''The Stone Diaries'' is a

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

novel by

Carol Shields Carol Ann Shields, (née Warner; June 2, 1935 – July 16, 2003) was an American-born Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her 1993 novel ''The Stone Diaries'', which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as ...

Plot summary

The book is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a seemingly ordinary woman whose life is marked by death and loss from the beginning, when her mother dies during childbirth. Through marriage and motherhood, Daisy struggles to find contentment, never truly understanding her life's true purpose. The book is divided into ten chapters detailing each epoch of Daisy's life.

Birth, 1905

Daisy Goodwill is born to Mercy Stone and Cuyler Goodwill in the summer of 1905. Mercy is an obese woman who loves to cook, eat, and keep house. Cuyler is a short, love-starved mason who worships his wife. Mercy dies of

eclampsia Eclampsia is the onset of seizures (convulsions) in a woman with pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia is one of the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy that presents with three main features: new onset of high blood pressure, large amounts of protein in ...

shortly after giving birth, and Daisy is left to the care of her neighbour, Mrs. Clarentine Flett, for the first eleven years of her life.

Childhood, 1916

Daisy is raised by her neighbour "Aunt Clarentine" and her neighbour's adult son "Uncle Barker" in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

. Mrs. Flett corresponds regularly with Daisy's father. That year Mrs. Flett is struck and killed by a speeding cyclist, and Daisy eventually goes to live with her estranged father in Indiana while Barker moves to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

Marriage, 1927

Daisy marries Harold Hoad, a university dropout and alcoholic. He arrives drunk to their wedding and only stops drinking while seasick on their journey to honeymoon in Paris. Harold indulges in increasingly reckless behaviour before he falls to his death from a second storey window. Their marriage is never consummated.

Love, 1936

Daisy has spent the last nine years living with her father and his new bride, Maria. After revealing to her friends that she feels stifled, Daisy takes the train to Ottawa, stopping to see

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the U.S. state, state ...

and the

Dionne quintuplets The Dionne quintuplets (; born May 28, 1934) are the first quintuplets known to have survived their infancy. The identical girls were born just outside Callander, Ontario, near the village of Corbeil. All five survived to adulthood. The Di ...

along the way. Barker eagerly awaits Daisy's arrival, admitting to himself that he has been in love with her for decades. They quickly marry, much to the shock of all their acquaintances.

Motherhood, 1947

Daisy Flett is now the mother of Alice, Warren, and Joan. Barker, now sixty-five, worries what to do with his time after he retires. Brief accounts are made of the children and Daisy's home life. Barker's father moves back to his boyhood home in the

Orkney Islands Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) no ...

Work, 1955-1964

This chapter is composed entirely of letters from other people writing to Daisy. Barker Flett dies of a malignant

brain tumor A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and seco ...

at the age of seventy two. Niece Beverley, a former

WREN Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonl ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, comes to live in Ottawa after getting pregnant. Daisy takes over her late husband's gardening column in the local paper as "Mrs. Green Thumb" and her oldest daughter goes off to college. Cuyler Goodwill dies and his widow Maria disappears. Daisy visits her two childhood friends 'Fraidy' and 'Beans' and dates her editor Jay Dudley until he callously informs her that her gardening column has been taken over by a full-timer.

Sorrow, 1965

After her job is taken over by someone else Daisy falls into a deep depression, punctuated by fits of rage, unable to get out of bed or take care of herself, although she seems to know that this will eventually pass. Every person in Daisy's life posits their own theory of her condition.

Ease, 1977

With all of Daisy's children grown up and starting their own families Daisy moves to

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The c ...

to be near her childhood friends. Beverly's daughter, Victoria, has visited her great-aunt at least once a year, and proposes they visit the

with her college instructor. In Orkney they come across Mr. Flett, now 115 years old and barely cognizant.

Illness and Decline, 1985

In her eightieth year Daisy suffers a serious heart attack in her home, the fall shattering her kneecaps beyond repair. Her childhood friends have predeceased her. She is able to maintain a small social circle at the hospital but is eventually moved to a long-term care facility since she can no longer walk. With little to do she spends most of her time reminiscing.

Death (199-)

After multiple strokes and another heart attack Daisy dies. The year is never revealed, so she could have lived to her nineties. This final chapter is punctuated with lists of things from Daisy's life, as well as brief conversations between her children and other relatives. The book ends with someone remarking there should have been daisies at the funeral.

Background

The title of the book might have been inspired by

Pat Lowther Patricia Louise Lowther (born Patricia Louise Tinmuth) (July 29, 1935 – September 24, 1975) was a Canadian poet. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, she grew up in the neighboring city of North Vancouver. Life Lowther's first published poem ...

's poetry collection ''A Stone Diary'' (

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

). Lowther's murder in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

was the inspiration for Shields' earlier novel '' Swann: A Mystery'' (

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

). Part of the setting for the book is the historic

Vinegar Hill Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

neighborhood of

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Mo ...

Critical reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' wrote: "Shields, who began as a miniaturist, has come full bloom with this latest exploration of domestic plenitude and paucity; she's entered a mature, luminous period, devising a style that develops an earlier whimsical fabulism into a hard-edged lyricism perfect for the ambitious bicultural exploration she undertakes here."

Awards and nominations

''The Stone Diaries'', Shields' best-known novel, won the 1993 Governor General's Award for English language fiction in Canada and the 1995

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published durin ...

in the United States. As an American-born naturalized Canadian, Shields was eligible for both awards; it is currently the only novel ever to have won both awards. It also received the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

Bibliography

Although Stone Diaries has been reprinted many times, the first Canadian edition is still not common in the used/rare book field. The first edition was published by Random House of Canada. The copyright page makes no statement of first edition, nor does it contain a number row. However, later printings are always noted. In other words, the first edition can be identified by the absence of a statement of reprint.

References

External links

Men and Women, Forever Misaligned:
Review by the NYTimes
Randomhouse.ca page on the novelPhotos of the first edition of The Stone Diaries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone Diaries, The 1993 American novels Novels by Carol Shields Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning works Novels set in Indiana Governor General's Award-winning fiction books Novels set in Canada National Book Critics Circle Award-winning works