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Small Ceremonies by Carol Shields

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What is the matter with me, I wonder. Why am I always the one who watches? Judith Gill lives with her husband, son, and daughter in a nice house in the suburbs of Ontario. She has carved out a niche as a respected biographer. Her universe is shaped and bounded by the lives around her, from her family to the subjects of her books. She finds herself in the background of her life, but she hungers to tell stories of her own. In this witty, nuanced novel about art, life, love, and fiction, Carol Shields reveals Judith to readers and to herself--a woman with bold emotions, powerful instincts, and a knack for observing the small ceremonies that give our lives meaning. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly On the surface, there's nothing about Judith Gill that would recommend her as an ideal protagonist. She's ordinary: wife of a rather remote academic, mother of adolescents she no longer really knows, biographer of arcane subjects. But Shields's gift is in making the ordinary compelling. What's surprising in this, her first novel originally published in 1976 and released in the U.S. for the first time, are the almost playful touches, which stand in contrast to the relatively placid rhythm of her Pulitzer Prize-winning The Stone Diaries. Just when Small Ceremonies begins to look like a quiet little story about a middle-class woman in an anonymous Canadian city, Shields tosses in a twist that forces the reader to look at Judith in a new light. It's Shields's repeated juxtaposition of orderliness and spontaneity, the mundane with the unexpected, that makes Judith an appealing subject-though she wouldn't see herself that way. The consummate biographer, Judith focuses more on others than on herself. And while Shields doesn't moralize in this slight novel, if there is a message, it is this: we may think we know the people who fill our lives, but we really only know parts of them-and we're fooling ourselves to think otherwise. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a writer, this is the book to read. --Women's Journal A deft and tightly woven book . . . a delight. --The Times (London) Simply stunning . . . a modern classic. --Literary Review Fascinating reading. --Good Housekeeping --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Book Description Carol Shields wrote dazzling, haunting stories of lives just like ours, turning our interior worlds into beautiful labyrinths--a writer worthy of comparison to fellow Canadian greats Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Carol Shields (1935-2003) was born in Oak Park, Illinois. She studied at Hanover College, the University of Exeter in England, and the University of Ottawa. In 1957, she married Donald Shields and moved to Canada permanently. She taught at the University of Ottawa, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Manitoba, and served as chancellor of the University of Winnipeg. She wrote ten novels and three short story collections, in addition to poetry, plays, criticism, and a biography of Jane Austen. Her novel The Stone Diaries won the Pulitzer Prize, the Governor General's Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award; it was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Shields was further recognized with a Canada Council Major Award, two Canadian National Magazine Awards, the Canadian Authors Association Award, and countless other prizes and honors. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Publication Details

Title: Small Ceremonies

Author(s):

  • Carol Shields

Illustrator:

Binding: Paperback

Published by: Fourth Estate: , 1995

Edition:

ISBN: 9781857020298 | 1857020294

179 pages. 7.8 x 0.51 x 5.08 inches

  • ENG- English
Book Condition: Good

Tape on cover.
741p

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