Unless (original 2002; edition 2003)

"Unless is the worry word of the English language. It flies like a moth around the ear, you hardly hear it, and yet everything depends on its breathy presence." Carol Shields in Unless

Unless is a contemplative book, told from the perspective of Reta Winters, 44, a translator and writer of light novels, as she copes with, and avoids coping with, an heart-rending event. Thrown out of her placid life, she contemplates her place in the world as writer and as a woman. It is well-written and feels true to life, however, the book seems too grounded in the particular to be universal. ( )

This book is quite philosophical, and it may take me a while to process it fully. The story is that writer/translator Reta Winters has an almost-perfect life: a nice partner, Tom (they have been together 26 years but are still student rebels at heart and have never married) who is a doctor, three daughters and a writing career. But one day her eldest daughter is inexplicably found sitting on a street corner in Toronto, silently wearing a sign that says "Goodness." Although events take place during the book, much of it is taken up with Reta's thoughts about the place of women (overlooked, neglected, not taken seriously) and how this may have caused her daughter's withdrawal. [b:Unless|74462|Unless A Novel|Carol Shields|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170854508s/74462.jpg|1344971] can be thought of as a rather self-referential book, and the narrator even talks about "a woman writing about a woman writing." One definitely feels that the thoughts Reta has about critics and lecturers who never cite women writers (she writes chiding letters to them, but almost never mails the letters)are thoughts Shields has had herself, despite the number of literary awards she's won.
I don't mean to make the book sound dull, for it is not. Shields has an ear for the comic and an eye for details -- one small example is when, talking about a writing group the narrator had belonged to, she says:
"...over coffee and muffins -- this was the early eighties, the great age of muffin...". I am a little surprised that this was the one book of Shields's that was chosen for the Guardian 1000, but it certainly fits well in the category Family and Self.
( )

a really nice and subtly powerful tale of coming of age into feminism that reminds us of how painful the realization is that as women, our voices are never as loudly heard as male voices. that, as women, we are simply not afforded the same credit as our male counterparts. ( )

I'm still ruminating on this as I just finished it about an hour ago. The book was definitely dark, but the ending made up for it without seeming contrived or unearned. Shields has penned a fascinating character study of one woman facing a year of loss and re-evaluation. With plenty of meta (just how much of Shields is there in Reta Winters?), a book within the book, and a fluid handling of time, this is a complex and carefully constructed meditation on what it means to be a Western woman at the turn of the 21st Century. There's also a slight feel of a mystery as Reta and her husband attempt to determine what has happened (or not happened) to change their daughter so completely.

August 2007 COTC Book Club selection. ( )

From the cover: 'Reta Winters has a loving family, good friends, and growing success as a writer of light fiction. Then her eldest daughter suddenly withdraws from the world, abandoning university to sit on a street corner, wearing a sign that reads pnly 'goodness'. As Reta seeks the cause of her daughters retreat, her enquiry turns into a meditation on society and where we find meaning and hope.'
I was interested in the premise for this story. Parents trying to keep functioning and maintain a normal loving home envionment for their two other daughters, while they grieve, but at times I found my mind wandering as Reta ponders whether her daughter has realised that despite women's achievements in society they still remain powerless. She is really superimposing some of her own ideas and thoughts. I suspect the author was using the format to express her views. The ending was satisfying though, as the true reason for her daughters action is revealed. ( )