The Orange Prize-winning novel of Larry Weller, a man who discovers the passion of his life in the ordered riotousness of Hampton Court's Maze.
At 26, Larry Weller thinks his future lies in flowers. He still lives at home, has a new career as a floral designer, and a girlfriend about whom he is somewhat ambivalent. What Larry is about to discover is that life is never a straightforward path. His girlfriend becomes pregnant. They marry and set off for their honeymoon in England where Larry stumbles upon what will become his greatest passion in life. He takes up the creation and construction of meticulous mazes, which leads him down blind alleys and dead ends, failed marriages and changing expectations. It all comes together in an unforgettable dinner party in this warm and witty coming-of-middle-age novel. Published four years after The Stone Diaries, Larry's Party won the UK's Orange Prize for fiction and is one of Carol Shields's most critically successful works. Published in numerous editions by Penguin, the book has now sold more than 100,000 copies in the United States alone. This audio recording, first released in audiocassette Canada in 1998, received wide critical acclaim in its original edition. Quill and Quire said that "this recording benefits from Thomson's cool, well-trained voice. There are no lilting cadences here, or perfectly affected accents, just immaculate timing and phrasing." Atlantic Books Today called this audio edition of Larry's Party "a quietly rhythmic, almost hypnotic reading. . . . Thomson, who advocates challenging theatre-goers, brings the same kind of respect for his audience to his interpretation." This new BTC edition, scheduled for US release in November, marks the first time this recording has been released in the US in any form and brings to life a work of complex fiction about an ordinary guy whose appearance belies a truly human complexity.
"Larry Weller, born in 1950, is an ordinary guy made extraordinary by his creator's perception, irony, and tenderness. Larry's Party gives us, as it were, a CAT scan of his life, in episodes between 1977 and 1997, which flash back and forward seamlessly. As Larry journeys toward the millennium, adapting to society's changing expectations of men, Shields's elegant prose makes the trivial into the momentous. We follow this young floral designer through two marriages and divorces, his interactions with parents, friends, and a son. And all the while, we witness his deepening passion for garden mazes - so like life, with their teasing treachery and promise of reward. Among all the paradoxes and accidents of his existence, Larry survives the spontaneity of the seventies, the blind enchantment of the eighties, and the lean, mean nineties, completing at last his quiet, stubborn search for self."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The San Diego Tribune called The Stone Diaries a universal study of what makes women tick. With Larry's Party Carol Shields has done the same for men. Larry Weller, born in 1950, is an ordinary guy made extraordinary by his creator's perception, irony, and tenderness. Larry's Party gives us, as it were, a CAT scan of his life, in episodes between 1977 and 1997, that seamlessly flash backward and forward. We follow this young floral designer through two marriages and divorces, and his interactions with his parents, friends, and a son. Throughout, we witness his deepening passion for garden mazes--so like life, with their teasing treachery and promise of reward. Among all the paradoxes and accidents of his existence, Larry moves through the spontaneity of the seventies, the blind enchantment of the eighties, and the lean, mean nineties, completing at last his quiet, stubborn search for self. Larry's odyssey mirrors the male condition at the end of our century with targeted wit, unerring poignancy, and faultless wisdom.