Dressing up for the carnival

DRESSING UP FOR THE CARNIVAL is a book full of graceful mastery from an author at the height of her powers. In these stories, Carol Shields brings together the dazzling virtuosity and wise maturity that won so many readers to novels such as The Stone Diaries and Larry.s Party. In the title story, with which the collection opens, Carol Shields paints with economy and with the morning thoughts of a disparate selection of people as they embark upon the " cycles of consolation and enhancement" that they find to sustain them through the day.In "Mirrors", "Weather", "Keys" and "Windows" . stories about how human beings find ways to survive loss, disappointment and loneliness . Shields weaves sophisticated allegories around symbolic objects while gently mocking the very idea of symbolism. Elsewhere, there are stories that centre on long-married couples, often comically mismatched, like the nudist in "Dressing Down" whose wife is so keen on covering things up that she even sews a cover for her washing machine. Shields slyly reveals the strength of unarticulated bonds, and honours the possibility of regeneration and romance.As well as couples at odds with each other, much humour comes from the opposition of abstract theorising and sensual physicality, as in the sexual comedies "The Next Best Kiss" or "Ilk", where the female narrator.s thoughts are at hilarious cross-purposes with her professional interlocutor.Carol Shields is a writer who revels in the pleasures of existence, snagging our interest on the minutiae of life.