Rating: 
Summary: Inside A Woman
Review: Carol Shields does an excellent job of unlocking the mind, heart, and soul of the female with her book "The Stone Diaries." I believe that every woman will be able to relate to a character in the novel at least once. Shields focuses on the milestones of life (birth, childhood, love, marriage, motherhood, and death) and dissects them wonderfully.
In an amazingly accurate portrayal of the culture of the mid to late 1900s, Carol Shields takes you on an incredible journey of the life of Daisy Goodwill Flett, even allowing us the luxury of seeing her through the eyes of not only herself, but those around her. Her heartbreaking birth, contemporary childhood, tragic love life, typical "retirement," and uncertain death takes you on a constant roller coaster ride. It keeps you reading to see exactly how the next part of her life will unfold.
A truly believable story line and plot, complete with a family tree and pictures, made me very aware of the Stone legacy. I had to remind myself it was actually fiction. It successfully travels through four generations of women, each strugling with their own image, children, husbands, and life, facing obstacles of that time. It is a complete family history, and true to it's name, a "diary" following Mercy Stone Goodwill, her daughter (Daisy Goodwill Flett), granddaughters (Joan and Anne), and even the birth of her great grandchildren.
Although, I will admit that there are certain parts of the book that are questionable (like her adventures with Fraidy and Beans), ironic (such as her entire love life), and just plain laughable (the Flower Girls, for example), it was a good read overall. Something that must have taken time, patience, thought, and insight on the part of the author. I recommend it to anyone wanting to take a look inside a woman.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't even finish it.
Review: This is the worst book I have attempted to read in months! The first 100 pages or so I thought showed promise, but then shortly after, I did not care a bit about the characters! I gritted my teeth and tried to keep reading, but I just couldn't do it. I guess I just don't like these "written for a women's bookclub" books.
Rating: 
Summary: Solidly written
Review: The life of a woman, plain on the surface, complicated and layered underneath. The stages of Daisy Goodwill's life, the colorful characters in her life, and the reactions of those around Daisy make this more than a simple diary of one's life. It's filled with unexpected surprises and overwhelming heartache, as life usually is, and is quite funny at times also. Definitely worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Unique format, wonderful writing, but . . .
Review: I liked the unique writing style Ms. Shields has used. I've never read anything like it. At various chapters of the book she switched from 1st person then to third; told the story by way of letters; and also told the story by describing each character's perceptions. Somehow, all these writing techniques flowed together nicely. Unfortunately, Daisy's life wasn't all that interesting. And because the chapters were divided by the different milestones of Daisy's life, I never felt as if I got to know any of the multitudes of characters on a level where I could emphathize/sympathize/ or even like them. Parts of the story were painfully slow, especially at the end where Ms. Shields chose to wax philosophical (zzzzzz). Okay, already. I get it. Daisy was quite a gal, too bad about her mum.Also, there were too many rock anaologies. To the point where it seemed forced. Ms. Shields is too good of a writer for that crap. I think it would have helped if the novel had more of a story to it and instead of all the well-written (but tedious) prose, how about some dialogue? How about some meat to the story?
Rating: 
Summary: Great Writing, Little Substance
Review: This book is one of the most boring books I've ever read. There are enough ramblings for Mars and back. Carol Shields is a very good writer, but the underlying pretensions makes the book just another romantic potboiler. If you're interested in books about generations of families, read Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Rating:
Summary: An "ordinary" life captured
Review: From her tumultuous birth and the tragedy that accompanied it, Daisy Goodwill's life is told through these pages. From her childhood to her school life, to adulthood, Shields tells Daisy's story. At times the reader wonders where this is all going, and halfway through I was wondering if I was still going to finish. In the second half of the book events of happiness and cruel fate intertwine, and it feels very real. There were no tidy resolutions, especially when the inevitable creeping of old age brings forth new realities. The last several chapters of this book stayed with me for a long time, and made this one of the better books I have read in some time.
