New Yorker
Reta Winters -- loving helpmeet to a doctor, mother of three cheerful daughters, and author of a successful comic novel -- has always considered herself happy, even blessed. Then her eldest child, nineteen-year-old Norah, briefly disappears and resurfaces as a panhandling mute on a Toronto street corner, holding up a homemade placard that says "Goodness." Shields's ability to use Reta's darkest fears to reveal the order lurking in chaos, without ever losing her light touch (Laurie Colwin comes to mind), is nothing short of astonishing.
Marvelously idiosyncratic, passionate and wise, Shields' tenth novel rollicks from beginning to end with sauciness and wit. The heroine is forty-four-year-old Reta Winters, who confesses her problems from the start: "It happens that I am going through a period of great unhappiness and loss just now," she admits. The source of Reta's troubles is her firstborn, nineteen-year-old daughter, Norah, who recently dropped out of college and now spends her days on a Toronto street corner wearing a placard that reads "Goodness" around her neck. The reasons behind this erratic behavior are unclear. Reta obsessively wonders what went wrong while she attempts to write her second "comic" novel. The plot of Unless is secondary to its biting commentary, a fact that is destined to generate buzz among literary insiders but may leave readers looking for a traditional story less than enthralled. Plenty is said about the powerlessness of women, the absurdity of publishing and the denigration of our culture. The author laments the suppression of female writers by the male establishment, and she calls to task those who have elevated the lowest common denominator at the expense of originality, vision and talent. Shields never gets lost in the whorl of these discussions. Her feet are firmly planted, even as the pitiable planet spins.
—Beth Kephart
Kirkus Reviews
From Pulitzer-winning Shields (The Stone Diaries, 1994, etc.), a tale about existential disarray that's spiked with feminist outrage and leavened with womanly wit. Until her daughter Norah begins living on the streets of Toronto in the spring of 2000, Reta Winters "thought tragedy was someone not liking my book." She and physician Tom Winters have been together for 22 years (although, mildly nonconformist children of the 1970s, they never married), and Reta has a modest literary reputation as author of a comic novel, My Thyme Is Up. Shortly after Norah leaves home, Reta starts a sequel, and we find her grieving and "at the same time plotting what Alicia will say to Roman" in Thyme in Bloom. Art sustains Reta, but its self-appointed interpreters infuriate her, and she writes letters to pundits who have ignored women's contributions to culture, an omission Reta gropingly feels has something to do with her daughter's turmoil. But because she's too suspicious of generalities to trust "the self-pitying harridan who has put down such words," she never mails them. Her first-person telling of all this, often quietly heartbreaking, is just as often bitingly humorous. Much of the fun comes at the expense of Reta's bombastic New York editor, who professes to find Big Issues in what Reta sees as light fiction but who proves able, in the story's most blistering development, to see Alicia as a stepping-stone to Roman's development. Typical of Shields's unerring pacing, this nasty revelation is followed by a crisis revealing why Norah became a street person. Reta's observations are so shrewd throughout, each detail so perfectly placed, that readers may not notice that the editor is the only other trulythree-dimensional character. The philosophical questions don't emerge with the same brilliance as Shields's portrait of the writer or her modest claim for the importance of a female perspective on tragedy. Still, there's enough here to maintain her claim as one of our most gifted and probing novelists.
From the Publisher
A landmark book...yet another noteworthy addition to Shields’s impressive body of work.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A brave, profound, and quirky novel with an undercurrent of the deeply amusing.” — Anita Shreve, author of Sea Glass
“A wonderful, powerful book, written in a style which combines simplicity and elegance. I found it deeply moving.” — Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat
“Finely detailed, thoughtful and sometimes even humorous, this book is highly recommended for all fiction collections.” — Library Journal
“Often quietly heartbreaking...often, bitingly humorous.” — Kirkus (starred review)
“Marvelously idiosyncratic, passionate and wise, Shields’ tenth novel rollicks from beginning to end with sauciness and wit.” — Book Magazine
“All novelists worth their fictional salt can create fine characters; Carol Shields creates lives. ” — New York Times Book Review
“Nothing short of astonishing.” — The New Yorker
“A thing of beauty—lucidly written, artfully ordered, riddled with riddles and undergirded with dark layers of philosophical meditations.” — Los Angeles Times
“With a poet’s precision, Shields dissects grief and makes coping with bad luck feel like domestic heroism.” — People
“A superb new novel...a graceful coda, an arabesque performed over an abyss.” — Time Magazine
“Some hefty perceptions, fortunately shared with us in this fine novel.” — Washington Post Book World
“The best of her novels...fearless, smart, funny, beautifully written.” — New Orleans Times-Picayune
“A fine book, poignant, witty, rich in character, vivid in its sense of place...surprisingly suspenseful.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Remarkably subtle and unsettling...one of those books that make you regret that reading is a solitary pleasure.” — Christian Science Monitor
