Carol Shields Summary

In the following review, Rodd asserts that A Celibate Season makes pleasurable use of the co-written epistolary form, but judges the story as complacent and lacking the depth of Shields's previ... Read more

In the following review of Jane Austen, Keates praises Shields's depiction of Austen and her career, and values the focus within the biography on Austen's artistic development. Until ... Read more

In the following review, Ratcliffe offers high praise for Unless, asserting that the story demonstrates Shields at her tragi-comic best. In a teasing gesture towards critics who have suggested that... Read more

In the following review, Charles describes Unless as a mischievous monologue that is remarkably subtle and unsettling. You wouldn't expect it from her, but Carol Shields has written a naught... Read more

In the following review of Jane Austen, Hammill comments that Shields provides a genuinely new perspective on Austen's life while highlighting the speculative nature of biography. My debt to... Read more

In the following review, Showalter describes Unless as a novel that takes aesthetic and imaginative risks and debates questions of women's art and its reception. The debate about women... Read more

In the following review, Bond describes Unless as a powerful and funny novel that provides insight into the process of writing. … unless, with its elegiac undertones, is a term used in logic... Read more

In the following obituary, Levy provides a brief overview of Shields's life and work. Carol Shields, 68, whose empathetic and witty novels about the lives of ordinary people included the Pul... Read more

In the following review, Hagen lauds Shields's “realistic focus” on her characters's lives in Unless, maintaining that Shields “is one of our best” contempora... Read more

In the following review, Oates discusses Shields's Dressing Up for the Carnival along with several other recent story collections by various authors. Oates comments that Shields's storie... Read more

In the following review, Glazebrook asserts that the two central characters in A Celibate Season are unsympathetic, and comments that the novel as a whole cannot overcome the limitations of the episto... Read more

In the essay below, Weil considers structure and narration in Shields's short stories. I My first thought this morning is for Beth, how on earth she'll cope now that Ted's lef... Read more

In the following review of The Orange Fish, Spettigue compares Shields' writing with the work of Alice Munro. Twelve stories in the post-post fashion. They begin casually, they wander about,... Read more

In the following review of Coming to Canada, Hamelin praises Shields's poetry, stating that in it readers hear the same poignant voice of her novels. It is difficult to read Carol Shields&#x... Read more

In the essay below, Page discusses Shields's observations about fiction, biography, and sources in Small Ceremonies. Carol Shields' first novel, Small Ceremonies (1976), is short, lig... Read more

In the following interview, Shields discusses genre, form, and her writing process as they relate to several of her works. [Roo:] You display a good deal of formal versatility in your writing. You ... Read more

In the following review, Fellman discusses Shields's interest in form and personality in Swann and her investigations into order and chaos in the stories in Various Miracles. Now that the US... Read more