Small Ceremonies - Softcover

Shields, Carol

3.75

1,170 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1480459569 ISBN 13: 9781480459564

Publisher: Open Road Media, 2013

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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.

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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.

From the Back Cover:

Judith Gill is writing a biography of a minor Victorian novelist. Judith has also written a novel of her own, but is unhappy with it. Is the plot original – or is it plagiarised? And when she discovers her own novel has just been plundered can she fairly justify the anger she feels? In the perplexing swirl of family life are her husband, who keeps odd balls of wool in a bottom drawer, and her son, who shares his secrets only with a penfriend.

Lacking the certainty of youth and not yet reaping the wisdom of older age, Judith Gill is at the centre of a beautifully realised novel that is tender, funny and insightful.

'Small Ceremonies' is the companion novel to 'The Box Garden'

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