The Stone Diaries

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: "Fictional" biography in an amalgam of styles
Review: Carol Shields The Stone Diaries [Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award 1995] is the story of Daisy Stone Goodwill, a Canadian woman whose mother died in childbirth, was raised by her neighbor's relatives, was widowed twice (the first time on her honeymoon), raised children, worked in a job she loved until she was fired, moved to Florida, and died. Daisy is, in one sense, an absolutely "ordinary" woman, who lives much of her life in the shadow of men. I think that it was for this reason, and the fact that she ends her life separated from her children, that my wife (and other women I know who have read this book) found the novel very depressing. I was not so struck. What came across to me was Daisy's resilience in the face of very difficult circumstances, finding some satisfaction on the world's terms. Undeniably, Daisy was not a "success" as we now view women's lives. However, she formed some successful relationships, and always seemed to put the pieces together to move from one part of her life to the next. The best example of this for me was her Florida bridge group, "The Flowers" (Daisy, Lilly, Myrtle and Glad), who became her final community after she was long widowed, and her childhood friends dead. One can regret that life has brought her to this final community, a circle of old widows in a retirement home, or note how Daisy stays on her feet and moving, from one chapter of life to the end.

One cannot read The Stone Diaries without being struck by the style -- or rather styles -- in which it is written. While clearly fiction, Shields gives the appearance of journalism by including photographs purporting to be of the various characters. The photographs give one pause -- am I reading a novel trying to be non-fiction, or a fictionalized "real life" biography? Shields also changes style, form, and voice as she goes from chapter to chapter. For example, the chapter captioned "work" takes the form of a series of letters by and about Daisy's work as a newspaper writer. There is no "narrator" or chronicler; the story is told by one letter following the next. The chapter "Sorrow" takes the form of first-person opinions, by various persons in Daisy's life, as to why she is depressed. Again, Shields has no omniscient narrator. Other chapters are told by the more conventional, omniscient third-person narrator.

I found this a wonderful book, and recommend it highly. My wife, Carol, disagrees: "I wouldn't say that this is a "bad" book and not worth reading. It just seems to capture in a very stark way the extreme ordinariness of the lives of so many women. Admittedly, not all women are destined to great things, but somehow, even the most mundane of us--provided we have a jot of self awareness--hope (and pray) that our lives have some deeper meaning and that somehow our being alive has made a positive difference. Upon reflection, may be that's what this book is about. But I can't say that I finished it with the impression that the life of Daisy Stone was really that important in the grand scheme of things. For a reader whose life isn't really any more exciting than Daisy's--that was a frightening and frankly unpleasant conclusion."

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: 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: Pulitzer Prize? I don't get it - Glad to be done with it
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.

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: 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: 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.