The Stone Diaries

Shields, Carol

ISBN 10: 0785799540 ISBN 13: 9780785799542

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

This fictionalized autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, captured in Daisy's vivacious yet reflective voice, has been winning over readers since its publication in 1995, when it won the Pulitzer Prize. After a youth marked by sudden death and loss, Daisy escapes into conventionality as a middle-class wife and mother. Years later she becomes a successful gardening columnist and experiences the kind of awakening that thousands of her contemporaries in mid-century yearned for but missed in alcoholism, marital infidelity and bridge clubs. The events of Daisy's life, however, are less compelling than her rich, vividly described inner life-- from her memories of her adoptive mother to her awareness of impending death. Shields' sensuous prose and her deft characterizations have made this, her sixth novel, her most successful yet.

Review:

‘I can think of few novels containing so much that is resonant and unforgettable, or that invite the reader to participate so fully and rewardingly. “The Stone Diaries” is a triumphant and important book and deserves a wide audience.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Rapturous, sensitive and funny.’ Guardian

‘Carol Shields is an exceptionally sympathetic and involving novelist.’ Independent on Sunday

‘It is wonderful. A treat.’ Joanna Trollope

About this edition

• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0785799540
• ISBN 13: 9780785799542
• Binding: Library Binding