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Unless
Unless
Author: Carol Shields
“Unless you’re lucky, unless you’re healthy, fertile, unless you’re loved and fed, unless you’re offered what others are offered, you go down in the darkness, down to despair.” — Reta Winters has many reasons to be happy: Her three almost grown daughters. Her twenty-year relationship with their father. H...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780679311805
ISBN-10: 0679311807
Publication Date: 2003
Pages: 336
Rating:
  • Currently 2.5/5 Stars.
 8

2.5 stars, based on 8 ratings
Publisher: Random House of Canada, Limited
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

justaskjulie avatar reviewed Unless on + 33 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 9
I'm just not into the books with tons of descriptions and excess words discussing things completely unrelated to the story. I don't need 3 pages to tell me what color the curtains were. I made it about 10 pages in before I finally gave up. I was so not into this book that I didn't even realize I'd left it behind at a restaurant until a few hours later.

If you enjoy the book versions of books like "White Oleander" you might enjoy this book. Although, I at least finished (and somewhat enjoyed) white Oleander despite all the excess.

The main character is an author and the book spent the entire first chapter detailing her curriculum vitae, story by story and book by book. I thought this was supposed to be about how this family dealt with having their daughter suddenly decide she wanted to live on the street and how it affected them, but in the 3 chapters I read that only seemed to serve as a side note to the main characters narcissism.
reviewed Unless on + 112 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
A real page turner, couldn't wait to find out the ending, and when I did, it reminded me...........never make assumptions! Great book, by a very talented and gifter writer.
reviewed Unless on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
I find Carol Shields to be a talented writer and her interweaving of the heroine's personal story with the characters in the book she is writing is masterful. The mystery of why her 19 year old daughter has chosen to live on the streets of Toronto kept me glued to this book to the last page. I highly recommend it.
reviewed Unless on + 15 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Deeply moving, particularly to a parent.
my2luvsemmyandmally avatar reviewed Unless on + 758 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
First time reading her books......disappointing....found it to be too depressing.
Read All 21 Book Reviews of "Unless"

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reviewed Unless on + 51 more book reviews
What do we do when the children we reared and thought we knew become someone indecipherable and unreachable?
reviewed Unless on
Nice contemporary fiction. Deals with the heartfelt emotions of motherhood.
reviewed Unless on + 19 more book reviews
Wonderful book!


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