Dressing Up for the Carnival: Short Stories ebook

by Carol Shields

Home Carol Shields Dressing Up for the Carnival. My three daughters, Nancy, Chris, and Norah, all teenagers, were happy about the book because they were mentioned by name in a People magazine interview.

Home Carol Shields Dressing Up for the Carnival. Dressing Up for the Carnival, . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. Table of Contents. Winters lives on a farm outside Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is married to a family physician, and is the mother of three handsome daughters, Nancy, Christine, and Norah.

Dressing Up for the Carnival is a short story collection published in 2000 by Canadian author Carol Shields, which depicts 12 characters who live their lives through illusions. The Carnival is a metaphor for life, and "dressing up" represents the stigmas each of the characters try to fit into. The first character we get introduced to is Tamara. Tamara loves dressing up. She is a clerk-receptionist for the Youth Employment Bureau where she lives.

Carol Shields (1935–2003) was born in the United States but became a Canadian citizen in the late 1950s after marrying a Canadian engineer. Mirrors also appeared in Dressing Up for the Carnival. She is perhaps best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the . Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General’s Award in Canada. It’s the only book to have won both prestigious prizes. The story explores the refusal of an older couple, married for 35 years, to allow mirrors in their vacation home on Big Circle Lake, having claimed their small territory of sacrifice by not focusing on their own physical images.

In her third collection of short fiction, Dressing Up for the Carnival, Carol Shields .

In her third collection of short fiction, Dressing Up for the Carnival, Carol Shields employs two tales about clothing as structural bookends. In some cases, of course, this is a literal description. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Shields infuses this enigmatic and quirky collection of 22 short stories with ingenious characterizations in heartfelt tales that are mostly character sketches capturing the gestural, kinetic truths about the lives glimpsed here, with happy results.

Shields' stories take a deep dive into the emotional complexity of people's relationships, especially marriages, and examine the . It could be me the reader Book 26. Dressing Up for the Carnival Carol Shields 2000. 4/5. There's twenty two stories here.

Shields' stories take a deep dive into the emotional complexity of people's relationships, especially marriages, and examine the compromises I picked this book up at a small book sale while on vacation in the mountains, largely on the basis of it being one of the few works of fiction on sale that wasn't by Clive Cussler, Tom Clancey, or Danielle Steele. I had never heard of Carol Shields and had essentially no expectations. What I ended up with was a pretty good, if uneven, collection of stories.

Through them all runs Shields's preoccupation with identity

Through them all runs Shields's preoccupation with identity. In the title story - a compacted day in the life off the world - a procession of characters try on new selves; in "Dressing Down" a YMCA director sheds his suited self one month a year in a nudist enclave. Yet these twenty-two stories, and their quiet epiphanies, contrast with each ocher more sharply.

They sell their second car or disconnect the television rays

They sell their second car or disconnect the television rays. Something anyway, that signals dissent and cuts across the beating heart of their circumstances, reminding them of their other, leaner selves.

In her third collection of short fiction, Dressing Up for the Carnival, Carol Shields employs two tales about . In her empathetic, elegantly wrought novels, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields portrayed a world very much like our own: at times confusing, painful, and joyous, and populated with characters as complex as those we know in life. Dropped Threads 2: More of What We Aren't Told. Marjorie Anderson, Carol Shields.

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

paperback book

Anen

book in perfect condition
arrived in 3 days
read the book in one day
carol shields was a wonderful author----much like wally lamb.
the book is a collection of short stories about normal people in normal situations.
it is nice to read an actual book to take a break from my kindle

Ferne

Detailed ,complicated, always seeking perfection...the stories reflect the endless search for the elusive golden ring which
reflects many different points of view as to which journey will be the right one. There are no winners and no losers...only
seekers..

Nanecele

I found this book in a thrift store in Crossville TN--hardback, dustjacket--and since I loved Stone Diaries, I had to have this one. Reading it on the trip back home, I came to page 54 and instead of p. 55, the book went back to p. 23. At p. 54, it jumped to p. 87 and went then to the end. What a rip-off. More than likely, the proprietor had no idea.
But I persevered and read to the end. I missed some of the stories that other reviewers mentioned. Toward the end of the collection, the stories garnered a question mark as to meaning; "Death of an Artist" and "Invention" reaped the word "odd." It seemed like they were monographs on nothing. At least not interesting to me.
However, in "Windows," I underlined this phrase: "... long chapters of life go on without strong passion."
So, though it would look good as a title in my collection, it would be a shame to foist it off on someone else without a disclaimer. Perhaps in the local thrift shop's book bin, for a nickel each, it would be a good fit.

Xmatarryto

Carol Shields can take an ordinary word and polish it into a shining gemstone. Finely-tuned phrases are scattered plentifully throughout each chapter of _Dressing Up for the Carnival_, straddling the gap between poetry and fiction. This collection of stories is so spare, it almost feels empty at first. But you find Shields has emptied her work of distractions and needless explanations so you can more clearly see . Her focus on minute details is selective and purposeful. She reveals deep insights on the human condition through small observations-ones only a keen observer could see, and only a master writer like Shields could translate into words. If you want to be entertained, this book may not be for you. If you want to think deeply and be stirred to a higher level of emotion, pick up this book. You'll find yourself setting it down after every story so you can absorb each word.

Gaxaisvem

After the disappointment of Carol Shields' last book, the novel Larry's Party, I thought I would give her a second try with this collection of short stories. At times Shields doesn't disappoint - Dressing Up For The Carnival has a few wonderful stories - I particularly like 'Mirrors'. However, in many stories Shields tries to put an imaginative and poetic slant on the everyday banal - but sadly with little success. Most of the stories here seem forced, the result of some self-imposed writing excerise that in the end read like teenage creative writing exams. For such an accomplished writer many of these stories seem young and naive - even unfinished perhaps. Her themes of aging women, often disappointed by life or the infidelities of men, are bittersweet but in the end left me with nothing.

Jeb

Carol Shields is an amazingly talented author and her books amaze me. I am a huge fan of "The Stone Diaries" and I personally think it's one of the best novels of our time, but I must confess that I don't enjoy her work in short stories. I think that her talent is better suited for novels and I certainly think she deserves a world of praise for her books. But, again I didn't really like this one as much. I found it fragmented and hard to follow. It was lackluster and I was really hoping for more. Sadly, I can't rave about this book as much I would have liked.

Kefym

It's hard to describe the effect of these stories -- perhaps mindbending would be as close as you can get. Who else would devote whole stories to keys, or a meteorologist strike or the founder of a nudist camp? My only small complaint is that at times some of the stories, especially those taking place in the academic realm, are almost too clever for their own good. The collection as a whole though is strong and quite imaginative and profound. Shields is certainly an interesting writer -- there is nary a dull moment and some quite enlightening ones.

I recently finished reading Carol Shields' short story collection, Dressing Up for the Carnival. I'm a big fan of Carol Shields, having enjoyed Larry's Party, The Stone Diaries, even adding Swann to my wicked Top Five list - but this one didn't hit the spot.
Although the stories were charming and well-written, they weren't engrossing. I need to be EN-GROSSED! Instead I felt like I was wading through the bad stuff (I use the term "bad" for effect only) to get to the good. Some real gems here, but not a stellar collection.
Somewhat recommended - that is, to fans, and not just the casual passerby.