Swann Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Composite Narratives and Swann and our BookBrowse Review of Swann.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Carol Shields spoke of becoming a writer because there weren't enough books that examined women's friendships and women's inner lives — or, as she put it, "the kind of book I wanted to read but couldn't find." In what ways does Shields's fiction bring the lives of women to the surface, or into our understanding? What sorts of female experiences does she illuminate?
2. In her novels and stories, Shields often experiments with using different voices. The Stone Diaries shifts between first-, second-, and third-person narrative; one section of Larry's Party is recorded almost entirely in dialogue; Happenstance is a novel in two parts, one narrated by the husband, one by the wife; the stories in Various Miracles come from a wide variety of narrative standpoints. Discuss point-of-view in Shields's works, and the importance of telling one's own stories — as characters or in real life. Also, what is the role of the writer in telling other people's stories for them?
3. Though she's lauded as a writer who brought the lives of ordinary people to the page and made them extraordinary, Carol Shields took some exception to the idea in one interview: "I have never known what 'ordinary' people means! I don't think I quite believe in the concept…. There's no one who isn't complicated, who doesn't have areas of cowardice or courage, who isn't incapable of some things and capable of great acts. I think everyone has that capability. Either we're all ordinary or else none of us is ordinary." Discuss the role of ordinary life in Shields's fiction. How do her above views come across in her writing? Is there a respect for the everyday that you don't see in works by other writers?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.