Rating:
Summary: Loveless Connections from Stony Surroundings
Review: If one were to rate this book for its imaginative usages of stone-based imagery, metaphors, similes, and geography, this book would be clearly a five-star effort. If a reader is looking for an imaginative variety of writing styles all in one book, this is also a five-star effort, using wonderfully easy phrases. On the other hand, if you want to feel deeply connected to a story and its characters, this may not the book for you. The book's format is a pseudo-biography of a Canadian woman told through a series of vignettes about her life. These start with her birth in 1905, continue with her childhood in 1916, describe her first marriage in 1927, falling in love at 31 in 1936, raising her children in 1947, pursuing a career as a gardening columnist from 1955-1964, experiencing a set-back in 1965, living into retirement in 1977, having health reversals in 1985, and eventually passing on. The book comes equipped with a family tree and family photographs to complete the biographical feel. You can think of this book also like a series of short stories. In fact, many will enjoy the book more that way than as a fictionalized biography. For example, the birth is very compelling. The section about her writing career is quite amusing and fun to read as you follow through a series of letters. As much as I loved the stone references, to me they turned the book into self-satire so much at times that it created too much emotional distance from the book. If the references had been cut back by about 60 percent, I think they would have been brilliant. As it was, I was looking for one such reference on every page (almost like Where's Waldo?) and would break out into giggles when I found the next one even if the material was supposed to be sad. Toward the book's end, the references abated but the story still didn't move me. Perhaps it was just that the writer's craft was so well done that its sparkling jewels outshone the content of the story by too wide a margin. There was a similar gap between the story (often far-fetched well beyond kidding around) and the characters, with the story being more interesting than the characters. Even though you often get internal dialogue, the book remains like something that you are watching from a disinterested distance rather than living within and feeling connected to. My great grandmother, Edith Foster, was a lot like Daisy, and also was born in rural, central Canada. She lived until I was about 19, and I well remember her stories about life on the plains of Canada and immigrating to the United States. The Stone Diaries, even with its exaggerated elements, seemed pale compared to the real challenges of those days . . . which this book often omits. The best part of Daisy's development as a character is the evolution of her confusion of fact and fantasy. At several points, you will feel like you can no longer trust your own mind and have a good sense of what that situation must be like. Nicely done! After you enjoy the aspects of The Stone Diaries that appeal to you, I suggest that you assemble a brief autobiography that you can share with your children and grandchildren. They will probably enjoy the kinds of details this book focuses on, because they will reflect on their own origins in compelling ways. See the past and present clearly!
Rating:
Summary: The life of a woman
Review: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields is one of those rare books that causes the reader to stop and grasp the totality of life. Daisy Goodwill does not lead an extraordinary life. She lives the life of most women, one of simply doing the best she can with the circumstances presented to her. The reader learns about certain key time periods in Daisy's life, and none of the time frames are examined minutely. Shields has managed to capture the essence of a life by creating a novel based on bits and pieces that would actually appear in a diary. We meet most of the tangential characters that form the circle of Daisy's life, though few of are developed fully. As time passes in the life of any person, there are few memories that stand out clearly, and these are the ones filled with either pain or complete happiness. I applaud this novel for its unique style, and I believe the author succeeded in her goal of presenting a life that spans nearly a century.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, but hollow at the core
Review: I have to agree with the reader who expressed astonishment at the awarding of the Pulitzer to this novel. I did find it to be evocatively written, and enjoyed the decription of the central character, Daisy, in part by how she thinks that others perceive her. Nevertheless, I failed to find Daisy at all compelling. I evaluate the quality of a book by how much it resonates with me after I've done reading it. After I finished "The Stone Diaries", it completely disappeared, leaving only a faint sense of disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful recording
Review: I finally picked up this book-on-tape at my library, after passing it by a million times. I've read a few of the book reviews, many of which I agree with completely (the positive reviews, that is), but I just wanted to add an enthusiastic recommendation of the recorded book. I've never heard Alyss Bresnahan read before--I've since discovered she's read mostly children's books--but I'll be looking for anything she does in the future. She would certainly rank in the top three readers I've ever encountered. The perfect voice for Daisy's story. I keep looking for excuses to drive so I can listen some more.
|
