Dressing Up for the Carnival

by Carol Shields | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 9781841154022 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Annimanni of Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on 4/3/2008
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Annimanni from Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, April 3, 2008
Synopsis from Amazon:
"A new collection of short stories from the author of The Stone Diaries (winner of the Pulitzer prize) and Larry's Party (winner of the Orange prize). All over town people are putting on their costumes; X slips into his wife' s lace-trimmed night gown and waltzes around his bedroom; Tamara is no longer the dull clerk receptionist when she wears that yellow skirt, she evolves into a stunning creature exuding passion and vitality. In Weather a couple's life is thrown into utter chaos when The National Association of Metereorologists go on strike -- what will they wear? what will they eat? In Soup du Jour a young boy contemplates life, the cracks in the pavement and his mother's soup-making. Each story encapsulates the human spirit, its diversities, complexities and absurdities. Shields observes with compassion the carnival that goes on in each of our lives and the realities that we create for ourselves. Carol Shields' second collection of short stories celebrates the extraordinary details that are found in ordinary, everyday lives."

Journal Entry 2 by Annimanni at Espoo, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
This was only my second Carol Shields and I enjoyed it almost as much as the first one, Larry's Party. As someone has said, Shields "has a knack for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary." She is a skilled writer and I very much like her delicate style.

In this collection, my favourite stories were A Scarf, Weather, Dying for Love, Mirrors, New Music and The Next Best Kiss.

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The next stop for this book is Nepal as I've tagged lils74 with it in the wishlist tag game. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 3 by lils74 at Kathmandu, Bagmati (incl. Kathmandu Valley) Nepal on Monday, December 17, 2012
I found this book in my post box today--what a lovely surprise! I think I am going to enjoy reading this. Thank you for sending it so far, and also for the artistic wine postcard you included with it. It's so pretty! Have a great December!

Journal Entry 4 by lils74 at Kathmandu, Bagmati (incl. Kathmandu Valley) Nepal on Friday, January 18, 2013
Finished 18th Jan, tonight. This was an interesting book, I wanted to keep reading it, yet it was a little difficult to read. My favourite story was The Scarf, far and away. I found it beautiful, a little sad, and most of all it rang true with me. It’s the sort of story that I would re-read every so often if I had it, as it was that good. I also enjoyed Our Men and Women. It was a bit of fun. Mirrors was also interesting, as was Windows, in a bitter-sweet way. Absence was unusual, (SPOILERS) it was quite fun to catch on that the letter i was missing. That was one thing that made reading the book hard, though, was the feeling that there were other things that I was supposed to catch, but just didn’t. The stories felt heavy with meaning and symbolism, but often what it was supposed to be escaped me. There were also a lot of words that I didn’t understand, and a lot of references to scholarly academia. I usually look up words I don’t know, and I did look up some in this case, but there were so many that I kind of gave up and let the flow of the book take me, even though I didn’t get it all. That was easy to do because the writing is very, very good. There is a flow that is almost like poetry, and a beauty and unexpected feeling of reality in the metaphors. To be absolutely honest, though, some stories made me feel a little dumb or lost. They were beautiful, but I just didn’t get them all, and I wanted to. Interesting that the first story deals with dressing up, the last with dressing down. I’m sure that was intentional. The Scarf was such a great story, really, it was my favourite and what I’m sure I will most take with me from this collection. I would read more by this author.
Note: I've just looked up Carol Shields on Wikipedia, and discovered that she was a professor herself, as was her husband, and later she was even chancellor the university of Winnipeg. This does explain the academia running through many of these stories. It was interesting to read about her life. Apparently two of her daughters have written books, also.

Journal Entry 5 by BeckyLizz at Kathmandu, Bagmati (incl. Kathmandu Valley) Nepal on Monday, August 19, 2013
I selected this book among a few others when I met up with lils74 in Kathmandu, Nepal. It has now returned with me to the UK. I am looking forward to reading and releasing it so it can continue on its journey. I will update this once read.

Journal Entry 6 by BeckyLizz at Hilton Park Services in Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Friday, April 18, 2014

Released 9 yrs ago (4/18/2014 UTC) at Hilton Park Services in Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Whoooooooosh!! Off it goes to its next destination. Where will it end up?

Leaflet stand. Hilton park services.

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