this is my 3rd carol shields novel and i loved this book. i find her a difficult read, i will get stuck on a sentence and reread it 4-5 times before i start back at the top of the page again. however, i like this. i feel challenged by her and enjoy that i have to work to understand.
unless tells the story of reta winters, a writer of light fiction, mother of 3 daughters, a happy women content in her life. then one day her eldest daughter, for reasons all her own, leaves her home to sit downtown toronto with a sign saying goodness around her neck. the family is baffled and hurt. they struggle with the guilt of carrying on and the frustration of why.
i think what i like the most about this novel is that it is not linear. the story unfolds through letters, conversations, memories, and what sometimes feels like direct contact between reta and the reader.
and like life, there is no neat, clean, everyone is happy ending. we get resolution but not at the expense of the story.
an interesting side story, or observation that reta frequently returns to in pursuit of her daughter's troubles, is the idea that women are routinely overlooked. she feels this may be one of the clues to her daughters behaviour and writes various unsent letters in the hopes of finding some way of correcting this, some way of protecting her daughters from it.
i highly recommend this book. i will be reading it again.
unless tells the story of reta winters, a writer of light fiction, mother of 3 daughters, a happy women content in her life. then one day her eldest daughter, for reasons all her own, leaves her home to sit downtown toronto with a sign saying goodness around her neck. the family is baffled and hurt. they struggle with the guilt of carrying on and the frustration of why.
i think what i like the most about this novel is that it is not linear. the story unfolds through letters, conversations, memories, and what sometimes feels like direct contact between reta and the reader.
and like life, there is no neat, clean, everyone is happy ending. we get resolution but not at the expense of the story.
an interesting side story, or observation that reta frequently returns to in pursuit of her daughter's troubles, is the idea that women are routinely overlooked. she feels this may be one of the clues to her daughters behaviour and writes various unsent letters in the hopes of finding some way of correcting this, some way of protecting her daughters from it.
i highly recommend this book. i will be reading it again.