Books like Unless

Compulsively readable, this main character comes from a very long, proud lineage of other literary protagonists who get totally fucked over by their offspring. Although it doesn't come close to the pathos & articulation thereof of, say, Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk About Kevin", nor the titan-in-decay tableau which is Philip Roth's "American Pastoral"--"Unless" is way more playful, more accessible. It is the same old story, though. &, unless anything happens to me, I will definitely get my hands on every single thing Carol Shields has written or will write!!