Book Review: Larry's Party

For Christmas, I got "The Stone Diaries" from my fellow romper because she knows me too well and knows that I have an unhealthy obsession with Canadian fiction. I started to read a little about the novel and some reviews suggested starting with another one of her works before plunging into her Pulizter Prize winner. I took this to heart, so at a local book sale I snagged a copy of "Larry's Party" and devoured it on my trip to Quebec City.

Larry's Party is rather nontraditional in its narrative. Each "chapter" is a snapshot of a certain year in Larry's life starting in 1977. The chapters are chronological but work almost independently of each other so parts of Larry's backstory are reiterated. While at first this may seem like it would bore the reader, it actually has the opposite affect. With each chapter, Shields re-situates the reader and focuses in on a certain issue of Larry's that year. The chapters are short but powerful.

The plot is simple. Larry is an average fellow who works at a flower shop when he gets his girlfriend pregnant and decides to marry her. For their honeymoon, Larry's parents pay for the couple to go to England. While there, Larry falls in love with hedge mazes and upon his return the decides to build one in his backyard. This love takes him across the country and around the world.

The writing is simple but beautiful as is the story. The reader can tell that Shields loves Larry and while she does not force the reader to feel the same, we end up rooting for him anyway. This is not a book in which there are large events or catastrophes. To the contrary, Shields presents small moments throughout a man's life. At times I felt that the story became bland, but it always picked up. The chapters are short so if one year of his life seems to lag, there are only a couple pages before the next. It certainly is a wonderful read and the perfect introduction to Shield's writing.

-DLP