been reading: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

Recommended to me by SG, this is the story of a woman's life, from before her birth until after her death. It is also the story of the people around her, and in many ways we learn more about them than we do Daisy Goodwill. Other than her dramatic birth and a catastrophic honeymoon, not much out of the ordinary happens in Daisy's life. And really, not much happens in the novel. The intrigue is in the inner minds of the characters - their hopes for themselves and struggles with desires. I felt the strongest scenes were two during which we have access to the stream of conscious thoughts of the characters as they approach death. During her father's final moments, he tries to remember the name of Daisy's long-deceased mother, a woman he was devoted to even decades after she died. It is a profoundly simple passage, so human. And Daisy's death I found painfully realistic, found myself thinking, "Yes, this is what dying would be like."

The beauty of the book is that nothing is completely spelled out. The storytelling slips back and forth from omniscient 3rd person to Daisy's voice. Things are suggested and characters' opinions are stated, but the reader is often left to draw her own conclusions. Even the characters themselves seem uncertain about their own motivations. In these ways the book felt very true to life.