"There's something hugely wrong in my life and I'm helpless to change it."

That's the theme of this beautifully written book, and perhaps that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as Shields' more distant-from-real-life, Pulitzer Prize winning "The Stone Diaries."

The book follows Canadian novelist Reta Winters through a time in her life when everything is going splendidly. She has a new book deal, she's in love with her husband of two decades, she has great friends, a cozy home, and is the mother of three beautiful daughters. Yet her oldest daughter, Norah, has inexplicably dropped out of college, renounced all worldly possessions and cut all ties with her family to become a street urchin. And so Reta muddles through her life while always keeping Norah in mind, visiting her street corner and the homeless shelter where she sleeps to bring her food and "gifts."

We travel with Reta as she attempts to keep the status quo when the figurative alarm bells are going off.

Shields is able to aptly inject humor into a routinely sad daily life. The novel was entertaining, yet frustrating. And when I got the happy ending that I hoped for throughout the novel, I felt somehow cheated.

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, Penguin Books, 1993, 361 pp.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
I think Carol Shields is genius for the way she wove together this tale of a family with roots in rural 19th century Ottawa.

A bit of a slow starter, this one. I tried reading it years ago, got through about 50 pages then put it down. But the "Winner of a Pulitzer Prize" (1995) sticker on the front got me to give it another go.

Sleepy in spots, rich in detail and complex. Told from several multi-generational viewpoints. Sad and ironic.

In the end, you want to defend Daisy Flett, through whose eyes we view the final chapters (illness and death). You want her to find love again. No such luck.