That Just Happened!

Shields, Carol.  The Stone Diaries.  Vintage Canada (2008).  Originally 1993.

 The Stone Diaries is the story of one woman’s life; a truly sensuous novel that reflects and illuminates the unsettled decades of our century.

Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood and old age. Bewildered by her inability to understand her own role, Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her own story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography.

From The Publisher

I enjoyed this book, Daisy was slightly reminiscent of the kind of woman Betty Friedan would disdain.  However, I think there are a lot of women who can relate to this.  Daisy is trying to figure out what makes her happy while, at the same time, trying to fulfill her role as mother, wife, daughter, friend, etc.  You can see her struggle with this her whole life and even at the end she is wondering if it was enough.  If she  was enough to everyone.  I liked how the book was divided into the major events most women go through.  I also liked how there were a few pages of pictures in the middle of the book.  It really added to the illusion that you were reading a diary or scrapbook. 

I am writing this review a little bit later than I had planned, but the fact that I had to reference the book a few times means it was not very memorable.

Themes include self-discovery, relationships, and family.

Niffenegger, Audrey.  The Time Traveler’s Wife.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2004).

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger’s cinematic storytelling that makes the novel’s unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler’s Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

From the Publisher’s Website

Um, I know I am probably the last person to read this book (except for MPW’s cousin Lindsay who just got this book the other day).  I know everyone before me has extolled the virtues of this novel.  Buuuuut, I don’t see the harm in doing it again, because it was just that good.  I got this book as a Christmas gift from my friend Mille, but I have been putting it off because I heard it was such a tear-jerker.  I finally sat down to read it (or lay down as the case may be. I usually read in bed at night) and I couldn’t put it down. 

I thought it was pretty easy following the dates and the ages of Henry and Clare.  I liked how the Reader knows what is coming, as do the main characters, but it is written in a way that is so hopeful.  Perhaps there is a reason for all of this and changes can happen?

I don’t want to say too much because for those who have yet to read it, saying anything about it gives something away.  I will say, this book was tinged with sadness.  From the very beginning you can feel your heart strings being pulled in all directions.

A Must Read.  Thanks Mille for the wonderful gift!

 Rooke, Leon.  Shakespeare’s Dog: A Novel.  Thomas Allen Publishers (2003). Originally published 1981.

 A tour de force of inventive wit “Shakespeare’s Dog” is the eccentric and high-spirited story of William Shakespeare and how he came to bed and wed Anne Hathaway. Told from the point of view of the Bard’s dog, this astonishing novel of comic bliss, hailed as a triumph of language and an amusing delight.

From the Publisher’s Website

I can’t believe that all of the contenders that year, this book was picked as a winner.  Really.  This book is written from Shakespeare’s dog’s perspective.  If this is what my dog is thinking then I am super glad he can’t talk like Hooker does in the book.  Sometimes it seems as if Shakespeare understands him and sometimes he does not.  It really didn’t add anything to the story and it seemed a little contrived.   What totally blows my mind is that this was made into a play.  For the stage.  I mean, what exactly did they make a play about?  A dog sniffing around cursing?  Shakespeare’s imagined conversations with his canine companion?  I have a feeling this play would be worse than the slow death I experienced at Death of a Salesman (and I’m not talking about the main character).

I feel like I can now curse out someone quite thoroughly in a Shakespearean way and I know about 15 different words for vagina.  Educational?  Maybe.  Practical?  No, well…maybe.  I really just could not get into this book.  It took me a few tries to get past the first chapter and once I had I wondered why I even bothered?  I mean, this is something I would expect the Giller Prize committee to have commended (oooh snap!)  not the Governor General Award committee.  Perhaps it was just a really bad year for literature.  I don’t know. 

Not worth the time, I can’t even pick out a theme really.  Perhaps survival and relationships.  I never thought I would ever be giving out this score, but this book really did sucketh.

I read this novel towards my personal Governor General Award Winner for Fiction Challenge.