Rating: 
Summary: Banned for what reason?
Review: This book and others by the same author have been banned in the UAE, a usually liberal literary environment. Can anyone tell me why?
Rating: 
Summary: Okay
Review: Not as good as the Stone Diaries, but a pleasant enough story. I was intrigued by the information about mazes, but found the continual presenting of previously covered material (as if it were needed as background info) jarring.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting second time round
Review: After having read the book when it first came out in print, then hearing Carol Shield's on CBC commenting on her book (she likes cooking and putting up preserves and has always been afraid of poisoning her family...as Larry's mother had), and then listening to it on tape, read by Carol Shields (she reads like she is reading a newspaper story)I got a lot more from the story , but not enough to give it a top rating. I was looking for the great story of the Stone Diaries. It wasn't there.
Rating: 
Summary: unique read
Review: In Carol Shield's novel, Larry's Party, each chapter is divided into chronological periods in the main character, Larry's life. What Shields shares with the readers in this book are not the main events in Larry's life, but instead are sketches of numerous (seemingly insignificant) occurences that shape the character's life. From the outside, Larry appears to lead a normal, mundane life. Once the reader is allowed into Larry's private thoughts, however, the ordinary dilemmas and difficulties this man faces form into an immensely complex character. "And he's tired- tired of his name, tired of being a man, tired of the ghostly self he's chained to and compelled to drag around." Shields writes each sentence in almost a poetic manner. "He would fall alseep, finally, to the rhythm of those strange voices: Stu and Dot Weller, his silent poetic parents, coming awake in the soundwaves of their own muffled words, made gracefully by what they chose to say in the long darkness." Shields chooses extraordinary words and phrases to best portray the deep and sometimes hidden meanings. The wording and language Shields uses throughout the novel grow increasingly brash and crude. She writes in a pattern that describes every character in a journalistic way each time they are mentioned. "Dorrie, his first wife... Larry, from Winnipeg." This way of labeling becomes redundant and unnecessary. Shields tends to write each of the milestones of Larry's life in one brief sentence, while she goes into great detail and depth with the daily, routine events. It would be easy to assume that such deep analyzing of one certain character would be dull and without a driven plot, but Larry's Party draws in and captivates the reader. The characters do not grow tiresome because the further one gets into the novel, the more the characters reach out and become more relatable to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READ!
Review: Well written. Not only is it interesting to follow a man's personal growth from a woman's point of view, but the author's technique is such that each chapter stands well on its own.
Rating:
Summary: My review is rave for a marvelous life story
Review: Larry, the eponymous protagonist, is a late 20th century man who drifts through relationships as he drifts through his work. He, like his parents, seems to have life happen to him rather than helping it along. The results are hilarious and sad alternately. Each chapter is a short story in itself and the last chapter, "Larry's Party", is simply the best depiction of a dinner party and the table talk shows Ms Shields ear for conversation and is brilliant. I read 75-100 books per year and this is only the second one in my life where I had to write the author. There is a correlation in this book to Richard Ford's Independence Day and The Sportswriter but not as dark
Rating:
Summary: It reads like a short story collection
Review: I don't think that I can question Carol Shield's talent when it comes to writing words on paper, but this novel seems a bit trite and maybe even awkward. The biggest problem that I noticed when reading "Larry's Party" was that it read like a collection of short stories put together, not necessarily a novel. Information the reader knows is constantly repeated throughout the story, questioning the reader's knowledge of the characters and the events. This is no "Stone Diaries" or even a "Joy Luck Club," but I still think that Shields is an amazing author. She can tell a story, from beginning to end, and make it seem as if you were the main character's sidekick. The beginning is a little choppy, but the ending is wrapped together quite nicely.
Rating: 
Summary: The most disappointing book I've read in a long time.
Review: This book came highly recommended. I heard not one discouraging word, so what a letdown to read a boring story about a boring ordinary guy with a boring job. I read a lot, so I knew better than to judge a book from the first few chapters. I kept waiting for the yeast that would add life to this bland dough, but in vain. Then I realized what was happening. Revered, Canadian, Pulitzer Prize winning author writes another book and nobody wants to offend. The newspaper and magazine reviews speak volumes with their verbal gymnastics; variations of the old food reviewers "succulent".Then follows a synopsis of the story; an effort to fill space. The writing style was engaging enough to keep me reading, waiting for the payoff, but it doesn't climax so much as drift off to sleep. Disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Boring, Repetitive, Predictable
Review: I, too, loved The Stone Diaries. At first, I enjoyed Larry's Party very much. However, each chapter's need to "recap" the previous story - how many times do we need to be reintroduced to characters? - was , in my opinion, something Ms. Shields did to fill enough pages to honor her book contract. I didn't care about ANY of the characters, except maybe Larry's parents. Just a really, really stupid book.
Rating:
Summary: Subtle, understated - and my long-awaited return to fiction
Review: My wife bought this one at an airport bookshop and passed it over to me after reading about a third of it - but I stayed up till 4 this morning reading it right through - quite a compliment really, the first novel I have read for 3.5 years (since starting my MBA) and that from someone who averaged 3-4 novels a week for the previous 30 years before moving on to businessss books. A blokes book then perhaps disguised as a chicks book? Perhaps. This is more your sort of thing, she said, and how right she was. I loved the structure - a series of overlapping, linked short stories - borrowing Frank Moorhouse's notion of discontinuous narrative? - and a hero whose grand victories and defeats are played out in the sort of cosy arena that most of us can relate to. The linguistic flourishes worked for me, and the overwrought metaphors - the mazes, the feminist saints, the son the linguist. Every university should have a chancellor this fabulous...
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