Larry Weller is an average guy who moved from young adulthood to middle age in a pretty average way. He received a diploma in floral design, choosing the profession more by accident than by choice, and moved "up the ladder" in a small floral chain store. On his honeymoon he became fascinated with garden maze design, and made this the cornerstone of his career. He struggled to form meaningful adult relationships with parents, siblings, and women. But as Larry moved from this twenties through his thirties and forties, he matured, "found himself," and made peace with key figures in his life.

Reading Larry's Party is like watching selected scenes from a movie. Each chapter covers a short time in Larry's life and is self-contained, almost like a short story. Shields provides details as if previous chapters had not been written; for example, well into the book she described Larry's parents, and his education, even though earlier chapters covered these aspects of his life in detail. At the beginning of the book, Larry is in his late twenties; by the end, he is 47 -- the same age as I am now. I could relate to Larry's journey through adulthood, and think this book may be more enjoyable for older audience. ( )

In "Larry's Party," Carol Shields gives us the intimate portrait of Larry Weller, Canadian landscape architect who goes through life as through a maze. In fact, mazes are such a perfect metaphor for this poor sap's perception of life, that our cagey author makes him a lover and professional designer of them.

We have chapters with particular aspects of Larry: "Larry's Love," "Larry's Work," "Larry's Folks," even "Larry's Penis" a chapter on his sexual experiences. As the book progresses, each chapter gives a kind of recap of past events - and while giving a somewhat curious idea to the reader (could these have been published before, as shorter pieces?), the real intent is to adopt a kind of parochial stance toward each of Larry's various facets. This is certainly the approach Larry seems to take. He's not particularly sophisticated or well-read; his emotions often hit him with surprise and he meets them with distrust. Ms. Shields drops hapless Larry into a coma that lasts three weeks; during this time he is cared for by strangers, and his son (from whose mother Larry is divorced) comes and speaks to him fervently, and reads the daily paper to him every day, cover-to-cover. This is the perfect comparison to make with our dim-ish hero: he lurches from one thing to the next in life, not knowing how people care for him.

The eponymous party is the last event of the book. Those attending take up a trendy conversation about what it means to be a man at the end of the millenium. Our author makes it clear: it means going through life relatively cluelessly, acting honorably toward men and women, understanding that as relations with women go, that we're in an experimental age, where roles are all in a state of flux. For which we should all be thankful.

Ms. Shields is very compassionate toward her characters and her readers. Her ear is one of her stronger suits - she knows how people speak and how they express how they feel. This is a sweet piece of work, and its ambition is to capture the essence of a rare species, the white North American male. She succeeds in taking her readers on an interesting emotional journey - that's something she always succeeds at. ( )

An ordinary book, about an ordinary man. About a hundred pages to long. ( )

Poor old Larry is a likeable man. A milktoast at first, but we willingly follow him from young adult hood through middle age. The ordinary life he leads plods along, and soon we are reading each chapter with interest to see how he deals with the next segment of it.

This is not a book to rush through with excitement; in fact, you can lay it down and start a new chapter with weeks in between because Carol Shields recaps his life in each chapter.

This is a solid, good read. ( )

Carol Shields' writing is as interesting for what it doesn't mention as it is for what it does. Here is a story of psychological journey wherein the most important event from the point of view of the mental life of the main character is described once, and then ignored by the character and the narrative for the entire course of the story! Its obviously part of the story. A psychological reading notices it's impact and waits for this issue to be addressed explicitly, and waits, and waits and waits.

Just like life!

The good news is that this story ends at midlife, where there is still hope for redemption, unlike the Stone Diaries, which carries this pessimism a bit further. ( )

Hyvä

Carol Shields was a Canadian Fiction icon. ( )

I find this masterpiece to be the male equivalent of The Stone Diaries--a simple story about an average person and the course his/her life takes. This book cemented Shields as my favourite author. ( )

Carol Shields at her best again: an remarkable chronicle of an unremarkable life. Larry is a Winnipeger, born in 1950, who aspires to nothing much in life, falls into the florist business, marries, falls into becoming an expert on mazes, their design and construction, divorces, moves to the States, becomes more successful as a maze designer, marries a second time, great mid-life crisis with worries about what he has done with his life, where he is in terms of his career and interests, second marriage fails as well when they grow apart, returns to his Canadian roots, meets a seemingly wonderful woman, and finally has a great dinner party with the new woman in his life and his two ex-wives, plus his sister and a couple of others, and ends up back with his first wife.

The concept of the maze informs the whole structure and approach of the book. Various stages of Larry's life are told from different time-perspectives which give different slants/interpretations on the same events, just as our own feelings about various events and relationships change over time. The maze as a an analogy for life: an unforseen and unknown end or centre, unexpected twists and turns, doubling back, uncertainties mixed with certainties, usually only one exit to a maze (and to life), but sometimes there are more just as in life there are more options and paths. The prize in the middle of a maze is usually a garden, a pool, a fountain, etc and in life, for Shields, the prize is love and the sharing of life, of hopes, and true communication with another person. The book is infused with the intricacies and commonalities of life exhibited through hopes, fears, and desires. Some wonderful examinations of the beauty of languages and words, but their limitations as well. Shields writes very well from a man's perspective.

If anything, the dinner was a bit of an anticlimax, and almost seemed a bit staged, but the trip to get there was wonderful. Well worth reading.