Synopsis
An episodic novel that tells the story of Larry Weller, born in Winnipeg, Canada of English parents. In a series of vignettes, readers are introduced to the people in Larry's life, his career as a landscape designer and maze-maker, his troubled marriages, and the development of his personality. As the confused protagonist struggles to make sense of who he is, mazes come to take on a more symbolic role, and readers become enveloped within Larry Weller's psyche. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1997.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-06-01 | | Edition Description: | Unabridged |
Industry Reviews
"[I]n an engaging and intelligent novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Canadian writer Carol Shields self-consciously sets herself the task of writing not only from the male perspective but about the male perspective. Carefully crafted and stylistically superb, 'Larry's Party' is a bold, endearingly earnest attempt to limn the experience of a person with a penis....Shields deserves our appreciation...for her ambitious, empathic attempt to infiltrate the inner sanctum of the modern male psyche."
San Francisco Chronicle Book Review - Autumn Stephens (08/24/1997)
"Above all, what you hear as you read 'Larry's Party' is Carol Shields's gratitude for the story she has to tell. It's a gratitude the reader shares completely."
New York Times Book Review - Verlyn Klinkenborg (09/07/1997)
"Shields wants to be funny, but she seems to have literary ambition, too. She wants to tell us something not just about Larry, and men like Larry, but about men in general--and nothing kills a joke like sermonizing....[I]t's hard not to wish that she'd come up with something a little less flimsy."
Boston Book Review - Nicholas Nesson (11/19/1997)
"A meticulous coming-of-(middle)-age novel by Pulitzer Prize-winner Shields, who seems to have mastered the art of understatement without falling into the bottomless pit of obscurity....Very fine and real..."
Starr
"Carol Shields is a natural novelist, with a gift for story, character and dialogue. But in 'Larry's Party' she concentrates on form and, sadly, she rather loses her way."
Weeks
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