Still reading Carol Shields’ stories; I’m about 1/3 of the way through the book. This week I read the following four:
“A Wood” – written with her daughter, Anne Giardini. I liked this one quite a bit and thought it could have had the potential to become a novella; in fact, I wanted more when I finished reading. The story is about three Wood siblings and the guilt they share about the death of their domineering father. Ross is the overly-critical brother, while Stanley is perhaps a bit too accepting. Elke is the eccentric concert violinist who even composes her own music. The dynamic of the three felt real, and I definitely wanted to know more about their father, who was known to say things such as:
- A Wood will only settle for standards of excellence.
- A Wood asks more of himself than he asks of others.
- A Wood knows that work is the least despised of human activities.
- A Wood values accomplishment above all.
“Love so Fleeting, Love so Fine” – A strange story about a married man who invents stories in his head about the women whose names appear on signs and slogans.
“Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls” – A woman recalls her childhood attachment to dolls.
I knew she was lifeless, knew there was no heart fluttering in her soft chest and no bravery in her hollow head. None of it was real, none of it.
Only her power to protect me. Human love, I saw, could not always be relied upon. There would be times when I would have to settle for a kind of parallel love, an extension of my hidden self, hidden even from me.
“Invitations” – A woman receives multiple invitations to events on a Saturday evening. Instead she chooses to stay home with Mansfield Park.
Clearly she was lost in what she was reading, for she never once glanced up. Her look of solitary containment and the oblique angle with which the light struck the left side of her face made her seem piercingly lovely. One of her hands, curved like a comma, lay on her lap; the other, slowly, thoughtfully, turned over the pages.
This was a great story to end on. I always look forward to my moments with Shields.
