This year, Buried in Print, a marvelous blog I have followed for over ten years,is doing a read through of the short stories of Carol Shields. I hope to participate fully in this event.
The more I read in the stories of Carol Shields the more grateful I am to Buried in Print for turning me on to her work. There are sixty some stories in the collection,it is my hope to read and post on them all in 2024.
"Chemistry" is the 25th story by Carol Shields upon which I have posted, it centers on a mixed group of music students who gather weekly for lessons.
It is told by a narrator whom we learn little personally about and addressed to an unknown person she refers to as "you". Shields has a great talent for bringing people to life in just a few sentences.
One of the common features in her stories is inclusion of references to items from high culture. In "Chemistry" is is Mozart and Bach.
The Carol Shields Literary Trust has lots of data on her life and work.
I liked this one too. It's interesting to see the stories about music in there alongside the stories about poetry, reminding us that there are often more similarities than differences between artforms. One passage that I flagged was this one: "Our youth, our awkwardness, our musical naivete yoked good will to virtue, as sacredness attaches itself invisibly to certain rare moments." Those rare moments made me think of the title of her first colleciton, and the theme of so many of her stories, Small Ceremonies. How we locate meaning in singular instances and occurrences, how routines can become rituals, all of that.
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