I want this book because I think it is very good at the begining of study of intraocular tumours.

As a woman, I read Larry Krotz's "Midlifeman" to understand the perspective of my male family and friends. Larry Krotz is a very funny, witty writer, who portrays the issues that middle-aged men face with honesty and humor.

This book is the perfect gift for all of your male friends and family.

Carol Shields has written a wonderful biographical essay in the old style. It is careful, imaginative, honest and brave. Apparently, an impartial, ungrudging affection and respect for its subject prompted the urge to learn more and, fortunately for us, she tells us what she has learned. Like the best of anything human, its little flaws serve to authenticate and are to be cherished, rather than challenged, because the book as a whole is so well written that at times it is evocative of the work of Jane Austen herself. Its presentation is modest but its effect is powerful.

This biography is free of the modern practice of earnestly re-presenting every (usually already well known) fact of a subject's life as if new, supposedly in the name of scholarship. This technique usually results in almost nothing being learned about the subject as an individual, as any personal statement might be interpreted as "impressionistic". Impressions as carefully considered as Carol Shields' are here are something to be proud of. She has used facts to support her ideas rather than the other way around, so we end up with something like a new portrait of her subject, sketched carefully from both the facts and the cogent insights of the author.

In the first chapter, the author quotes George Gissing, who suggested that, "the only good biographies are to be found in novels", and suggests this is because, "fiction respects the human trajectory". Jane Austen, raised on the wryly honest literature of the 18th century, certainly might have agreed, and while Carol Shields has not written a work of fiction, she has written a book that anybody who cares about Jane Austen must read if they want to know her better.

Jane Austen novels bring comfort. As full of issues as they are, there is a comfort in finding oneself immersed in the Romantic era, when securing a "situation" - if you were a woman, that is - was full-time work. Likewise, there is a comfort in reading about Jane Austen's life and work, especially when the author of such an exploration is Carol Shields, a writer who has a good idea of what the novel of manners is all about. Shields opens her work with a brief prologue describing a Jane Austen conference she attended in 1996 in Richmond, Virginia, with her daughter. The pair gave a joint paper on "the politics of the glance" in Austen novels. The preface is useful in clearly establishing Shields' sincere interest in her subject, which nicely frames the somewhat informal work that follows. I use the word informal because Shields writes a fastidious account of Austen's life but quotes no sources and offers no bibliography. Such a treatment is acceptable for the reader interested in gleaning a little more of Austen's life and work. For more demanding readers, there is a credibility issue: surely Shields didn't pull all of her conclusions from memory. Having said this, the account is meant to be largely interpretive. Shields offers her own lively responses to each novel, its characters and its issues, and attempts to tie the works with Austen's personal life. In some instances, these parallels are obvious: for example, the search for husbands for Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility mirrors her own and sister Cassandra's search. Other times, though, the parallel is lost: Pride and Prejudice, seen by many as Austen's "sunniest" novel, actually mirrors one of the unhappiest periods in her young life. In the end, Shields' analyses are both useful to the Austen scholar and a good introduction for the general reader, giving this volume a kind of easy appeal.

This is the second Penguin Lives biography I've read and it, like the other (Dante), whets the appetite for more. The point of the series seems to be compactness and the synergetic pairing up of author and subject. The result is a very readable product that emphasizes the life in terms of his/her times and work and the meaning it continues to offer. Those who prefer weighty doorstops that peruse every fiber of the life and every theory of it, in leaden prose, laying speed bumps of footnotes on every page, will not be as enthralled.

Carol Shields, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE STONE DIARIES, gracefully handles the problems of writing Jane Austen's life. Austen lived in obscurity, without celebrity, 1775 - 1817; after her death her family covered many of her tracks. What remains are some letters and family rememberances, most of the latter penned years after their spinster sister/aunt's death, darkly filtered through time and changing values. As she did in the STONE DIARIES, Shields seems at first to be holding her subject off at a respectful distance. She reminds us of how much has to be left to conjecture. And yet, you arrive at the end of JANE AUSTEN with a sense of truly understanding this woman both in terms of and apart from her novels. Somehow, Austen got past her family's ancient guard when Shields went looking for her. It is a portrait of an amazing artist, conveyed by an amazing artist.

Having not read any of Shield's more acclaimed works, maybe I shouldn't have started with her first novel. While I can appreciate how well and acurately she portrays day to day life, human nature, and the observational lifestyle of writers, in the end I can't help but be wishing that more had HAPPENED in this novel. In the first half of the book nothing seems to happen at all, and then all the events set up in the second half seem to have no resolution of any kind. I understand that real life is also without specific beginnings and endings, but I can't help but wish for a little structure in fiction. However, it is is saved somewhat by the fact that it's beautifully written. I'd be willing to try her other books.

