Larry's Party

Rating:
Summary: Boring! Boring! Boring!
Review: I didn't care for Larry or the author's writing style. I was suprised at how highly the book came recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Greenpeace should protest the waste of trees to print this.
Review: When my brother asked me to read this, he had a look of really wanting my opinion. After I did read this, I told him that this was obvoiusly a literary hoax and I asked him who was in on it. It appears to be an outline given to a Grade 9 English class to take home and make it into a real story. There are no characters worth the effort to identify. Larry is just, well, nothing. I don't know why Shields put in the device of a maze. Larry would take 6 tries to find his way out of a phone booth with an open door. Any Shield's cocktail party dialog is so grating it reminded me of when I was playing road hockey and I ran out of the icy surface and scraped my skates along the frozen concrete, bringing me to a sudden and spaky halt. Ugh! What a pathetic book. Shame on the publishing industry for letting this one get by just because of Shield's track record.

Rating:
Summary: Larry's Party explores the purpose of Larry Weller
Review: Carol Shield's would have us believe everything in Larry Weller's life is sweetly mystical and touched with tender irony. The character doesn't so much come alive before the reader as appear as an ethereal maze, less alive than his creations. Surely he's made of blood and skin too. The troubling chapter style creates too much repetitve information, always doubling up as if Larry's life needs more definition. The prose and deft, delicate handling of a male character by a female writer is the strength of the book.

Rating:
Summary: The Mediocre Life of Larry
Review: The Stone Diaries is one of my favorite books of all time. I picked up Larry's Party and was completely entranced by the style of writing. I've got to say that Larry annoyed me to no end with his passivity. I disliked him from the moment he threw away the coat. I loved the metaphor of the mazes to show the pitfalls of his life. It seemed he never could decide if the middle of the maze was the goal, or getting out of the maze unscathed. The culmination was perfect, although a bit predictable. I will read anything Carol Shields writes.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: Repition and the lack of depth to the characters, apart from Dorrie, made this a dull read.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully written
Review: An excellent book. I found Larry to be a relatable and very complex character. In fact, I could hardly put it down in the last half of the story. You will find yourself riveted.

Rating:
Summary: Book Of the year? Disappointment of the year!
Review: I bought this book to read on holiday, persuaded by recommendations on the cover that it was one of the Books of the Year 1997 for several newspaper reviewers. I found the repetive style of the book irritating, although I appreciate the allusions to mazes and particularly the 'revelation'at the ending. However, the content was sooo boring! I read the whole of the book - hoping it would get better. Although Larry was a pretty nice guy, at the end I resented the fact I had wasted so much time on such a Joe Average that let life wash over him and then had his mislife crisis! There were some funny moments, good character observations and I learnt some interesting things about mazes(!) so I might try another Carol Shields novel but I would definately NOT recommend this book nor believe the hype.

Rating:
Summary: Another good one from shields
Review: Surprised to find it was about a man, but the author pulls it off with characteristic authenticity. Real truths about human behavior and relationships, combined with wry, sad humor.

Rating:
Summary: Shields helps us to see the interior of a man as he searches
Review: After having enjoyed Stone Diaries, I was surprised to find this focus on a man, a rather likeable one at that. Larry came across as a not superior man who struggled for recognition and had as much trouble with the opposite sex as one assumed only women had to face. His falling into marriage, disappointments, stresses remind one of an ordinary life, with the exception of his finalcareer swerve. How I envied his job at the florist where he seems happy and has a friend, who unfortunately leaves. How much one enjoys his honeymoon and then love of mazes. When he gets divorced, it's as if an old friend has been hurt. When he remaries, one is so glad that he has found happiness and also gets to see his son and maintain a reasonable relationship with wife one. As he seems so real, one wants life to work out for him - not just professionally. The ending party delightfully surprises and pleases.

Rating:
Summary: Carol Shields nails it again!
Review: You already know Larry Weller. He's someone in everyone's life, and consequently, you'll find bits of your memories in "Larry's Party." Larry emerges from a fairly passive life when he enters a hedge maze on his honeymoon. From there, we're off on the maze that is Larry's life. Carol Shields again shows her striking grasp of language and its importance in our societal species. You'll learn some new words and find yourself simply giggling at the use of others. Each chapter finds Larry a few years down the road, and throughout each chapter, there are recaps of the central characters -- much the way you must review where you've traveled in a maze to find its center. The climax of the story is a party given by Larry in which many of the main people in his life meet for the first time. The dialouge and banter again reinforce how much we rely on speech, and the ending ... well, like a maze, you have to move away from the center to reach it. Larry is everyman. He is your brother, your best friend, yourself. That a woman has captured the essence of how a man moves and thinks through life is a testament to the extraordinary abilities Carol Shields possesses.