Birthday Book Recs 8/50 : The Republic of Love by Carol Shields
The Republic of Love by Carol Shields
Birthday Book Recs: 8/50
The Republic of Love by Carol Shields
I like — nay, love — all of Carol Shields’ books, but The Republic of Love is the first one I’m going to include in these birthday book recos. Mostly because it is, in fact, one of my favorites of hers. But also, if you go back to that post of me swinging a maraca and look at the second pic, maybe you’ll notice that there’s one less book on the shelf compared to the compilation here. That’s because my sister- and brother-in-law gave us (well, ok, me) a signed copy of The Republic of Love as a housewarming gift this weekend. Carol Shields passed away in 2003; the book my SIL found is a Canadian first-edition of this 1992 novel. She scoured my website and saw that I had written about memories of reading this one while waiting for Matt at the Alewife T station by Bertucci’s (RIP). The Republic of Love chronicles fumbling, normal, everyday, expansive love and life. Which is how our journey through time goes, right? And which is why this is such a perfect example of “domestic fiction”…not some cozy hearth-and-home tale, but, instead, a text that reflects real, day-to-day life. Or more succinctly, as a 2020 NYT headline declares: “The Radical Ordinariness of Carol Shields’s Literary World.” (Don’t be misled by the mermaid situation on the cover here. One of the main characters is a folklorist.) My original copy is on the left, the gifted hardcover is on the right.
{I get that buying books for people can sometimes be tricky. Elia and John, you knocked it out of the park.}
You can find all my 50th Birthday Book Recommendations HERE.
originally published on instagram