‘Art is despair with dignity’

Larry’s Party

Larry’s Party

Carol Shields

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.

Larry and his naive young wife, Dorrie, spend their honeymoon in England. At Hampton Court Larry discovers a new passion. Perhaps his ever-growing obsession with mazes may help him find a way through the bewilderment deepening about him as – through twenty years and two failed marriages – he endeavours to understand his own needs. And those of friends, parents, lovers, a growing son.

Reviews of Larry’s Party

    • ‘A brilliant fictional reflection on what it may be like to be a man in the late 20th-century.’ Penelope Lively, Independent
    • ‘Altogether a cause for celebration.’ Anita Brookner, Spectator
    • ‘There is a moving sensation that somehow leaves one grappling for the single word to describe it. Poignant? Touching? Oh you know, the real thing.’ Harpers and Queen
    • ‘No more richly satisfying novel, to my knowledge, has been published this year…Shields demonstrates once again her extreme mastery of emotional geometry.’ Sunday Telegraph
    • ‘This is, like all of Shields’s work, filled with warmth and understanding.’ The Times
    • ‘Exhilarating.’ Sunday Times

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