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a_w_m's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
sktxaryaw's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
book_concierge's review against another edition
4.0
Digital audiobook narrated by Joan Allen
Reta Williams is a successful author and translator, a wife, and a mother to three teenage daughters. Her oldest daughter, Norah, is a 19-year-old freshman at university, when Reta and her doctor husband, Tom, discover that Norah has apparently dropped out, and spends her days sitting on a Toronto street corner, with a signed around her neck that reads simply “Goodness.” The mystery of how and why her daughter has come to panhandling in this way is the major plot point of the novel.
However, this really isn’t a plot-driven story. It’s a character study: of what it means to be a woman, a mother, a writer, a feminist. Reta is worried sick about Norah, but she is still a wife, still meets friends for lunch, does laundry, buys gifts, works on her latest book, and she writes letters (which she doesn’t send) in response to articles she reads. Yet, while Reta continues to lead her life, she cannot stop thinking and worrying about Norah.
I finished this book nearly two weeks ago, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I simply didn’t have the words to describe how I felt about it. The best way is to quote from the novel itself:
“A life is full of isolated events, but these events, if they are to form a coherent narrative, require odd pieces of language to cement them together, little chips of grammar (mostly adverbs or prepositions) that are hard to define, since they are abstractions of location or relative position, works like therefore, else, other, also, thereof, theretofore, instead, otherwise, despite, already, and not yet.
....Unless, with its elegiac undertones, is a term used in logic, a word breathed by the hopeful or by writers of fiction wanting to prise open the crusted world and reveal another plane of being, which is similar in its geographical particulars and peopled by those who resemble ourselves.”
This is the last book that Shields wrote, though it is the first by her that I’ve read. I cannot help but wonder how much of Reta’s internal dialogue was really Shields’. (The author died of breast cancer within a year after the novel was published.)
Joan Allen performs the audiobook. She is a gifted actress, and is perfect for this work. She made Shields’ prose virtually sing.
Reta Williams is a successful author and translator, a wife, and a mother to three teenage daughters. Her oldest daughter, Norah, is a 19-year-old freshman at university, when Reta and her doctor husband, Tom, discover that Norah has apparently dropped out, and spends her days sitting on a Toronto street corner, with a signed around her neck that reads simply “Goodness.” The mystery of how and why her daughter has come to panhandling in this way is the major plot point of the novel.
However, this really isn’t a plot-driven story. It’s a character study: of what it means to be a woman, a mother, a writer, a feminist. Reta is worried sick about Norah, but she is still a wife, still meets friends for lunch, does laundry, buys gifts, works on her latest book, and she writes letters (which she doesn’t send) in response to articles she reads. Yet, while Reta continues to lead her life, she cannot stop thinking and worrying about Norah.
I finished this book nearly two weeks ago, but I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I simply didn’t have the words to describe how I felt about it. The best way is to quote from the novel itself:
“A life is full of isolated events, but these events, if they are to form a coherent narrative, require odd pieces of language to cement them together, little chips of grammar (mostly adverbs or prepositions) that are hard to define, since they are abstractions of location or relative position, works like therefore, else, other, also, thereof, theretofore, instead, otherwise, despite, already, and not yet.
....Unless, with its elegiac undertones, is a term used in logic, a word breathed by the hopeful or by writers of fiction wanting to prise open the crusted world and reveal another plane of being, which is similar in its geographical particulars and peopled by those who resemble ourselves.”
This is the last book that Shields wrote, though it is the first by her that I’ve read. I cannot help but wonder how much of Reta’s internal dialogue was really Shields’. (The author died of breast cancer within a year after the novel was published.)
Joan Allen performs the audiobook. She is a gifted actress, and is perfect for this work. She made Shields’ prose virtually sing.
tasha_sarah's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Phenomenal and so metatextual and meaningful and ordinary and beautiful and observant and timeless
anouk90's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
laila4343's review against another edition
4.0
Quietly powerful novel about more than plotline would lead you to believe... Shields is just so good, so perceptive and wise. I'm sad that she's gone.
montigneyrules's review against another edition
3.0
#readingchallenge2019 (my book with a one word title)
Shield's created a simple story, with scenes (chapters) that read wonderfully as scattered thoughts making a coherent whole, reflecting on life. It was a refreshing, easy read-that felt like peering into someone’s mind-with all their ordinariness. Every portion was an internalized self-criticism.