“Luminous ... Shields is a consummate master of tone and acute psychological insight.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“A luminous novel ...Shields writes with clarity, intelligence and generosity, finding meaning in most mundane details of home life.” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“A novel of...assured intelligence and defiant vivacity.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“When Shields is good she is very good. There are nuggets of pure gold in Unless.” — Newark Star Ledger
“An engaging, memorable novel.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Relentlessly fine...imagined with style and vigor, melancholoy and wisdom.” — San Diego Union-Tribune
“Closely observed moments create the kind of subtle textures and elegant prose that won Ms. Shields the Pulitzer Prize.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Unless succeeds beautifully...Shields [is] an expert at illuminating the complicated dynamics of off-kilter families.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“A fitting farewell from an author revered for her graceful, insightful writing...sparkles with wry humor and elegant irony.” — Hartford Courant
“Truly, a miracle of language and perception.” — The Oregonian (Portland)
“All the trademark Shields delights are robustly present: idiosyncratic plotting; limber prose...deep compassion...tart commentary and irreverent wit.” — Orlando Sentinel
“Entirely satisfying… Shields’ voice, tender and moderated at all times, remains wise and very readable.” — Houston Chronicle
“Shields’s novels and short stories are intensely imagined, humanely generous, beautifully sustained and impeccably detailed.” — Publishers Weekly
“A raw, subtle, inspiring novel about feminism, femininity, virtue, oppression and motherhood...I was inexpressibly moved by it.” — Rachel Cusk, Daily Telegraph (London)
“Her wisdom and generosity of spirit are visible at every turn.” — London Times (Sunday)
Joanne Harris
A wonderful, powerful book, written in a style which combines simplicity and elegance. I found it deeply moving.
|Los Angeles Times
A thing of beauty—lucidly written, artfully ordered, riddled with riddles and undergirded with dark layers of philosophical meditations.
Book Magazine
Marvelously idiosyncratic, passionate and wise, Shields’ tenth novel rollicks from beginning to end with sauciness and wit.
Washington Post Book World
Some hefty perceptions, fortunately shared with us in this fine novel.
The New Yorker
Nothing short of astonishing.
People
With a poet’s precision, Shields dissects grief and makes coping with bad luck feel like domestic heroism.
Anita Shreve
A brave, profound, and quirky novel with an undercurrent of the deeply amusing.
TIME Magazine
A superb new novel...a graceful coda, an arabesque performed over an abyss.
San Diego Union-Tribune
Relentlessly fine...imagined with style and vigor, melancholoy and wisdom.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A luminous novel ...Shields writes with clarity, intelligence and generosity, finding meaning in most mundane details of home life.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Closely observed moments create the kind of subtle textures and elegant prose that won Ms. Shields the Pulitzer Prize.
San Francisco Chronicle
A novel of...assured intelligence and defiant vivacity.
Newark Star Ledger
When Shields is good she is very good. There are nuggets of pure gold in Unless.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Unless succeeds beautifully...Shields [is] an expert at illuminating the complicated dynamics of off-kilter families.
Rachel Cusk
A raw, subtle, inspiring novel about feminism, femininity, virtue, oppression and motherhood...I was inexpressibly moved by it.
The Oregonian (Portland)
Truly, a miracle of language and perception.
Christian Science Monitor
Remarkably subtle and unsettling...one of those books that make you regret that reading is a solitary pleasure.
New York Times Book Review
All novelists worth their fictional salt can create fine characters; Carol Shields creates lives.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
An engaging, memorable novel.
New Orleans Times-Picayune
The best of her novels...fearless, smart, funny, beautifully written.
London Times (Sunday)
Her wisdom and generosity of spirit are visible at every turn.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Luminous ... Shields is a consummate master of tone and acute psychological insight.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A fine book, poignant, witty, rich in character, vivid in its sense of place...surprisingly suspenseful.
Orlando Sentinel
All the trademark Shields delights are robustly present: idiosyncratic plotting; limber prose...deep compassion...tart commentary and irreverent wit.
Houston Chronicle
Entirely satisfying… Shields’ voice, tender and moderated at all times, remains wise and very readable.
Hartford Courant
A fitting farewell from an author revered for her graceful, insightful writing...sparkles with wry humor and elegant irony.
The New Yorker
Nothing short of astonishing.
Orlando Sentinel
All the trademark Shields delights are robustly present: idiosyncratic plotting; limber prose...deep compassion...tart commentary and irreverent wit.
San Francisco Chronicle
A novel of...assured intelligence and defiant vivacity.
Los Angeles Times
A thing of beauty—lucidly written, artfully ordered, riddled with riddles and undergirded with dark layers of philosophical meditations.
Time magazine
A superb new novel...a graceful coda, an arabesque performed over an abyss.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Unless succeeds beautifully...Shields [is] an expert at illuminating the complicated dynamics of off-kilter families.
Time Magazine
A superb new novel...a graceful coda, an arabesque performed over an abyss.
Rachel Cusk
A raw, subtle, inspiring novel about feminism, femininity, virtue, oppression and motherhood...I was inexpressibly moved by it.
People Magazine
"With a poet’s precision, Shields dissects grief and makes coping with bad luck feel like domestic heroism."
