The Stone Diaries (Penguin Audiobooks)

Rating:
Summary: Superb, as always
Review: Carol Shields is a magnificent writer who fully deserves every prize she has garnered, and many that have not been invented yet. Stone Diaries was as gripping and finely crafted as everything she has touched. Not a shallow read, but one that endures. I adore this author, and cannot fathom the one stars here. I would have given it six stars or one hundred, but five will suffice.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: Tediously written, incredibly boring tale of a woman of no particular interest to whom virtually nothing happens. Godawful.

Rating:
Summary: Quiet Desparation
Review: I have recently been devouring books on the subway during my commute every morning. Even the slowest books have caught and held my attention in that slightly surreal vacuum of time. As a result, I cannot speak to the complaint of so many reviewers: the dullness/slowness of the book. Truth be told, when reading during my commute, I rarely reflect on what I am reading, it is almost more like the book enters me. My reflecting came after I was finished, while I was reading the reviews here. And time and again, what fascinated me about the reviews was how the one star reviews seemed to catch the essence of the book for me. Nothing happened, reader after reader complained. I kept waiting, they say, but nothing happened. I didn't really get to know the charachters, they mentioned. These complaints about the book catch the emptiness of Daisy's life. She kept waiting, but nothing really happened. She never was able to grasp the core of who she was and neither could anyone else. And so she fealt alone. If I had read The Stone Diaries at a different time or place, I too might have been bored to tears. I remember the book Possession just about killed me. But I am so glad that I managed to avoid the boredom because the reward of The Stone Diaries was great. There was no life lesson. There was no climax. There was just the stylistically creative telling of a life. The Stone Diaries reminded me of how little we really know of those we love, and perhaps, how little most of us really know about ourselves when the frames that we normally stuff our life stories into are removed.

Rating:
Summary: You'll hate the protagonist
Review: The protagonist is sappy. She cannot make a clean decision and when she does you no longer care. The writing was too experimental. It was hard to follow and awkward. The story is completely uninteresting. The title "Stone Diary" would've been better because it is essentially the lifestory of a rock. A woman who is boring, writing that is dull and gray, and hard to get through.

Rating:
Summary: Stoned Diaries
Review: What a boring awful book. It stoned me into boredom. I hated it so much I wanted to cry. Can anyone really understand how this book won the PULITZER? Mother of all that is good, who was the final jury on awarding this book the PEW LIT ZER!!!? Is it possible to retract? I recommend Shields' novel _Swann_, which is a real testament to her prosaic nature and gift of storytelling. But oh man, this book SUCKED!! I only thank God that I bought it at a used store. Small miracles.

Rating:
Summary: Unusual way of writing, and that's why I liked it.
Review: The lives of the characters were simple but the way this book was written made all the difference. The reader is the "witness" to the events and the way she writes (sometimes in 1st and sometimes in 3rd person) made it all the more interesting. Some reviewers think this book was boring and I totally disagree. I loved it and will read another of hers just for the style of writing.

Rating:
Summary: Grabs your attention, then drones on, and on, and on...
Review: This book starts out as a page turner, but then I found myself turning some pages without completely reading each one. I had to force myself to finish the last few chapters. The first third had a lot of potential, but the story lost it's flair after Daisy gets married for the second time. Skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: THIS won the Pulitzer??????
Review: Terribly written and pretentious book. The standards for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction have dropped dramatically. I tried to read this book, but it did not keep my attention. I actually finished, but it never got any better. Experimental trash. Don't waste your time.

Rating:
Summary: An Honest Portrait of a Life
Review: This is the best contemporary novel that I have read in years. Many of those who indicate here that they did not enjoy The Stone Diaries are critical of what they perceive as the author's failure to thoroughly explore the protagonist's character and the greater meaning behind her life and death. To the contrary, the brilliance of this novel lies precisely in Shields' insistence on telling the truest story she can imagine, a story unencumbered by traditional literary devices such as fate and redemption, a story of the unsatisfying life of a most devastatingly unremarkable woman. With stunning detail and profoundly emotional deliberation, Shields delves into a very basic yet disturbingly unsatisfying aspect of human experience: that often in life, love goes unfelt or unexpressed, meaning is elusive and resolution is not achieved.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Stone's vivid imagination is captured excellently in this literary photo album. Each and every scene seems to become a snapshot, a moment in time frozen seemingly forever. I love her language, the plot, the wit and the imagination, and the characters. I highly recommend this book.