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Carol Shields - Unless
 

Carol Shields - Unless

Reta Winters is a successful novelist, Tom is a doctor, and they've been living together for over 20 years. Life has been good until Reta's daughter Norah leaves home and becomes a street person in Toronto. Carol Shields's novel--which she claims will be her last (she was suffering from terminal cancer when she wrote it)--is about not only family and its complexities, but the literary life and its intersection with what is real. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

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Consumer Reviews

cr01
457

Carol Shields' "UNLESS" - almost "Sunless", almost "Useless"!

bycr01 Aug 24, 2002
26 Helpfuls 27 Helpfuls Was this review helpful? 4 Comments
Pros Very well constructed. Slightly unexpected climax.
Cons Weak storyline, disagreeable shallow and weak characters. An unlikely feminist argument.
Recommended it? No


Just as I finish Carol Shields' book "UNLESS", I discover that the book has been "long-listed" for the 2002 BOOKER PRIZE.

In one respect I can appreciate why - the worthy and dependable pencraft of Carol Shields is just as solid within the pages of "UNLESS" as it is with her well... Read full review »

93

GLAD TO FIND THIS WONDERFUL AUTHOR

byjdrum Nov 9, 2002
19 Helpfuls 20 Helpfuls Was this review helpful? 1 Comment
Pros Shields is a skilled writer and crafts an interesting plot around a family crisis.
Cons Feminist blather is tiresome until you understand it is a symptom.
Recommended it? Yes

I had not read Carol Shields books before I picked up "Unless" in a London Waterstone's Bookstore because the book was shortlisted for the 2002 Booker Prize. I got off to a slow start with this novel because I didn't foresee where it was going. Shields withholds many of the events in the first half... Read full review »

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Product Details and Features

Key Information
Authors Carol Shields
Fiction Genre Literary Criticism
Awards 2002 The Man Booker Prize

Professional Reviews
Times Literary Supplement: "The...narrative, working through ideas of goodness, giving and giving up, shows Shields at her tragicomic best....In some ways, UNLESS resembles Anne Tyler at her best. Thematically, however, the novel edges around territory touched on in Nick Hornby's investigation of domestic spirituality, HOW TO BE GOOD. But Shields's roots also lie in the nineteenth century."

Book Editions
Paperback320January 01, 2006Perennial8.25"(h) x 5.5"(w) x 1"(d), 0.65 lbs.9780060874407
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