There are twelve characters in Carol Shields' collection of short stories and the carnival that they are all dressing up for is a metaphor for life. Each of the characters lives an illusory life and they tend to wear or carry things that tell the story of where they have been or who they are without their having to verbalize anything in particular. Each of the stories in the collection is the story of a specific character.
Carol Shields is one of Canada's most admired and successful authors. She began her career as an editorial assistant at the Canadian Slavonic Papers before writing her first novel, Small Ceremonies, in 1976. Well received, it was quickly followed by her sophomore offering, The Box Garden for which she won the Pulitzer Prize.
Shields passed away at the age of sixty-eight, and as a tribute to her, six of these short stories were adapted into short films by Shaftesbury Films, under the umbrella working title of The Shields Stories.
