Carol Shields (1935–2003)

THE BOX GARDEN (1977) is a gem of a book that my late mother left behind eleven years ago and I just got around to reading it. Mom and I both thoroughly enjoyed Carol Shields' THE STONE DIARIES that won her the Pulitzer nearly thirty years ago. And I've read a couple of her other books since then. This one features Charlene Forest, a divorced single mom, living on the economic edge in the seventies (well before PCs, cell phones and all the other crap of today). Char has a confidence problem, but she manages quite well. Her ex was an unbalanced, selfish hippy, but she still gets a small monthly child support check in the mail twelve years after he deserted them. Char is traveling by train from Vancouver back to her home near Toronto for a week, where her long-widowed mother is getting married. And her mom is really a piece of work - perhaps one of the most unlikeable, unpleasant characters you're likely to meet in modern fiction. And the man she is marrying cones with some real surprises. Char brings her 'boyfriend,' a really nice guy - an orthodontist - and leaves her 15 year-old son behind with some friends. And she hopes to connect with 'Brother Adam,' a mysterious (mystic?) botanist she's been corresponding with - who sent her a 'box garden' of grass. Oh, and her older sister and husband are there for the wedding too. Then there is this totally unexpected family crisis, and the police enter in. I mean for such an ordinary-seeming collection of people, things get pretty intense all at once, and there is a lot going on, with some sudden twists. This is just a very good story, with very finely wrought characters, and very seventies too. I loved it. And the late Carol Shields was a wonderful writer. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of CV memoir, BOOKLOVER… (más)

I've read a lot of great biographies on Jane Austen, but this one was truly excellent. First off, I would not recommend this for someone who knows very little about Jane Austen or her books, as a lot of basics are assumed in order to get on to things that better interest the knowledgeable "Janeite". I think that's why I enjoyed it so much---it was a refreshing take on the details behind that "Jane Austen Fact Sheet" that a lot of biographies seem to be drawing from.

I love Shields' metaphor of "glances" on page 3-4. She discusses how Austen never really goes into detail about some of the things that were so newsworthy in her day: the Napoleonic wars, changes in societal structure and the Church, advances in science and medicine. She describes Austen's dealings with them as "glances"---an implied commentary.

Another thing the biographer brought to my attention, in respect to the writer in me---and in Austen---was that Jane Austen never had that quiet place that I seem not to be able to write without. "The encouragement of her imagination did not arise from conditions offered her by others." I am always looking for that place of solitude---the "Perfect Place to Write." Yet, Jane Austen just wrote wherever she was and however she could---no matter what was going on around her. I can't expect others to pave the way for me. If I really want to finish that story that I'm working on, I need to make it happen.

After reading this short bio, I'm more encouraged to track down some of her published correspondence. Maybe I'll have the chance to find some on my trip to England next month.… (más)