Full Description
A bestselling collection of short stories from the author of The Stone Diaries (winner of the Pulitzer prize) and Larry's Party (winner of the Orange prize)
All over town people are putting on their costumes; X slips into his wife's lace-trimmed night gown and waltzes around his bedroom; Tamara is no longer the dull clerk receptionist when she wears that yellow skirt, she evolves into a stunning creature exuding passion and vitality. In 'Weather' a couple's life is thrown into utter chaos when The National Association of Metereorologists go on strike - what will they wear? What will they eat? In 'Soup du Jour' a young boy contemplates life, the cracks in the pavement and his mother's soup-making.
Each story encapsulates the human spirit, its diversities, complexities and absurdities. Shields observes with compassion the carnival that goes on in each of our lives and the realities that we create for ourselves. Carol Shields' second collection of short stories celebrates the extraordinary details that are found in ordinary, everyday lives.
Contents
Dressing Up for the CarnivalDressing Up for the Carnival
A Scarf
Weather
Flatties: Their Various Forms and Uses
Dying for Love
Ilk
Stop!
Mirrors
The Harp
Our Men and Women
Keys
Absence
Windows
Reportage
Edith-Esther
New Music
Soup du Jour
Invention
Death of an Artist
The Next Best Kiss
Eros
Dressing Down
