SOURCE: "The Masculine Maze," in Maclean's, Vol. 110, No. 39, September 29, 1997, pp. 82, 85.

In the following review of Larry's Party, Turbide writes that once again Shields focuses on characters' self-evaluations although this time from the perspective of an average man.

By the end of a sunny Monday earlier this month, Winnipeg novelist Carol Shields had been put through the wringer. She had gingerly made her way through a scraggly hedge and leant against a tree to accommodate a magazine photographer. ("Make sure you show the manicure," she teased him, flashing russet-colored nails. "It's a rare thing.") She had been interviewed twice, once for print and once for TV, fielding questions about her new novel, Larry's Party. From her office at the University of Winnipeg, where she is chancellor, she had called ahead to a local Italian restaurant to pre-order a 6 p.m. meal for herself, husband Don and a guest. The...