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Larry's Party Paperback – September 1, 1998
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length339 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Publishing Group
- Publication dateSeptember 1, 1998
- Dimensions5.06 x 0.8 x 7.75 inches
- ISBN-100140266771
- ISBN-13978-0140266771
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About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Publishing Group (September 1, 1998)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 339 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140266771
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140266771
- Item Weight : 9.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.06 x 0.8 x 7.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,682,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17,843 in Short Stories Anthologies
- #71,340 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #81,158 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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.
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Just as when men try to write about female characters, there are some shallow and stereotypical touches, especially regarding Larry's sexuality. His instantly responsive penis is the stuff of fantasy, as many men experience erection loss the first time or two with a new woman, and often during the very first time having sex.
While he shows a number of stereotypical reactions to the onset of middle age and the theatrical trauma of hitting forty, there is no recognition of the fact that a man with Larry's quasi-morbidity would be experiencing levels of erectile dysfunction from his late twenties onwards.
As with The Stone Diaries, Carol tends to write epics about people who simply do not lead epic lives, even in their own heads, and Larry's Party is such a novel.
Despite the inherent flaws and the tendency towards over-writing, I still consider it worth a read.
It isn't a book you can't put down, it's one you read to savour the language and the insights. Carol Shields is an amazing writer, there's no doubt about that, and for a while I wondered why I didn't like this book more when I first read it. Then I got to the end.
*SPOILER ALERT* Quite a few people claim that they felt rewarded for slogging through Larry's Party because there was an emotional pay-off when Larry finds his way to the beginning of the maze and gets back together with Dorrie. I felt the exact opposite. It was just so trite and clichéd, and it's not an exaggeration to say I hated it.
Are we really expected to believe that over the course of one dinner party everyone can see that Dorrie and Larry still love each other? Even Larry's current partner of over a year, who just happens to find a new love interest herself that night, gives him her blessing. How convenient. Beth is revealed for the self-absorbed cow she's always been and Larry and Dorrie are left to live happily ever after. Give me a break. As for the dinner party conversation, reading it was like listening to someone scrape their nails down a blackboard.
I thought this was going to be a four-star effort, but I have to take half a star off for the terrible ending to what was otherwise a very satisfying read. 3.5 stars
A lovely tour de force.
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I think it will be easy for anyone to tell by reading the sample whether they are going to like it, because the tone is very similar right the way through. I liked it very much, for the beautiful writing and the sense of being in the middle of another person's world - nobody particularly unusual or special, but with his own intense inner life.