SOURCE: Jensen, Hal. “Red Calum's Clan.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 5080 (11 August 2000): 22.

In the following review, Jensen explores the imagery and storytelling techniques of No Great Mischief, summarizing the plot and characters of the novel.

No Great Mischief is a lesson in the art of storytelling. Not only does it show by example (which it does magnificently), but its subject is the way stories work, the sources of their power and the means by which they are kept alive. The novel's theme is blood ties. Alexander MacDonald, an orthodontist in Ontario, is provoked by a visit to his brother Calum (bruiser, ex-con, penniless alcoholic) into reminiscences of his childhood. These reminiscences mix his own memories with the tales his grandparents used to tell about the history of his family, the MacDonald clan, clann Chalum Ruaidh.

The central figure in this history is another Calum MacDonald, a Highlander who fought...