First published 1997
Larry Weller hates his name. Born in Winnipeg in 1950, he feels trapped by its ordinariness, lumped in with all the other Larrys who barbecue and volunteer at fire stations. Armed with a Floral Arts degree from Red River College, Larry becomes a landscape gardener and discovers his passion for garden mazes. Their winding paths mirror his own complicated journey through two marriages and divorces, his relationship with his aging parents, and the birth of his son. As Larry moves from the spontaneous seventies through the materialistic eighties into the harsh nineties, he struggles with society's shifting expectations of masculinity. His parents face their own private tragedy while Larry battles a crushing midlife crisis. The mazes become his obsession and his refuge, offering both treacherous dead ends and the promise of finding a way through. Carol Shields follows Larry's quiet search for meaning across twenty years, from 1977 to 1997, as he slowly recognizes the man he could become.
Genres: 20th-century, adult-fiction, canadian-literature, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Winnipeg
Period: 1977-1997
339 pages · Hardcover · Random House Canada