Customer Reviews

unless

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

If I was lazy I'd tell you that this is the book that Nick Hornby's How to be Good could have been (if Nick Hornby was even a fifth of the writer that Carol Shields is). Or I could say that this is a twenty-first century reinterpretation of When She Was Good, one of Philip Roth's earlier masterpieces.

Unfortunately, such laziness would do this rather wonderful and thought-provoking book a grave disservice - in that, although goodness - the idea of goodness, what it means to be good - is at the centre of this book, it shares that space with ruminations on the art of writing, and what it is to be a woman (and a woman writer, and a wife, and a mother, and a friend, and a person in the world) at the beginning of what we like to regard as a more enlightened time to be alive.

Reta Winters took her husband Tom's surname when they first got together (part of the reason being that she was originally Reta Summers and they both agreed that one of the seasons had to change). In lots of ways, this information (which is almost the opposite of a revelation, whatever the word for that is) contains the genesis of this novel writ small. They have three daughters together, Reta and Tom, the oldest of whom decides on the cusp of her nineteenth birthday to throw up her studies and live on the street with a simple cardboard sign - on which the word GOODNESS is written - on a string around her neck. Reta has no idea why her daughter has chosen this path and that - the abstract decision to withdraw from the life you are expected to live - throws the world out of kilter. To all intents and purposes life continues on as it did before (Reta and Tom still sleep together, Reta continues to write the sequel to her comic novel, the family entertain at Christmas). Beneath the surface, however, and within Reta, you realise that the world these characters inhabit has come to resemble nothing so much as the scab that forms over damaged skin.

The title of the book, and each of the chapter titles that follow, are made up of what Shields calls "little chips of grammar (mostly adverbs and prepositions) . . . words like therefore, else, other, also, thereof, theretofore, instead, otherwise, despite, already and not yet." These words act as the "odd pieces of language" that cement the isolated events in a person's life to form "a coherent narrative." The adverbs and the prepositions, the words you do not notice, commingle with Reta's attempts to rebuke the various men in positions of authority who continually overlook the debt history owes to women (believing in part that her daughter's complaint has been brought on as a direct result of NOT BEING HEARD - which, in a way, as the climax reveals, is the case).

There is grit here and pain (that all too human attempt to comprehend that which is beyond comprehension: the actions of others), and the writing is deceptively easy on the eye (an ease that is assisted by Shields all-too-middle-class narrator, but that is the point - Reta didn't expect the world to let her down in the way that it has, pain happens to other people, pain is on the news not here, in my living room, at my dinner party, during Christmas). Unless is the kind of book that feels like streetlevel access to the underground (you're standing on a grill as a train thunders by beneath you, and the grill continues to rattle long after the train has passed): here is a thoughtful novel that lingers in your mind, shaky and insecure as one would be having grappled with big questions (and approached shaky answers, Mr Hornby - See! It can be done!!).

Although there is a gentleness to the telling (in that Shields' narratorial tone is always sensitive to the voice of her characters), Unless is steely in its penetration of life (of a certain kind of life), and resolute in its attempt to understand abstraction.

I just finished this book and was completely inspired and moved by it. I logged on to see what other readers were saying and I have to say that I think they missed the point. Although this novel moves and is described as a narrative story (with a plot: beginning, middle and end) the more important thing I think is that Carol Shields uses this story to move forward a concept. That being that the female perspective, our narrative, our life story as a whole is not considered as important as the male story. (This idea was recently discussed when literary minds chose the TOP 100 books all time and they found very few female stories or writers on that list.) The character struggle the reader needs to focus on is not the daughter's story (although that would have made a fabulous book too) but the mother's struggle to try to understand how she and society had contributed to an otherwise healthy, intelligent, young woman's "dropping out" or "giving up". What's important here is not whether she as a character is correct in her assumptions of the "why" but the focus of her struggle through the event and what that shows about both her and our culture as a whole. I believe "goodness" is used specifically because it is considered a female trait. That said it's a good novel if you don't get that from it, but it's a GREAT novel if you do.

I've read some of the other reviews about this book, and found some of them a little bit intriguing. One reader mentionned expecting a fast paced story, as you would find in a mystery or detective novel. This has never been what Carol Shields has been about. She writes in this case about a 44-year-old mother of three/author/translator who tries to cope with her oldest daughter seemingly turning away from life, choosing instead to beg at a Toronto street corner every day with a sign around her neck saying "GOODNESS".

Other readers felt it had no plot. Again, Shields develops characters and not intrigues. She tells the story from Reta's point of view. The "plot" is in trying to comprehend the circumstances leading to her daughter's behavior, in figuring out if she, as a mother, has done something wrong, if the same thing will happen to her other children. Also, in figuring out what is goodness. Throughout the narrative, Shields exposes various forms of goodness.