Even normal writing habits, like repetitiveness, felt calmer through Shield's writing style. For example, being reminded again and again Norah left to be on the streets, didn’t feel it was repetitiveness in the sense of poor writing, but in the sense of inner thoughts, like when I struggle to process something-so I remind myself over and over.
I wasn’t deeply in love with the novel, but I found beauty in the story Shields relayed; the ordinary feelings. Nothing was spectacular-nothing was too over the top. It all felt so real-other reviews comment on heavy handed gender inequality, but I felt the writing wasn’t preachy-just conveying multiple voices. It had a simplicity that made the plot more serious, and the ideas were a thoughtful work of art.
Shield's created a simple story, with scenes (chapters) that read wonderfully as scattered thoughts making a coherent whole, reflecting on life. It was a refreshing, easy read-that felt like peering into someone’s mind-with all their ordinariness. Every portion was an internalized self-criticism.
Even normal writing habits, like repetitiveness, felt calmer through Shield's writing style. For example, being reminded again and again Norah left to be on the streets, didn’t feel it was repetitiveness in the sense of poor writing, but in the sense of inner thoughts, like when I struggle to process something-so I remind myself over and over.
I wasn’t deeply in love with the novel, but I found beauty in the story Shields relayed; the ordinary feelings. Nothing was spectacular-nothing was too over the top. It all felt so real-other reviews comment on heavy handed gender inequality, but I felt the writing wasn’t preachy-just conveying multiple voices. It had a simplicity that made the plot more serious, and the ideas were a thoughtful work of art.
mirgon03's review against another edition
4.0
Al principio, este libro no me estaba gustando nada. Lo he leído para la asignatura de World Literatures in English y no fue hasta el lunes cuando empezamos a analizarlo que logré entenderlo.
Es un libro que hay que leer despacio, fijándote en los detalles y dejándote empapar por la narración.
En un comienzo, parece que nada está sucediendo, que es una mera descripción y sucesión de datos y hechos cotidianos, pero conforme avanzas te das cuenta de la riqueza que guarda.
Es una historia que te envuelve en un ambiente de comfort pero a la vez de melancolía. Con las palabras, con cada capítulo, la autora genera un universo a tu alrededor en el que las imágenes te rodean y crean una nueva perspectiva.
Ojalá haber leído todo el libro como he leído las últimas 30 páginas. Dejándome mecer por el ritmo lento de las palabras.
Correr solo consigue agobiarte, te tienes que dejar balancear al ritmo que marca la autora.
Una vez entendido esto lo he podido disfrutar muchismo, comprender con mayor profundidad a los personajes y cerrar con muy buen sabor la lectura.
Un 8/10.
Es un libro que hay que leer despacio, fijándote en los detalles y dejándote empapar por la narración.
En un comienzo, parece que nada está sucediendo, que es una mera descripción y sucesión de datos y hechos cotidianos, pero conforme avanzas te das cuenta de la riqueza que guarda.
Es una historia que te envuelve en un ambiente de comfort pero a la vez de melancolía. Con las palabras, con cada capítulo, la autora genera un universo a tu alrededor en el que las imágenes te rodean y crean una nueva perspectiva.
Ojalá haber leído todo el libro como he leído las últimas 30 páginas. Dejándome mecer por el ritmo lento de las palabras.
Correr solo consigue agobiarte, te tienes que dejar balancear al ritmo que marca la autora.
Una vez entendido esto lo he podido disfrutar muchismo, comprender con mayor profundidad a los personajes y cerrar con muy buen sabor la lectura.
Un 8/10.
meghan111's review against another edition
3.0
3.5. I really liked the plain, simple, direct writing style - it felt very frank and matter-of-fact, but also elegant. This would be an interesting pairing with [b: Franny and Zooey|5113|Franny and Zooey|J.D. Salinger|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355037988s/5113.jpg|3118417], since it's about a mother whose college-age daughter has some sort of breakdown, drops out of school, and sits on a street corner in Toronto with a sign, refusing to speak, living in a hostel for homeless people, and refusing to communicate with her family.
carabee's review against another edition
4.0
I will agree with those saying the book can be self indulgent and even boring at times. But I say this and think of all the other literary fiction that is equally so, written by men, but usually described instead as "pensive" or "relentless in its commitment to the wonder of the ordinary" or some such phrasing. As a result I challenged myself to carry on, as I did with Jonathan Safran Foer's everything is illuminated. The observations on the female role were excellent. Watching Shields explore the anxiety of wondering whether equality, whether being seen as blissfully and terribly and equally human, can ever be a matter of practice and not politically correct speeches... Well, it made every slow patch of plot worthwhile.