Dressing Up for the Carnival

Carol Shields

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A bestselling collection of short stories from the author of The Stone Diaries (winner of the Pulitzer prize) and Larry's Party (winner of the Orange prize)

All over town people are putting on their costumes; X slips into his wife's lace-trimmed night gown and waltzes around his bedroom; Tamara is no longer the dull clerk receptionist when she wears that yellow skirt, she evolves into a stunning creature exuding passion and vitality. In 'Weather' a couple's life is thrown into utter chaos when The National Association of Metereorologists go on strike - what will they wear? What will they eat? In 'Soup du Jour' a young boy contemplates life, the cracks in the pavement and his mother's soup-making.
Each story encapsulates the human spirit, its diversities, complexities and absurdities. Shields observes with compassion the carnival that goes on in each of our lives and the realities that we create for ourselves. Carol Shields' second collection of short stories celebrates the extraordinary details that are found in ordinary, everyday lives.

Book Details

Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr
Publish Date: May 1st, 2001
Pages: 224
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 7.72in - 5.07in - 0.64in - 0.38lb
EAN: 9780141001913
Recommended age: 18-UP
Categories: • Short Stories (single author)• Women• World Literature - Canada - 21st Century

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.

Praise for this book

"[Shields is] a witty, whimsical, playful writer...a devious literary chameleon...Each step along the route is a surprise, and each character is a memorable creation whose keys unlock more than anyone may suspect." The New York Times Book
"There are few writers currently at work who display such steely control of their material, such seemingly effortless range and variety." -- Guardian

"Shields is about the best we have, she does not just express what oft was thought; she snags the shadows of those thoughts, the thoughts we did not know we had. The effect - at once elating and visceral - feels like a conjurer pulling a handkerchief from your heart."-- Daily Telegraph (London)

"Her perceptions are so quick, her style is so acute, that she can tack a breath to the page and skewer a thought on the wing. It is her speciality to isolate moments that, because of some sensuous overkill they possess, remaining distinct in the mind for years, perhaps for a lifetime." Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times (London)

'It is the breadth of Carol Shields' human sympathy that marks her out as a special writer. That breadth is gloriously evident in "Dressing Up for the Carnival". Whether she is playing the clown or offering poignant reflections on the fragility of happiness, Shields writes with a grace and lucidity that few of her contemporaries can match.' --Sunday Telegraph (London)