Various Miracles: Stories (King Penguin) [Mass Market Paperback]

Carol Shields (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996 | Series: King Penguin

The joys and bewilderments of day-to-day living take on special significance in Carol Shields's short stories.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 21 stories in this maddeningly uneven collection replay a single theme: people's "obliviousness to the million invisible filaments of connection, trivial or profound, which bind them one to the other and to the small green planet they call home." In a terrain perhaps imitative of the magical realism charted by Borges, Calvino et al., characters--a high percentage of whom are writers--are buffeted by extravagant coincidences and impossible phenomena. Shields ( Small Ceremonies ) is an ambitious writer; she demands of herself a rich poetics and, for these pieces, the virtues of the fable or moral tale. Her efforts are undermined: an authorial omniscience comes across as smug (especially when she twits her writer-characters for self-satisfaction), her doggedly imaginative plots as overdetermined and precious. Given their very similar characters, narrative strategies and subjects, most of these stories read like practice exercises for the two or three that are fully achieved ("Scenes" is one)--but, in light of the difficulty of her task, these successes distinguish Shields as worthy of serious attention.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Love, "capricious, idiotic, sentimental, imperfect and inconstant" - that longed-for state that "most often seems to be the exclusive preserve of others" - is what fills and informs these gentle and elegantly witty stories. "Mrs. Turner Cutting the Grass" is happily oblivious to the local girls' ridicule of her bermuda shorts, the criticism of one neighbor for her use of pesticides on her lawn, and the scorn of another for her not having a catcher on her mower. In fact, "the things Mrs. Turner doesn't know would fill the Saschers' new compost pit, would sink a ship, would set off a tidal wave, would make her want to kill herself." In "The Journal," Sally records her trip to France with her husband Harold, where they try to recapture the sex-life of their younger days. In "Others," Robert and Lila go to France for their honeymoon and briefly help a stranger named Nigel, who then initiates a correspondence which spans a period of thirty years. Although they never see each other again, Lila and Robert both fall secretly in love with letter-perfect Nigel and his wife Jane. Each of these twenty-one stories offers warm, welcoming, and never simple understandings of life and love. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140118373
• ISBN-13: 978-0140118377
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,772,922 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short Stories That Feature Small Miracles in Real Time, December 21, 2004

By 

Herbert Hartnett (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Various Miracles: Stories (King Penguin) (Mass Market Paperback)

Carol Shields as short story writer lets her imagination ramble and authors a collection that helped her overcome writer's block while working on the novel Swann. She places her characters in a variety of circumstances where they experience those moments when the mirrors of reality align and understanding appears before them. These are not religious miracles, but understanding life, its richness and depth, in real time. Take an hour or two and read Sailors Lost at Sea; Scenes; Fragility; Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls; and Home. You'll discover Shields's optimism and faith in the ability of everday people to explore and discover.