Unless by Carol Shields

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is beautifully written and deals with some serious topics. The main character is a 44 year old mother of 3 girls, one of whom is a bright college dropout who is essentially homeless and spending her days/months as mute, wearing a sign around her neck that says "Goodness" and panhandling on a Toronto street corner. Any $ or gifts she receives she promptly gives to the poor. It is also a story of a self analytical writer (the mother), writing about a writer, as she attempts to unravel not only the reasons behind her daughter's disturbed state but about herself and the place of women in an increasingly insensitive society. It has a happy conclusion. Shields is Pulitzer Prize winning author of "The Stone Diaries," which I loved. This book was published in 2002, shortly before her death from cancer.



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