A review by carabee
Unless by Carol Shields

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.