Carol Shields
Carol Shields
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Full Name and Common Aliases
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Carol Anne Alexandra Reschke Shields was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. She is often referred to as Carol Shield, without the 's' at the end.
Birth and Death Dates
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Carol Shields was born on June 2, 1935, in Oak Park, Illinois, USA. Unfortunately, she passed away on July 16, 2003, after a long battle with breast cancer at her home in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Nationality and Profession(s)
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Carol Shields held dual citizenship of the United States and Canada. Her professional life was that of a novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. She is best known for her novels that explore themes of women's lives, identity, and social issues.
Early Life and Background
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Shields grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, USA, with her parents and two siblings. Her father was an American-born artist, and her mother was a Canadian from the province of Ontario. Shields developed a love for writing at an early age and was influenced by the works of authors like Jane Austen and George Eliot.
She moved to Canada in 1957 to attend the University of Toronto, where she studied English literature and began developing her writing skills. After completing her studies, Shields taught English literature at several universities in the United States before settling in Canada as a permanent resident in 1964.
Major Accomplishments
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Carol Shields' writing career spanned over four decades, during which she published numerous novels, short story collections, and essays that gained international recognition. Some of her notable works include:
The Stone Diaries (1993): A novel that won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction.
The Republic of Love (2004): A novel published posthumously, which explores themes of love, relationships, and human connections.
Notable Works or Actions
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Shields' writing often explored themes related to women's lives, identity, and social issues. Some notable works that showcased her exploration of these themes include:
Small Ceremonies (1976): A novel about a middle-aged woman struggling with the constraints of her life.
A Fairly Concise History of Minnesota (1984): A collection of short stories that examine the experiences of women living in a small Midwestern town.
Impact and Legacy
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Carol Shields' writing has had a lasting impact on literature, particularly in terms of exploring themes related to women's lives. Her work continues to be widely read and studied by scholars and readers alike. Shields' legacy extends beyond her own work as well; she was also an advocate for the importance of preserving and promoting Canadian literature.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
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Carol Shields is widely quoted or remembered for her thought-provoking writing that continues to resonate with readers today. Her exploration of themes related to women's lives, identity, and social issues has made a lasting impact on literature.
Quotes by Carol Shields
He knows very well what underlies the compulsive side of his nature; it is the wish to escape that which he can’t comprehend, seeking safety in an unbendable estrangement.
It can be seen as a discussion of the nature of evidence – the way in which there is no single truth about anyone’s life, but as many truths as there are observers.
Learning to skip has brought control into her life. Whenever she feels at all sad she switches into this wholly happy gait, sliding, hopping, and sliding again; when doing this, it seems as though her head separates from her body, making her feel dizzy and emptied out of bad thoughts. Does anyone else in the world know this trick, she wonders. Probably not, though her mother sometimes waves at her from the window, waves and smiles.
Despair did not suit her looks. Goodness cannot cope with badness – it’s too good, you see, too stupidly good.
I remember that I did feel, starting my mini-tour, the resident anxiety you develop when you know you’ve been too lucky; at any moment, maybe next Tuesday afternoon, I would be stricken with something unbearable.
The larger loneliness of our lives evolves from our unwillingness to spend ourselves, stir ourselves. We are always damping down our inner weather, permitting ourselves the comforts of postponement, of rehearsals.
It’s like concentrating on your own breath: once you start thinking about the air rushing in and out of your body, your breath has a way of getting stuck in your throat so that you understand how easy it would be to fall down and die.
A thought comes into her head: that lately she doesn’t ask herself what is possible, but rather what possibilities remain.
I was the breakable one. Women always are. It’s not so much a question of one big disappointment, though. It’s more like a thousand little disappointments raining down on top of each other. After a while it gets to seem like a flood, and the first thing you know you’re drowning.