This book is filled with interesting, down-to-earth characters, expertly developped by the author. The story contains many humorous touches, not the least of which are Reta's letters to various authors, as she complains about the non-representation of female writers in male writers' essays.

I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

Carol Shields is a powerful writer, all the more so because she writes in such facile prose that she is accessible on every level - the "story" of a Canadian family coping with focus of despair in an otherwise comfortable world, the "philosophy" of how we arrive at the state of adulthood only when we are able to remember and incorporate our hazy past, the "sociology" of what is happening to feminisim, to friendships, to geneology and inheritance in a family, the "spiritual" haven where finding internal goodness is more than enough of a Journey, the "didactical" means of writing a book. Now that covers a lot of ground! Shields builds the tension of this short novel with such honesty that we are at first put off that a good mother could seem to put the trauma of her eldest daughter becoming a street person in such a niche that she can proceed with cooking, tending her hausband and other daughters, having tea with friends, translating from the French the works of a Canadian femininist, and writing her own "light entertainment " novel while being confronted by editorial asides. It is just such a slice of ordinary life, living day to day because of and inspite of, that makes her final resolution of this marvelous novel so touching. Shields assigns each short chapter with "little chips of grammar (mostly adverbs or prepositions) that are hard to define" such as "therefore, otherwise, instead, already," etc. Most tellingly she uses one of these 'chips' as the title of this novel, and it is only half way through that she tells us why. " 'Unless' is the worry word of the English language. It flies like a moth around the ear, you hardly hear it, and yet everything depends on its breathy presence." To attempt to review this novel with more words would be inadequate. This is the work of a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, one of the strongest, and most honest voices writing today. This is a treasure box of a book. Highly recommended.

Reta Winters, 44, has led a charmed life. She is a well received translator and writer with a doctor husband and three great girls. Then one daughter withdraws, sits mute on the streets of Toronto, her only communication a sign she holds that says GOODNESS. Reta takes a journey of introspection in which she contemplates what she, and ultimately her daughter, has lost. Her suspicion is that our society still lacks awareness of women's lesser power. Her daughter, like all of us, is expected to seek goodness, but never greatness.

Carol Shields follows the arc of Reta's despair, sometimes with great wit and irony. Reta carries on with ordinary life even in the face of loss. A wonderful chapter begins, "Tom and I still have sex--have I mentioned this?--even though our oldest daughter is living on the street." She starts another chapter with having manure delivered for the garden--even though her daughter is on the street. Reta finds respite in the fictional world she creates in her new novel and the characters' lives begin to parallel Reta' life which begin to parallel Carol Shield's life--all tied up in losses and ultimately healing. It's easy to forgive Shields if the ending is a little too neatly tied up. She is struggling with breast cancer and probably knows more about loss and redemption than she would like to.

Carol Shields' Unless is a lovely novel, a reflection, in novel form, on what it means to be a writer, a parent, a woman, many things. A word of warning: there is not much of a plot and if that's going to bother you, then perhaps this novel isn't for you. Unless is narrated by Reta Winters, an author who, while attempting to write her second novel, must deal with the painful actions of her oldest daughter. Norah, her nineteen-year old daughter has dropped out of college and taken to panhandling in Toronto. She is in an almost catatonic state, and won't speak to her family. The mystery of why Norah is behaving like this is almost destroying Reta, yet somehow she goes on with her life. This novel is her account of what that life is like. It is intelligently written. Reta is a smart, quick narrator. It isn't until the end of the novel that the actual story gets moving. You finally get the sense that a resolution with Norah, and with Reta's novel, may be ahead. Shields is saying a lot in this novel--much about being a writer and the creative process, but there is also some feminism in there too. The novel is fairly brief--a little over 200 pages, but Sheilds manages to fit much in those pages. Unless is a thought-provoking, thoughtful read. Enjoy

The reviews already posted seem to either love or hate this book, with the main reason for reader disappointment being the lack of a plot. Given the dramatic event on which the book hinges -- Norah, the responsible, oldest daughter of a loving family has suddenly dropped out of school and is spending her days panhandling on a street corner, wearing a placard with the legend, "goodness" -- it's understandable that many readers expected the book to be a fast-paced crime novel, focusing on efforts to "rescue" the daughter, who surely had been brainwashed by some cult. This is one way the story could have been developed, but it's not Carol Shields' way. Instead, the family remains loving but helpless, reluctantly going on with their lives. Reta, Norah's devastated mother, continues to cook casseroles, meet friends for coffee, and most of all continue work on a lighthearted novel she is writing.

