I picked this up back in 2012 with intentions of reading “all the prize winning novels” and no real plan to actually do it, so when this came up in my RNG book selector I grabbed it off my shelf and dove in.
If I were to ever write a novel this is the type that has bounced around in my head for ages. The story of a single person from birth to death. I don’t know why it’s the type of novel I’ve always wanted to write, but it is and this one was an interesting take on it. Shields wrote so much in a relatively compact novel.
The Stone Diaries is the story of Daisy Goodwill Flett from birth to death with some liberties allowed before birth and after death from her parents and surviving friends/children’s point of view. There is joy, but overwhelmingly the story felt melancholic. I’m not sure if Shields’ was trying to say something about life and living, but it definitely wore on me as I read the story. Maybe that was the goal, the slow and steady march towards the grave?
There were a few moments that stood out to me in Daisy’s life:
- Daisy’s friends, their changing over their lifetime and how they actually seem to swap places in Daisy’s life which makes sense for some of the oldest friends.
- the death of her first husband was wild and the re-connection with her second husband was just as wild, but also a bit creepy
- the garden newspaper column drama was hilarious and I loved every second of it, even her hooking up with the editor (off page, but 100% happened)
Oddly, I think my favorite piece of the novel was Daisy’s father in law. It was probably the most tragic part of the story, but it came full circle. The woman who raises Daisy after her mother dies, leaves him because he’s unfeeling and wouldn’t let her go to the dentist and after some time he starts to read the novels she left behind, in particular Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and even though we don’t get a lot from his point of view, we get his journey from Canada back to the the Orkney Islands in Scotland. And the way Shields’ wrote this was so tragic, but so beautiful that when Daisy ends up there and meets him as a very old man (110 years+) it just feels right and perfectly circular.
This was a messy review, but in all honesty I’m writing it over a month later and back-posting it, so apologies about that.
Recommendation: I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, but I also struggled to finish it. A story that spans the lifetime of a character is not an easy feat to read or to write (I imagine). That being said, there were moments of levity that made me laugh and passages that were so melancholic I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue reading. I’m glad I read it, but it wasn’t an easy journey which I think might be the point. If you’re even remotely interested in it, I would say give it a go.
Opening Line: “My mother’s name was Mercy Stone Goodwill.”
Closing Line: “Ah, well.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)
