SOURCE: Walters, Margaret. “The Beckoning World.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 5056 (25 February 2000): 21.

In the following review, Walters praises Dressing Up for the Carnival as a fine collection of lively stories, and lauds Shields's use of vivid detail.

The title story of Carol Shields's fine new collection, Dressing Up for the Carnival, is set in a small town, as people prepare for an evening's festivities. A girl chooses clothes, then out in the sunshine feels transformed: “no longer just Tamara, clerk-receptionist for the Youth Employment Bureau, but a woman in a yellow skirt. A passionate woman dressed in yellow. A Passionate, Vibrant Woman About To Begin Her Day. Her Life.” Roger, thirty and divorced, breaks from routine to buy a mango, and suddenly feels that “the shrivelled fate he sometimes sees for himself can be postponed if only he puts his mind to it”. An older man who sometimes “waltzes...