The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.95 You Save: $15.05 (94%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Shipping News
Book Review: I'm halfway through. Please shoot me.
Summary: 5 Stars
Oh God no. I am halfway through this book, and only by force. This is an assigned reading for my English 12 AP class, and it is pure agony. I started out with an open mind, but Proulx's awkward writing style lost me right from the start. I find myself continuously backtracking just to *attempt* understanding what the hell she's trying to say. The characters are decent, but not nearly developed enough in the first half of the book (funny, I always thought character development was covered towards the start of the book). The names are just absurd, and only further confuse the reader as to the timeframe and setting of the book (who the hell in the nienties names their children Bunny and Sunshine? I could have sworn I was reading a book set in the 70s!)And by far the worst effect this book has had on me is the fact that it is depressing as anything. I plan(planned?) on entering journalism, but the dreary descriptions of Quoyle's career have thoroughly confused me as to what I now want to do with my life, and made me far gloomier than I should be as a student.
I dread finishing this book, and fail to understand the 5 star ratings and the critical acclaim.
Book Review: a masterpiece of prose
Summary: 5 Stars
There are few works of contemporary fiction as masterful as this book. The irony is, and it is one that Quoyle might appreciate, that the author dismisses it as a 'toss-off', in between her more serious work, such as Accordion Crimes. Now she may just be pulling our legs...Nevertheless, Proulx is perhaps the most skilled crafter of English prose alive today. No mere empty stylist such as the lions of Britain such as Martin Amis, her language is inextricably linked to the physical and spiritual world her characters inhabit. And nowhere is this clearer than in the course of this novel. Quoyle stumbles almost blindly and ignorantly through life until he happens upon the Shipping News, and we stumble with him. The awkwardness of the prose frustrates us, as we are frustrated with him, until slowly we discover his consciousness budding into life. With it comes the grace and poetry of a writer revelling in a world that is unexpectedly revealed.
Deceptively simple, deft and miraculous, there are few novels today that teach us as much about the world and our place in it, the language that we use, and the potential for joy in the least suspected places.
Book Review: A complete reading experience; in a single word, memorable.
Summary: 5 Stars
Proulx's The Shipping News is a truly great work of contemporary American fiction and a wonderful example of what a novel ought to be. Real people, harsh truths, a rare imagination and a superb, unusual writing style come together in this novel where the reader is transported to the symbolic Newfoundland. Proulx's metaphors are truly original and add new twists to the reader's imagination. Quoyle is a simple, unlikely hero who, like all the characters in The Shipping News, is compellingly portrayed through his efforts to untie tight, old, painful knots and replace them with new bonds of joy. We are reminded of the value of every human life, regardless of how apparently simple it may be. Ultimately we remember that happiness is the truest success and there is a Newfoundland for everybody where one can forgive, heal, discover joy and really live. Packed with insight, emotion, truth, symbolism and imagery, The Shipping News will open new doors, be a cause both for reflection and sheer enjoyment; there is something new to think about on almost every page. Proulx offers a complete reading experience that is in a single word, memorable
Book Review: Love - Hard and Easy
Summary: 5 Stars
The two main themes of this novel are love and work. Quoyle, the principle character, after a false start of the hard kind, learns that there is an easy kind of love, which is just as splendid and wondrous as the hard kind. After a false start with Petal Bear, he finds smooth going with Wavey. This uplifting story helped win 5 stars from me.Among the reasons I gave "Shipping News" 5 stars, is the continuity present in the novel. Do not confuse the fact that the author uses a 'gimmick' to unify the novel. In "Shipping News" a knot is provided from time to time with a definition or brief social history of the knot to 'tie' the story together (pun intended). To the contrary, despite the gimmick of knots, it is Quoyle's dogged and tender nature, such as toward his daughters Bunny and Sunshine, which compels us.
Quoyle's trek with his Aunt Agnis and daughters takes them from New York state to Newfoundland where he finds work reporting on the shipping news for the local newspaper the 'Gammy Bird.' The demanding and stark landscape provides a dangerous backdrop for the sparsely told unfolding love story.
Book Review: Mature reading maybe an acquired taste
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the third book or so I have read by Proulx, and if I could figure out how to pronounce her name I'd be as happy as a Newfie Oyster. I will buy anything she writes! Yep, she does write about men a lot and sounds like a man writing about men (listen up Mailer). I am intrigued by her references to gays and lesbians among such arcane topics as skiff building. She has earned the title to "Juxtaposition Annie." Her characters are believeable I guess, although Quoyle (no first name like the Afghans fighters have one name) rings a bit too hollow and naive for me. The names she conjures up are spectacular and the quaint idiosyncracies like wholesale incest of New Foundland-lers, are fascinating if not unquestionably true to life. I could go on but what the heck, she's been critiqued by some of the best (...) and not found wanting. I give her five thumbs up, or whatever Ebert says. When is the movie coming out and can anyone answer the big question for me, is she Bi? In any event, I would love to meet her. I am hooked for life.