Unless is about a woman, Reta Winters, who is an author, translator, and mother of three girls who lives in a lovely town in Ontario near Toronto. Her life seems to be perfect: her partner is a doctor, she is a best-selling author and translator, and her girls are happy and healthy. That is, until one spring day when her eldest daughter Norah disappears and ends up on a Toronto street corner holding a sign that reads "Goodness". Why is Norah on the street corner? Why won't she talk to her family or come home? These are the central questions that drive this novel.
However, the novel is more than this story: it is about feminism and a woman's place in the world. What was the role of a woman in the 40's, the 60's, and today? How are women's voices being heard? What about women writers? While the book is not preachy about the subject, feminism inhabits the book and its central character, Reta.
Reta is a writer. She lives in a beautiful house in a beautiful part of Canada. She is thoughtful, and intellectual. She thinks about Norah and tries to figure out Norah's motivations. She is concerned about women's voices and women writers and the marginalization of women. Why are there so many lists of greatest thinkers and authors which do not contain any women? Women are half the general population - why are they being marginalized? Reta seems like she has always been a feminist. And the book explores her ideas about feminism through her roles as mother, daughter, translator, friend, partner, and writer. The feminism thread really comes to its head with the arrival of a new editor and his ideas to change her book to make it more about the male character as opposed to the female character. While with another writer the symbolism could be obvious, it is nicely handled by Shields. The idea of feminism is nicely handled by Shields as a whole. It forms an interesting B Plot to the A Plot of Norah's mysterious change - and ties together the narrative of Reta's life.
One nagging question: Reta is not married to her partner, Tom. However, Reta's "maiden" name was Summers. Tom's last name is Winters. Reta thought is would be ridiculous to have the Summers-Winters household, so she changed her name to Winters. Which is fine - you can do whatever you want with your own name. But then why the big insistence on not getting married? Is marriage anti-feminist? This is, admittedly, not a big part of the book. But it just bugged me that she would change her name but be so adamant about not getting married.
The book is dreamy and reflective. As I came closer and closer towards the end, I began to wonder if we would end up with the happy ending - would Norah come home? I won't spoil the ending for you here, but I thought the author made an interesting choice to end the book as she did. The book is not a page-turner - you will not be glued to every page wondering how it's going to end. But it's okay - this isn't that kind of book. It is a book for careful, calm, quiet and reflective reading. Shields is a beautiful writer and has a gift for description; for setting scenes, creating characters, and describing memories with only a few choice phrases.
I don't think this is a book I would buy if only because I'm not sure I would read it again. I tend to buy books that are light and enjoyable and rereadable because of story: this book is more quiet and thoughtful - less about story and more about ideas. I am interested to see what the panel has to say about the book when Canada Reads plays on CBC Radio in early February. (Early February! I hope I have time to read all the books!) Let me know what you think of the book in the comments. What other Canada Reads books have you read? Which is your favourite to win? Next up: The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis. I'm really looking forward to this one: it won the Stephen Leacock Medal for humour, so it should be a funny read.
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