The Stone Diaries

Written in 1993, The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, whose life story plays out in North America and spans much of the 20th century. The novel claims to be Daisy’s retelling of her life story, but it includes other characters’ voices and points of view, thus satirizing fiction and storytelling itself. By including a family tree and “real” family photographs, the novel explores the difference between reality and fiction, as well as family and ancestry. The Stone Diaries won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1995, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 1993 Governor General’s Award and was nominated for the Booker Prize.

Plot Summary

Although the novel claims to flow chronologically from Daisy’s birth to her death, it jumps around in time and perspective. The novel begins with Daisy’s mother, Mercy Stone, dying during Daisy’s birth in 1905 in Tyndall, Manitoba, Canada. Daisy’s father, Cuyler Goodwill, a stone mason, is devastated and sends newborn Daisy away to live with Clarentine Flett. Clarentine is the Goodwills’ neighbor who has just left her husband, Magnus, to live with her son, Barker, in Winnipeg.