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Unless [Hardcover]

Carol Shields (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful work of subtlety Feb 16 2010
By Magnolia Flutter
Format:Paperback
Unless is beautifully written. It may be too subtle for many people (see reviews claiming it to be tedious), but if you look into her finely woven story, there are many layers of overlapping meaning. If you are not a feminist, Shields may seem to assume too much. Yet I find her feminism to be right on the mark, humble and poignant.
She points out the irony of writing about a woman who is writing about a woman writing. But going through the story, she teaches a clinic on how to write a story. I found it captivating and have read it repeatedly and recommended it to all the women in my life.
Shields also embraces the accusation that she writes about the small moments and small lives. This book was much more memorable than the Stone Diaries which was also fascinating.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Rambles Dec 12 2008
By Shepherdess Extraordinaire TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
I agree with the reviewer, Carrad's, statement, "Moaning for pages and pages and pages about how female authors and characters have been marginalized for centuries does not justify the artistic failure inherent in marginalizing all the male characters in the book, who are poorly-realized cardboard cutouts." The main character Reta is pretty presumptious about why her daughter has withdrawn from society and yet in the end the reason is something very different. Although I can see the realtionship and symbolism. But it seems that Shields uses this novel to ramble on about woman's plight of being powerless and other political musings. It just ends up being a very disconnected and uninteresting novel.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Unless Jan 12 2013
By bozana janus
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
When the book is finished you are asking yourself: what was that?
It did open your interest, though.
B. Janus
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Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Review of Unless
Carole writes very well using language that provides clarity and captivates interest but is beyond the vocabulary of the majority of people, possibly not her particulr set of... Read more
Published 18 months ago by John
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Read
I very much enjoyed the book Unless, by Carol Shields. It is about a writer writing a book within a book - but that is only part of the story. Read more
Published on April 4 2011 by Darleen
3.0 out of 5 stars The Feminie Identity in Crisis
The message that the late Carol Shields seems to convey to Canadian women in this posthumous novel is that they are non-entities unless they discover and answer to those important... Read more
Published on Feb 23 2011 by Ian Gordon Malcomson
1.0 out of 5 stars 'Unless' is a sniffling feminist rant
Unless goes to page 320. Twenty pages are blank, and there is a space between every line. So its word count is about the same as Virginia Woolf's very slim, To the Lighthouse. Read more
Published on Dec 27 2010 by Gaboora
5.0 out of 5 stars Writing Life
Unless is Shields' masterpiece, a treatise on womanhood, motherhood and personhood. Moreover, read carefully, it's a how-to guide of novel writing. Read more
Published on Jun 26 2006 by K. Clare
3.0 out of 5 stars Have you already read Stone Diaries and Larry's Party?
I agree with the amazon.ca review. If you haven't read Shields before, do yourself a favour and read "Stone Diaries" or "Larry's Party" before you pick up this... Read more
Published on Dec 24 2005
1.0 out of 5 stars Unless
I read this book because of recommendations and hype. UNLESS you have all kinds of time,,,don't bother,,,however, there are a few interesting pages so if you really are curious... Read more
Published on Nov 16 2004 by Elina
1.0 out of 5 stars A Painful Read -
This book's reviews sent me directly to the book store to purchase it - once I got it home and read it - not only did I want a refund on the purchase cost but I would also like my... Read more
Published on Dec 1 2003
3.0 out of 5 stars Not Nearly as Good as "The Stone Diaries" or Her Other Works
I was expecting this to be Shields' best yet, but unfortunately it just doesn't measure up to her other works. Read more
Published on Sep 24 2003 by Melanie
3.0 out of 5 stars High expectations..
.. can be dangerous. I thought, like Norah's mother, that Norah's behaviour was caused by society in general, and no specific event. Read more
Published on Jun 12 2003 by Eva
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