Small Ceremonies is a book to get lost in. Carol Shields has a way of making honouring everyday rituals, conversations and events and presenting them to the reader in a way that makes us savour her characters and stories. Like all Shields' novels, poems and plays, the irresitable Small Cermeonies, leads to contstant searching for more Carol Shields works. To publishers - devout readers want out of print works reprinted!

The first Carol Shields book I read was "The Stone Diaries" which of course deserved all its awards. Then "Larry's Party" which, though it was somewhat ignored by the literary press, was every bit as enjoyable as "Diaries." By then I had realized that Shields is one of our greatest living novelists. I picked up "Small Ceremonies" knowing it was nearly 25 years old -- her first published novel -- and expecting it to be less than those two later books. I was wrong. "Small Ceremonies" is simply a terrific book. Buy it. Read it.

What does the older brother think of the younger one? You see the thoughts of the elder as he contemplates how he would treat his brother as a dog. An older brother would get a laugh, but the younger (if he reads) might not think it is so funny.

I think this book is very well illustrated and extremely funny. It's going to be a family favorite!

The ending was a monumental let down. Did I miss something that the other reviewers understood? Nothing is done to apprehend the thief...it's all left up in the air. I didn't like the book from the beginning but plodded on to the end. What a mistake. Don't wast your time.

It comes as quite a shock at the beginning of the fifth chapter of "Swann" to be reminded that Sarah Maloney, Morton Jimroy, Rose Hindmarch and Frederick Cuzzi area all fictional characters. By that time, having read each of their brushes with Mary Swann (who is also fictitious) and her poetry, you feel that you'd recognize them in a crowd.

In this early novel, Carol Shields shows the talent developed in later works, especially her penchant for using disparate literary styles to tell the story. Her characters are so beautifully formed; they leap from the page and demand you get to know them. Locations are so vividly described, you feel you could immediately find them, should you be transported to Chicago, Palo Alto, Nardeau or Kingston.

In 1965, within hours of submitting her body of work, written on scraps of paper and stored in a paper bag, to literary publisher and newspaper owner, Frederick Cruzzi, Mary Swann, a "primitive" poet from rural Canada, was hacked to pieces by her violent brute of a husband. The 125 poems were subsequently published in a small, stapled pamphlet with a limited run of 250 copies, most of which Cruzzi and his wife ended up giving away.

Many years after publication, Sarah Maloney, a feminist scholar of some note, found a copy in the limited selection or reading material in a remote cottage on a lake in Wisconsin, where she'd gone to have a good long, hard think about her life. Intrigued, she set out to find out more about Swann and her poetry, and soon was in correspondence with a select little group of assorted fans and scholars, including pretentious Morton Jimroy, self-appointed biographer, spinsterly Rose Hindmarch, librarian who lent books to Swann, worldwise Frederick Cuzzi, publisher to whom Swann entrusted her work.

The present time of the book is 1987, and the first ever Swann Symposium is about to take place. Strange things start happening with Swann memorabilia - Sarah's copy of "Swann's Songs" can't be found; Cruzzi's house is burgled and the only things missing are the four copies of the pamphlet he'd retained; one of the two known photographs of Mary Swann goes missing from the Nardeau library.

In this fascinating tale, it's intriguing how the threads of Mary Swann's life slowly pull together, even as she seems to be disappearing forever and how the works of an extremely little known poet, dead for more than 20 years, cause such bitter rivalries, jealousies and criminal behaviour. But even as she becomes more ephemeral, her effect on her admirers becomes more profound.

The first four chapters, almost novellas, of this book titled "Mary Swan" in the British edition I found in my library, each tell of a central character's encounter with Swann and/or her work. The Swan Symposium, the final chapter, is written as a play, which I thought at first was a little precious. Then I realised that since it all took place in a hotel and was mostly dialogue anyway, what better way of expressing it. Readers are spared all the words normally used to pad dialogue out into sentences. "Bit part" players are given beautifully descriptive names like Butter Mouth, Merry Eyes, Silver Cufflinks, Woman with Turban, Woman in Pale Suede Boots, Wistful Demeanour and Crinkled Forehead - that's all you need to picture them.

"Swann" has been described as a "literary mystery" but it's not a traditional mystery with a detective following up clues - in fact, I think to categorise it as a mystery is to sell this rich and intriguing work short. If you want to categorise it at all, it's a beautifully subtle satire aimed at the pretentiousness found in the literary world. If any of Ms Shields' novels were worthy of a Pulitzer Prize, this is the one.

I've read several of Carol Shields works and, with the exception of "Stone Diaries", each has usurped the last as my favourite. This is a little worrying, since I've been working my way backwards through the list. I guess I'll have to stop now.

