Larry's Party
Author: Carol Shields
Publisher: Penguin Books
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Note: Content warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
Larry Weller, born in 1950, is an ordinary guy made extraordinary by his creator's perception, irony and tenderness. Carol Shields gives us, as it were, a CAT scan of his life, in episodes between 1977 and 1997 that flash back and forward seamlessly. As Larry journeys toward the millennium, adapting to society's changing expectations of men, Shields' elegant prose makes the trivial into the momentous. Among all the paradoxes and accidents of his existence, Larry moves through the spontaneity of the seventies, the blind enchantment of the eighties and the lean, mean nineties, completing at last his quiet, stubborn search of self. Larry's odyssey mirrors the male condition at the end of our century with targeted wit, unerring poignancy and faultless wisdom.
TL;DR Review
I really just enjoyed reading Larry’s Party. It was cleverly written with a lovable main character and seems like it was very relevant for its time.
For you if: You are looking for something that reads easily but leaves an impact.
Full Review
“Departures and arrivals: he didn’t know it then, but these two forces would form the twin bolts of his existence — as would the brief moments of clarity that rose up in between, offering stillness. A suspension of breath. His life held in his own hands.”
Published in 1997, Larry’s Party won the Pulitzer Prize, was shortlisted for several others, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and — the thing that led me to it — won the Women’s Prize. I’m making my way through all the previous Women’s Prize winners as part of their #ReadingWomen challenge right now.
I really, really just enjoyed myself reading Larry’s Party. It’s delicious and comforting, but also resonant and beautifully written. Each of the 15 chapters takes us further through Larry’s life, beginning in 1977 when he was 27 up through 1997 (which was the present at the time this book was written) when he was nearly 50. We move alongside him through youth, marriage, fatherhood, divorce, remarriage, mid-life crisis, career success, and more.
Each chapter also focuses around a theme; they’re titled things like “Larry’s Love,” “Larry’s Folks,” “Larry’s Work,” “Larry’s Words,” etc. The narrative style is playful, each chapter almost assumes that you don’t know details that you most certainly do; for example re-introducing you to the fact that Dorrie is Larry’s first wife, Ryan is his son, his first job was in a florist shop, etc. So each chapter sort of pretends that it stands on its own, all while they layer and layer and layer on themselves until you just love Larry so, so much, even as he is flawed.
And along the way, Carol Shields drops STUNNERS of paragraphs, words that will cut you to your core amidst a sea of easy-to-read, comfortable sentences. The result is something I found pretty unique; prose that you can read quickly that will also extract your heart from your chest and set it gently on the floor.
The whole point of this book is to examine what it means to be a man at the end of the 21st century. At first, this didn’t sound very compelling to me. (If this book had also been written by a man, I probably would never have picked it up, lol.) But today we forget how that really meant something big back then, that it was actually a fiercely feminist position to take. This was written as feminism was gaining even more momentum, gender roles were really starting to break down, and men were starting to see themselves (and be seen) as multi-dimensional, emotional creatures. Viewed through today’s lens, it may not feel especially progressive. But I think it was at the end of the 90s. Larry is tender, romantic, emotive, complex, and entirely lovable. And the women he loves are equally fierce and notable.
I will probably re-read this one. I loved it.
“‘Mon père’; the words struck Larry in the heart. The lighter-than-air mateyness, the straight-in-the-eye punch. This was more than he deserved, much more. With a stab of love he watched his son watching him — a grown man who stumbled, fell into error, got lost, made a fool of himself, but was willing, at least, to be rescued. Something good was bound to come of this.”
Content Warnings
Infertility
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