This was my first Carol Shields novel \u2013 I\u2019ve read a couple of her short stories \u2013 and I zipped through it in record time. There\u2019s something about it that feels inherently Canadian; it reminded me of Alice Munro and Margaret Lawrence.
\nThe book is \u201cwritten\u201d by the protagonist, Daisy, from moments before her birth to moments after her death, but the narrator continually shifts from first to third person. In fact, most of the story is told in the third person, so that the occasional \u201cI\u201d really throws you \u2013 and reminds you that the narrator is naturally biased, and theoretically at least, writing from distant memory. In fact, the one unanswered question is \u201cwhen did Daisy write her life?\u201d \u2013 from beginning to end, the story is presented in the past tense, but if we are to believe that this is a memoir written by the protagonist, whose death, funeral, gravesite and epilogue are included, then we have to assume that at some point, memory becomes prediction. But which point? I like to think that her old age and death are imagined by Daisy while she in the depths of her \u2018nervous condition\u2019 in her 60s, but of course, it\u2019s all conjecture.
\nOne of the things that I most enjoyed was the complete lack of amazement at the advances taking place in the outside world \u2013 there\u2019s very little real history, and certainly no \u2018wow, isn\u2019t that incredible\u2019 reflection on things like landing on the moon or Watergate. Daisy is born in 1905 and dies in the 90s, so she essentially lives through the century. She spends her married life in Ottawa, but there\u2019s no Trudeaumania. There isn\u2019t even Beatlemania. It\u2019s real enough to feel real, but isolated enough to be exclusively Daisy\u2019s story.
\nDefinitely a recommendation, especially if you\u2019ve read and enjoyed Munro and\/or Lawrence.
\nCurrently on the nightstand:<\/b>
\nA Year in Provence <\/i>by Peter Mayle (so far, it\u2019s reminiscent of Under the Tuscan Sun<\/i> (the book, not the &^%*# movie))
\nUpdate<\/b>
\nA Year in Provence<\/i> was a fun read, and my initial impression of it being in the same subcategory of travellogues as Tuscan Sun was not altered – but I did find it amusing to learn that Mayle is almost universally disliked by his Provencal neighbours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This was my first Carol Shields novel \u2013 I\u2019ve read a couple of her short stories \u2013 and I zipped through it in record time. There\u2019s something about it that feels inherently Canadian; it reminded me of Alice Munro and Margaret Lawrence. The book is \u201cwritten\u201d by the protagonist, Daisy, from moments before her birth … <\/p>\n