suckfest
Review: No lies,

Spoiler---The 'best' part of this book is the scene where the skinny quarry worker has sex with his fat wife-enough said. At least that scene evoked a reaction other than boredom. I guess disgust is better than nothing. Only a frustrated writer would buy this book. This empty suckfest makes the dryest phonebook of a novel interesting by comparison. Oh yeah, I guess if you're a fat, boring, and pretentious chick, then maybe you should add Stone Diaries to your library. This book is a waste of paper.

Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking
Review: This book took me a while to read as I was never really drawn in or enticed to keep reading it. Nonetheless I read on, enjoying the fine writing, and still certain that a climactic end was in store. Well it never really came, yet something more rewarding occurred that caught me by suprise. Upon finishing the book, I sat,closed my eyes, and relished in the thoughts this book provoked in me. Thoughts about life, its meaning, its purpose, how to approach it, thoughts of family, of friendships, of births and deaths, of work, of retirement, of illness, and of my own death. I was quite saddened by the book. The family and friends of Daisy knew so little about her really. She became, to them (and to me), this old lady who repeated herself, and led a self-denied life of wife and mother. How sad and I will never let that happen to me is what I thought. However, Daisy,herself, it seemed, never really thought much about what she might of missed, or what more life could have given her. She reminded me so much of my own grandmothers, who never really thought too much about what they didn't have. They didn't ponder on life's mysteries or their discontentments. They merely lived, not worrying about such trivialities, but rather took one thing at a time and took life at its face value. I believe that many younger generations today, as Daisy's family did, see this as a weakness, a meaningless life that never attained self-actualization. I'm not so sure about this. Who was really unhappier? Daisy or her children? Who seemed more content? Daisy or her ever divorcing, job-changing, scattered children? Very thought provoking. Read it and learn something about yourself,about life.

Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Review: Read the other reviews for descriptions of the book. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, but my overall feeling at the end was perplexed, sad, and relieved (that the book was over). I was perplexed over the photos and family tree (thanks to the other reviewers who confirmed all that was fiction). I was sad about the overall commentary on Daisy's life - why? As a Christian I am sad to think that this is how people feel about their lives. I don't see a point to life unless there's something more and Christianity is mentioned at various times (along with many other topics) with no depth and certainly not understanding. The only hope to life as I see it is through faith in Jesus and belief in what He said - that there is more to life than this life and what we do here has a point and purpose - Daisy's life has no point, other than to just carry on and keep going. I could go on and on, but I'll spare you. When I read a great book, I feel a real disappointment when it is over. When I finished this I was just RELIEVED it was over - I had had enough of the pointlessness and futility of life. I don't think I should have to have a reader's guide to understand a book - I've read a zillion books in my day and when I read a great book I've got all kind of thoughts on what was in it. I think I'll skip Pulitzer Prize books from now on.

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.