A review by simplymeg
Unless by Carol Shields

4.0

This is not a cheerful story, but it is deeply personal and moving. The narrator struggles with the innate conflicts between motherhood and feminism, and a crisis in her family concentrates her focus on the status of women in the world. Her central theme is that certain areas of life are closed off to women. A quote from her fictional feminist author friend that women can achieve "goodness but not greatness" is repeated throughout the book.

There were a couple of ponderous and pointless sections about the narrator's confused and insecure childhood, but I was willing to work through those in order to enjoy the rest of this beautifully written book.