Expected more but pretty average with everything tied up all too simply at the end. Philip Roth's American Patoral covers similar themes much more satisfyingly (if a little lengthy). Got 4 stars on Amazon though so lots of people seem to like.

Picked up as a left-over at the Leeds BC Meet. Not my kind of thing I suspect - but I'm planning to take it to the York Meet in case anyone there is interested...

RELEASE NOTES:

releasing, as promised...

Recommended by Tree-Hugger. I've enjoyed her previous recommendations so expect to enjoy this.

This isn't the sort of thing I'm normally drawn to reading, and to be honest if it hadn't been recommended I might have given it a miss, or even given up on it quickly. It was written from the point of view of a middle aged woman and centres round the family crisis of her eldest daughter unexpectedly and inexplicably opting out of society living on the street. The central theme is a woman's place in the world, and the central character’s attempt to balance her feminist beliefs with her very comfortable traditional lifestyle she leads as a mother and writer.

My first thoughts were that I had no 'way in' to the character at all - The only thing I could think about was how my own mother would feel in that sort of situation. I did persevere though.

The plot is very much about the subjugation of women in literature, and life in general. I just felt frustrated by the navel gazing nature of it. I kept wanting to shout at the book "do something about it then". Then other times I found myself thinking that all her points about history being written with the women left out were good ones.

I think overall though the introspection was just a bit too much for me.

By the way I haven't read American Pastoral, but looking at the Amazon synopsis of it there seems to be a male protagonist - isn't that ironic, given the theme of *this* story (thinking particularly of the part where her editor wants her to rewrite her book with the male character as the protagonist)- that people somehow feel more comfortable or are more ready to accept a story with the man at the centre?? I don't know. I'm not a very good feminist!

Going to release this again at the Oct York meetup.

RELEASE NOTES:

Caught at Meet. Not an author I have read before, but one I have wanted to try for a while. I am attracted by the 'story' , let's just hope I can cope with the introspection!

I enjoyed this book: unsurprisingly really as I like a lot of Canadian writers. It is a bit of a puzzle all the same - I can't quite get my head round why Shields chose to write this book at a time when feminism is such a dirty word. Furthermore she seems to have little new to say on the subject: we have the juxtaposition of the private and public spheres and the problems this presents for women and the marginalisation of women in the 'academic' world and their exclusion from the literary canon. All this has been covered elsewhere - perhaps it is just that Shields felt she need to say it for herself. I though the book was very funny in places and her description of domestic settings is wonderful - you really feel you are stepping through the front door! I wondered all the way through the book about the chapter headings - thankfully this was explained at the end.
I think the book is a lot more complex than it at first appears and I can imagine it would provoke a lot of discussion in a book group. Overall an enjoyable, if puzzling, read.

Reserving this for a friend who has just discovered Carol Shields. My friend is not a bookcrosser but she will leave the books I give her in the wild around the area in Oxfordshire where she lives.

Passed on to a friend in Wantage. She's not a bookcrosser herself but will pass the book on or leave it in the wild when she has read it.

I found this book on one of Oxford Sightseeing Tour's bus stops just outside Oxford Station when I was there on a language course in the middle of June. I've actually been a member at bookcrossing.com for more than a year but never done anything at all. I was very surprised and excited when I found a book but haven't had time to read it yet. I just wanted to register it so that the person releasing it needn't have to worry. Now the book has travelled far away. All the way to Sweden and when I have read it I will ofcourse release it again.