Reta herself wonders how she can concentrate on fiction when her daughter is living on the street. But her novel is a refuge, a world she can control, where the characters do her bidding. (As a writer of fiction, I found Reta's characters admirably compliant, unlike the way my own sometimes behave.) When she is not deciding the direction of her novel, she spends much of her mental and emotional energy trying to figure out what has driven Norah to a life on the streets, and what is the meaning of "goodness."

I found Reta convincing. Her concern for her family, her reliance on her friends and her work all lend her credibility. (One reader couldn't believe that the family wouldn't have forcibly dragged Norah off the streets and gotten her into mental health treatment, rather than simply visiting her with packages of warm clothes and food; I'm not familiar with Canadian laws, but I question whether they could legally have done so in the case of an adult daughter.) But Norah herself remained a shadowy figure to me. Reta seizes on the idea that Norah has "dropped out" because she recognizes that her talents and ambitions will be stifled by a society which gives little recognition to female achievements, but this seemed projection on her part. I never saw any indication that Norah was either particularly ambitious or a strong feminist.

I have to confess that I was one of those frustrated by the slow pacing at the novel's beginning. But as I read further, I could see how carefully Shields was spinning out her story (and yes there is a story at the heart of the book). I also saw that unlike some books with terrific pacing and little else to recommend them -- such as the mysteries I buy to read on plane trips -- I would remember and think about this one long after I had come to the last page. In fact, the diversity of reaction to this book suggests it would make a good choice for a book discussion group.

How often do you start reading a book and find you can't put it down, have to keep reading and wish it didn't end? Carol Shields has written such a book for me- the jacket describes this book as an author with family issues one of which is a daughter who quits college to become homeless. Sounds depressing, but this book is anything but..Reta Winters is an author trying to write her second book while helping an older author translate her stories. In the midst of her professional work, family life intervenes, and the story of Reta's daughter becomes the focus for family and personal change. Reta is a feminist and her friends and colleagues are involved with the feminist movement to improve the life of women. Reta, her husband, and two youngest daughters are keeping the errant daughter in their lives through daily pryaers, thoughts and bags of cheese sandwiches left at the site where the daughter sits day after day with a sign, "Goodness" and collects monies given to her by stangers. The mother-in-law and Reta's editor provide some unusual insights. This is a story that surprises, delights and ends on an up note that gives us all hope for goodness in our own lives....."unless"...

A mother's agonized attempt to help to her 19-year-old daughter Norah, a drop-out who now begs on a street corner while wearing a sign saying "Goodness" around her neck, provides the framework for Shields's thoughtful and sensitive look at women's roles and the juggling acts they sometimes require. Reta Winters, a successful writer, believes at first that by writing a bright, perky novel about "lost children and goodness and going home," she will be "remaking the untenable world through the nib of a pen." But real life--and Shields's real novel--are, of course, much more complex than that.

Despite the support of her two younger and very caring daughters, her empathetic husband, her friends, and Danielle Westerman, the French feminist whose books she has translated, Kate nevertheless discovers that trying to help a child who will not be helped is a terrible loneliness to bear: "I need to know I'm not alone in what I apprehend, this awful incompleteness that has been alive inside me all this time." Evaluating her life as a wife, writer, friend, mother, and, increasingly, feminist, Kate allows us to share her inner life, both as it is revealed in her writing and as she wrestles with Norah's "hibernation" on the street corner.

Filled with dazzling images (an idea that has "popped out of the ground like the rounded snout of a crocus on a cold lawn" ; women who have been "sent over to the side pocket of the snooker table and made to disappear"), this Shields novel is more meditative than many of her other novels. "I've been trying to focus my thoughts on the immensity, rather than the particular," Kate/Shields says. As she inspires the reader to share this immensity, she provides insights into the essence of who we are and who be might become. Mary Whipple

I realize it's generally a bad idea to comment on other people's reviews, however, after reading the review "Who are these people" by "a reader in the USA" I feel I absolutely MUST comment. First of all, the writer describes Carol Shields as a writer in her seventies. She is, in fact, in her early sixties. The writer also says that Carol Shields, as a novelist housewife, can't imagine the working world. Apparently the review writer is not aware that Ms. Shields taught and administered for years at various universities, most notably the University of Winnipeg, where she worked for many years. I felt compelled to comment on these over-sights as so much of the review writer's objections to "Unless" seemed to be what the writer considered Ms. Shield's lack of qualifications to actually write the book, rather than the content of the book itself. Most of us have had it hammered into our heads over the years to make sure we separate the author from the work. However, if one, such as "a reader from USA" chooses not to do that, it would be wise to make sure they know something about the author they are talking about first.

That said, I loved Unless. It is a simple, pared-down, quiet book. It's quite lovely. I feel lucky to have read it. Carol Shields gave me a small gift by putting that book out into the world, where I one day read it. And I am grateful to her for it.