Picking through the Pieces: Carol Shields’s Unless
Picking through the Pieces: Carol Shields’s Unless

Author(s): Andrey Andreev
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Novel
Published by: Нов български университет
Keywords: Carol Shields; novel; iterature analyses; literature;
Summary/Abstract: The article explores the major thematic concerns of celebrated Canadian writer Carol Shields's last completed novel Unless, a story of belated loss of innocence and awakening to the realities of the world. The focus of the analysis is the way in which the novel’s narrator struggles to retain her sanity in times of deep personal crisis, while grappling with issues such as the essence of motherhood, the still inferior position of women in modern society, the connection between life and literature, and the elusive concept of 'goodness’. The key to survival, Unless ultimately suggests, lies in holding onto the seemingly small, often ignored aspects of everyday life which the title word of the novel stands for.

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