It is really difficult to determine genre of this undoubtedly excellent novel. A literary mystery? Yes, but only in its framework... A brilliant satire that derides the intellectual high society? Yes, especially in the last part of the book with its impressing gallery of ironically depicted persons without names but with picturesque sobriquets. Even at least three of four main characters of the novel are rather humorously delineated: a feminist who is fond of theoretically contemptible men; a biographer and misanthrope, an impotent with disorderly sexual fantasies; an old maiden with pretensions of personal significance... An experiment with literary form? Yes, it really transforms through the whole book, reaching its culmination in the end, crossing the border between novel and screenscript...

But I think that the author's conception is more profound: the novel is a serious attempt of philosophical comprehension of human personality. Mary Swann, a rural Canadian poet, was murdered by her brutal husband only hours after submitting her poems to local newspaper editor and publisher Frederic Cruzzi. She became famous posthumously, and now four different people - a scholar Sarah Maloney, a writer Morton Jimroy, a librarian Rose Hindmarch and Frederic Cruzzi are trying to understand Mary Swann and her poems. With their semi-empty souls and aspirations for mandane success and promotion, in their endeavors to grasp the meaning of her poems, they fail. They start reconstruction not of the real Mary Swann but her artificial image apropos their intensions.

So genuine understanding is impossible: Swann's life was devoid of external events, nobody knew her thoughts and yearnings. But a miracle happens - unsolved spirit of poetess via her naive poems commences to alter her readers...

After "The Stone Diaries" this story is a true disappointment. Slow, miniaturistic, shallow. "The Stone Diaries" on the other hand was one of the best books I ever came across.

THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE is a pleasant diversion by the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning "The Stone Diaries." While this book is an enjoyable read, those who are expecting the quality of the latter may be disappointed. While the book contains Carol Shields' graceful and eloquent prose typical of all of her books, the plot is somewhat thin and superficial. The characters are well developed in the first part of the book and the pace is leisurely until the last few chapters. At that point, the plot is wrapped up so quickly it was as if the author decided that she had something better to do and needed to get this book out of the way.

By usual standards, the book is certainly nicely done, however it pales in comparison to Ms. Shields' later works.

"As a baby, Tom Avery had twenty-seven mothers. So he says. That was almost forty years ago." As opening paragraphs go, if this one doesn't make you want to read on, then nothing will. I started reading this in bed one Sunday morning and didn't get up until it was finished.

Fay McLeod wakes up one morning knowing she no longer loves the man in the bed beside her, with whom she has lived for five years. Truth be known, he no longer loves her, either; their relationship had just slipped into complacency and joint commitments. But alone, she finds she really is just one half of an incomplete couple. Where does one find love? How does one remain in love? After all, as the title suggests, it's everyone's right to experience love.

Fay is close to her family; her parents, brother, his family, and her sister. She has many friends, mainly through her absorbing work as a folklorist with a special interest in mermaids. Her work links her to the past, and to fantasy - could she be using that to escape reality?

Before reaching forty, Tom Avery has been divorced three times. He hadn't chosen partners very wisely, but at least he's remained friendly with two of his ex-wives and they are part of his extensive social circle. Without actually vowing to never marry again, he knows he isn't good marriage material, and spends most Friday nights attending singles meetings, supposedly to learn new skills, but in reality to check out availability of potential partners. He also concentrates his energies on friends, associates and his work as the popular host of a midnight to dawn radio program.

Considering his circle, and Fay's circle contained so many people in common, it was surprising they'd never met. However, a chance encounter at the birthday party of Fay's nephew where he'd come to collect his godson and she'd come to deliver a present on the eve of a European study tour, leads to a strong mutual attraction. So strong, that after only a walk home (they lived across the street from each other) in the company of an eight year old boy, Tom tracks down her address in Europe and professes his love, a madly passionate airletter posted before allowing himself to think better of it.

What is love? In this book, Carole Shields has used none of the artifice apparent in later novels; it's just a beautifully written exploration of love, finding it, keeping it, regaining it and allowing yourself to yield to it. Around Tom and Fay, finely developed secondary characters go though their own love crises - the path of love is hardly ever smooth. It is a hopeful, heart-warming and satisfying novel. Plus you find out quite a lot about Winnepeg, mermaids and late-night radio.

Several years ago, an elderly friend recommended Carol Shields. Recently I started with "Larry's Party", which announced it was by the author of "The Stone Diaries", which in turn proclaimed to be by the author of "The Republic of Love". Since these books seem to be their own best recommendations, I'm now going to take the advice of "The Republic of Love" and look even further back into her list for "Swann" and "The Orange Fish".

Two of the most self-absorbed characters in a long time...had a lot of potential, but Jock and Chas were too annoying for me to care.

