SOURCE: "Quiet Manifesto: Carol Shields's Small Ceremonies," in International Fiction Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, July, 1976, pp. 147-50.

In the review below, MacDonald praises Small Ceremonies and places Shields within the Canadian literary tradition.

At a time when some Canadian writers are getting on cultural bandwagons, or are partially blinded by the myths which they have created for themselves, it is refreshing to come across a novel like Small Ceremonies by Carol Shields. Her novel, as the title suggests, concerns itself with the small acts of a quiet family in a relatively peaceful Canadian academic community. Very little happens in the novel, yet subtly and with considerable skill Mrs. Shields unfolds the character of the narrator, Judith Gill, her English professor husband, Martin, and their two children, Meredith and Richard.

The problems for the family arise after their return from a sabbatical year in England. The Canadian experience of the...