Unless

''Unless'' is the final novel by Canadian writer Carol Shields, first published by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins in 2002. Semi-autobiographical, it was the capstone to Shields's writing career: she died shortly after its publication in 2003. The work was widely acclaimed and nominated for the Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, the Governor General's Award, the Orange Prize for Fiction, and received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. In 2011, it was a finalist in the Canada Reads competition, where it was defended by actor Lorne Cardinal. Like many of her works (especially The Stone Diaries), ''Unless'' explores the extraordinary that lies within the ordinary lives of ordinary women.

The novel is narrated in first person by 44-year-old writer and translator, Reta Winters. The book proceeds as a linear series of reflections by Reta, elliptically coming to the thematic center of the story: the seemingly arbitrary decision of Reta's college-aged daughter Norah to drop out of university and live on the street with a cardboard sign affixed to her chest that reads "Goodness". Although the novel does not in any way proceed like a mystery, the reasons for Norah's departure from the normal world are Reta's primary motivation in writing. In parallel, her relationship with her French mentor (a Holocaust survivor and poet) drives much of her narration and view of herself.

The novel deals extensively with the role of women and in particular, women's literature. Late in the novel, Reta starts to break from herself and write in character as a disenfranchised female writer. The underlying theme is that the lives of women are underwritten, ignored, and dealt with as "trivial" by the literary establishment.
The novel also functions largely as an investigation into the role of writing in general (independent of gender). Reta's grief over her daughter's state makes her very inwardly focussed on the process of writing. A reflection of this is shown in the title of the book and the chapter titles. "Unless" and the chapter titles ("therefore", "else", "instead") are all words that are used to couch the fragmented manner in which life fits together. As Shields writes, "A life is full of isolated events, but these events, if they are to form a coherent narrative, require odd pieces of language to link them together, little chips of grammar (mostly adverbs or prepositions) that are hard to define ..words like ''therefore'', ''else'', ''other'', ''also'', ''thereof'', ''therefore'', ''instead'', ''otherwise'', ''despite'', ''already'', and ''not yet''."

The novel was adapted into the 2016 film '' Unless'', which stars Catherine Keener as Reta and Hannah Gross as Norah.

Reception

''The Daily Telegraph'' reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish": ''Guardian'', '' Times'', ''Independent'', ''Observer'', ''Sunday Times'', ''Independent On Sunday'', ''New Statesman'', ''Spectator'', ''Literary Review'', and '' TLS'' reviews under "Love It" and ''Daily Telegraph'' and ''Sunday Telegraph'' reviews under "Pretty Good".

On November 5, 2019, the ''BBC News'' listed ''Unless'' on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

References

{{reflist, 2, refs=

{{cite news
, url = https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50302788
, title = 100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts
, work = BBC News
, date = 2019-11-05
, access-date = 2019-11-10
, quote = The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.

2002 American novels
Novels by Carol Shields
HarperCollins books
Canadian novels adapted into films
American novels adapted into films
2002 Canadian novels