The story of a marriage, told completely through letters the couple exchange, during a year of separation. A really great idea, but it was missing something. The letters seemed too planned (by the authors, not the characters). I felt the plot needed to fall out of the letters by accident (if that makes any sense) and instead it was pushed at the reader. Also, without giving too much away, something happens at the end that I felt was both cliche and unfair to the characters. I was annoyed by it -- I felt the authors didn't give their own characters any credit. I was surprised by my reaction to the book since I know both authors are award-winners. Maybe there were just too many cooks involved?

This books' entire narration takes the form of correspondence between geographically separated spouses, a perspective both unusual and infrequently utilized . The format's success is evidenced by the fact that we come to care about these characters and the fate of their marriage. The Bridget Jones books showed us how reading a series of diary entries could endear us to their author. 84 Charring Cross Road, by Helene Hanff, an earlier book written in letter format kept the reader at a distance, failing to achieve the depth of characterization and emotional involvement this book does achieve so successfully and so naturally.

The novel explores the effects of a prolonged separation on a long term marriage . We watch the strain imposed by distance as we see the two main characters gradually grow apart and lead separate individual lives. We regret the mistakes we watch them make . They both long for their infrequent rendezvous which when they do finally occur, only tend to split them further apart. Not enough is done to bridge the gaps when they do meet. Each tryst is anticipated with a big build up. Each meeting resolves with a very embittered and disappointed let down, subsequently generating intense anger. Intimacy suffers as each spouse fails to remain emotionally involved and supportive of the geographically distant partner's evolving and progressively unfamiliar life. One spouse is exploring new territory as a career woman; the other as house husband and eventually small business owner. They seem uncaring and disinterested in each other's new ventures and personal growth, somehow expecting their spouses to remain constant while they themselves undergo changes. When Chas faxes his wife a note which hardly contains his excitement over the publication of his poem , his new creative and expressive outlet, Jock (the wife) chooses to withhold comment in her next letter, completely ignoring his accomplishment . In fact not only does she fail to show the poem to her colleague, who coincidentally happens to be a renowned and published poet, but far worse, her indifference extends to an insensitive admission of having lost it. Chas is reduced to begging her for acknowledgment of his success. Compliments, as he will soon discover, come naturally from the other women in his daily life. Both partners learn to turn to others in closer proximity for emotional comfort and approval as they drift further and further apart. When Chas builds a solarium in their house it seems that he receives praise from every one-everyone except Joc. Her disapproval seems to largely stem from his deliberate failure to involve her in any way in the major decision of renovating their house,. He erroneously chooses instead to surprise her. The result will be to further effect Joc's feelings of alienation.. When she visits, she comes to feel like a stranger in her own home. Their initial correspondence is full of longing for reunion. Later they realistically wonder about making correct choices and the readjustments required - asking the partner in advance for space when they anticipate living together .

We watch a twenty year marriage disintegrate despite the partners' best intentions of making the separation work. In the forward Blanche Howard describes the authors' choice of this unusual book title as originating in the Apostle Paul's Corinthians book. She states Paul says a celibate season is good for a marriage. It would seem these two authors have set out to prove that in modern times this is not so- that the season must be a short one -if the marriage is to survive.

I recently finished reading Carol Shields' short story collection, Dressing Up for the Carnival. I'm a big fan of Carol Shields, having enjoyed Larry's Party, The Stone Diaries, even adding Swann to my wicked Top Five list - but this one didn't hit the spot.

Although the stories were charming and well-written, they weren't engrossing. I need to be EN-GROSSED! Instead I felt like I was wading through the bad stuff (I use the term "bad" for effect only) to get to the good. Some real gems here, but not a stellar collection.

Somewhat recommended - that is, to fans, and not just the casual passerby.

It's hard to describe the effect of these stories -- perhaps mindbending would be as close as you can get. Who else would devote whole stories to keys, or a meteorologist strike or the founder of a nudist camp? My only small complaint is that at times some of the stories, especially those taking place in the academic realm, are almost too clever for their own good. The collection as a whole though is strong and quite imaginative and profound. Shields is certainly an interesting writer -- there is nary a dull moment and some quite enlightening ones.

Carol Shields can take an ordinary word and polish it into a shining gemstone. Finely-tuned phrases are scattered plentifully throughout each chapter of _Dressing Up for the Carnival_, straddling the gap between poetry and fiction. This collection of stories is so spare, it almost feels empty at first. But you find Shields has emptied her work of distractions and needless explanations so you can more clearly see . Her focus on minute details is selective and purposeful. She reveals deep insights on the human condition through small observations-ones only a keen observer could see, and only a master writer like Shields could translate into words. If you want to be entertained, this book may not be for you. If you want to think deeply and be stirred to a higher level of emotion, pick up this book. You'll find yourself setting it down after every story so you can absorb each word.