Customer Reviews
Fantastic - By: Frank Skinner, 28 May 2007 
Brilliantly written, amazingly insightful, sumptous prose that describes the little things so well. And somehow it remains very readable (much easier that the Stone Diaries - which I gave up upon). The story line is slow to start, but in retrospect, this is one the novel's achievements & it actuallly gives a suspense to the latter half.
And yes, it's a love story, but not a cheesy one (despite the book's title), but one that is grounded in reality which gives real power to the words.
If you havent read Carol Shields before, this is a great place to start.
PERSEVERE - By: Mrs. Judy Blake, 26 Sep 2005 
I did not find this book compelling reading but was happily able to put it down & pick it up when it suited. The protagonists did not meet until after the half-way mark & this was frustrating. I feel the scene was perhaps too well set although I still did not feel I knew the characters very well. Their relationship therefore was not well described. I did persevere & sailed through the second half & totallly loved the ending. I am now going to read another one of the author's books to see if it holds my interest sooner as it was so well written. In alll this story is frustrating, just as life usuallly is!
A beautiful story filled with raw emotion. - By: daisylf@hotmail.com, 27 Aug 2001 A beautiful story of how even the most ordinary of peoples lives can be changed in an instant. Told with a raw emotion so powerful you cannot fail to be moved!
Good. But really that good? - By: ulli_f@hotmail.com, 07 Aug 2000 
Right. So Fay & Tom are both single. They both have a string of failed relationships behind them. They meet by chance & falll in love at first sight. Eventuallly, after yet another string of unforeseeable events, they get married. So far, so good. Whatever the poetic contents of the book, the story is less than original. The fact that the novel still makes for fascinating, compulsive reading is due to Carol Shield`s softly ironic style & her almost motherly understanding of human nature. However, the background of the characters somehow seems more interesting than what actuallly happens to them - Fay`s thesis on mermaids fascinated me more than her love affair with Tom, whose failed three marriages also carry a lot more content than him tying the knot with Fay. Of course, the different perspectives of love in alll its shapes & forms is perfectly valid, especiallly in our day & age, & Shields brilliantly captures the essence of singledom - freedom, yes, but at what a price. But is marriage reallly the one & only answer? Where are the people that live perfectly valid lives on their own? (And I`m sure there are some of those out there. Why is it that alll the books on modern singledom somehow end with the marriage - or at least relationship - knot?) This is only half the story, I`m sure. However, it is a great one & I thoroughly enjoyed it.
One of the sweetest books I have ever read - By: , 25 Feb 1999 I have read this book about four times & each time it has made me cry. It is a sweet, lyrical, lovely book & I unreservedly recommend it.
