Swann, Carol Shields

Swann is a very abstract novel dealing with many characters that later on in the novel become entwined with one another. The characters Shields had developed are interesting. My favourite character in this novel so far would have to be Rose because Shields seemed to have captured a small town woman with her variety of roles, as well as showing how lonely she has been. Even though there are four characters in this novel, there is also a fifth character that we never see, just hear of, for this character is Mary Swann, a Canadian poet who was finally discovered only a few hours before her murder, though the murder of Mary Swann happens years before the novel even takes place. There is a true sense of anguish about her, even though we only meet Swann in the reflections of Sarah, Rose, Frderic, and Morton.

This novel has more than one mystery within itself. The first known mystery is the death of Mary Swann and later followed by the mystery of the disappearance of Swann's notebook, and her photograph. Though there are mysteries to be solved, the characters never seem to solve them for they are all caught up in their concepts of Mary Swann is. The mysteries also go unsolved for this novel is not a conventional mystery but a feminist literary mystery, meaning this novel evolves around the main, unresolved, questions about the creative process: How are poems created out of an ordinary woman's life? Who is Mary Swann? And how could she have produced these works of genius in almost complete isolation?

Swann by Carol Shields

The main character introduced in the beginning of the novel is Sarah Maloney, a feminist teacher who met an early literary success with her PhD thesis, but who has mellowed a lot about her feminist theories. She tries to convince her friend Brownie-Sam Brown- that poetry is worth more than comic books, meanwhile Brownie seems to think that Sarah's favourite poet Mary Swann is a feminist castrator. I cam across this interesting quotation, "For a number of years, for a number of reasons, I had a good many friends I didn't really like." I found this line interesting because there are many of us out there that have many friends we do not like, we just tolerate them. http://www.carol-shields.com/swann.html

I had read a critical analysis by Jamie Siddon who says, "Carol Shield's Swann is wonderful for a variety of reasons:
1. Impeccably written with a sincere understanding of the relationship between tone and character.
2. The introduction of brilliantly flawed and endearing characters that have stayed with me for the three years since i first read Swann (especially Rose Hindmarch).
3. Her challenge to the traditional narrative format by revealing the mystery in four loosely connected stories and bringing them all together at the end of the novel using a screenplay (the screenplay's effectiveness is questionable, but i admire her courage)..." http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Swann-Carol-Shields/9780679307877-52921-Review.html

Swann and The Ash Garden

My name is Hailey Williams, I am a Grade 12 student and for my English ISU I have chosen two novels, Swann by Carol Shields and The Ash Garden by Dennis Bock. I have chosen these two novels because I enjoy reading mystery and tragic novels. Swann is the story of four individuals who become entwined in in the life of Mary Swann, a rural Canadian poet whose authentic and unique voice is discovered only hours before her murder. As for The Ash Garden, it is about a six-year-old girl who was caught in the middle of the Hiroshima bomb back in 1945.