Carol Shields

The Stone diaries

readingsnmusings 

** spoiler alert **
           "Nothing she did or said was quite what she meant but still her life could be called a monument shaped in a slate of available light and set to the movement of possible music"

"And look at our young couple here this evening- Daisy, Harold-how can any of us believe that they are not also a favored by time and chance"

"Daisy Goodwill's own thoughts on her marriage are not recorded, for she has given up on the practice of keeping a private journal. The recent loss of her travel diary- it has never been found- caused her a certain amount of secret grief; she shudders to think whose hands it may have fallen into, all the self indulgent scribbling that belongs, properly, to the province of girlhood- a place where she no longer lives."

"Her life thus far, I should say—for she sees years and years ahead for herself. That life "thus far" has meant accepting the doses of disabling information that have come her way, every drop, and stirring them with the spoon of her longing—she’s done this for so many years it’s become second nature."

"Life is an endless recruiting of witnesses. It seems we need to be observed in our postures of extravagance or shame, we need attention paid to us. Our own memory is altogether too cherishing, which is the kindest thing I can say for it. Other accounts are required, other perspectives, but even so our most important ceremonies—birth, love, and death—are secured by whomever and whatever is available. What chance, what caprice!"

"I had wakened that money to narrowness and predestination and now I was falling asleep in the storm of my own will"

"Her voice, an embarrassed voice, shunts between adult censoriousness and teenage perplexing "

"Daisy Daisy 
Give me your answer true
Day's eye, day's eye
The face in the mirror is you"

"I'm still here, inside the (powdery, splintery) bones, ankles, the sockets of my eyes, shoulder, hip, teeth, I'm still here, oh, oh."

"Now there's a woman who made a terrific meatloaf, who knew how to repot a drooping rubber plant, who bid a smart no-trump hand, who wore a hat well, who looked after her personal hygiene, who wrote her thank you notes promptly, who kept up, who went down, went down and down and down, who missed the point, the point of it all, but was, nevertheless, almost unfailingly courteous to others"

"Our genes are pure granite"

"She just let her life happen to her.
Well, why the hell not?
It was like-
Like
Like she was always going after some stray little thought with a needle and thread.
Afraid to look inside herself. In case there was nothing there"

"Her brain is purest mica; you can hold it up to the window and the light shines through. Empty though, that's the catch."

"Her final posture, then, is Grecian. Quiet. Timeless. Classic. She has always suspected she had this potential"

"The pansies, have you ever seen such ravishing pansies? 
She would have loved them
Somehow I expected to see a huge bank of daisies.
Daisies. Yes
Someone should have thought of daisies
Yes 
Ah, well."

First read of the year is pure gold!

Rebecca Grandison 

This was a fascinating book. It took me a while to get hooked in but once I was there I was gripped and hurried through it as I really wanted to know how it all panned out for the protagonist. I love how it covered the entire life of Daisy - from birth and her parents to her death and all her grandchildren etc. It made me think at the same time both how long and how short our lives are. The only down side I'd say is that I did find the ending a 'downer' as it just made me feel like we all die alone! But on the whole really well written and I did enjoy it.

This is a quiet, powerful book about the sum-total of one ordinary woman's life. No easy conclusions here...a wonderful re-read.

The Stone diaries

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