The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
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Book Reviews of The Shipping News
Book Review: A great read
Summary: 5 Stars
I read a lot of non-fiction and a lot of British mysteries and generally shun books other readers find full of "sensitivity and meaning". But I loved this book. Annie Proulx's sparse and compelling style is just perfect for her story and setting. Her Newfie characters gradually sucked me into their trials, tribulations and often bizarre reflections on life in a nearly forgotten corner of North America. And there is the almost miraculous redemption of Quoyle, the shambling hero of the story who finds purpose and the love of a good woman while bringing along the last remnants of a worthless and perverted Newfie clan. You will love the mad and irreverent staff of the local paper. There are tons of fascinating information about the sea, small boats and fishing as a way of life. And when you finish the book you have the feeling that everything just came together, the style, characters, the plot, Newfie culture, all that stuff. And no preaching, no socially selected villains or heroes, no tedious philosophizing.
Book Review: A charming and brilliantly written look at death and rebirth
Summary: 5 Stars
The Shipping News is a gripping, if somewhat slow-moving,
tale about a man entering early middle age via the vehicle
of abandonment. His relationship with a philanderous and
unloving spouse ends tragically and his only response is
to grossly shift latitude, with a distant relative and his
children in tow, moving from the chaos and complexity of
the United States to the weatherbeaten, harsh simplicity
of Newfoundland.
For mine, it is a fascinating tale of pruning of the soul
back to the thick leafless branch and its slow rebirth
through adversity and discovery. From an antipodean
perspective, it was interesting to see the author include
an oblique reference to a news item about the
"Australian Lesbian Vampire Killings", which indeed
occurred but a few miles from my home. I thoroughly
enjoyed reading this tome and look forward to devouring
a collection of the author's short stories in the near
future.
Dr Mark WalterfangBook 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--not neccesarily all the people who write herein-- and not found wanting. I give her five thumbs up, or whatever Ebert says. (...)I am hooked for life.Book Review: The untying of knots
Summary: 5 Stars
A deeply satisfying book that achieves transcendance in halting steps: short sentences detailing the rhythm of daily life in a storm-wracked Newfoundland fishing community, laconic dialogue in the local idiom, the flash of poetry in everyday things, and characters that develop by some deep process that one can measure only in retrospect. To say that Proulx is brilliant stylist is not to miss her ability to get completely down to earth -- or rather to rock and sea and stunted vegetation. To call her characters rugged is not to deny their sensitivities and inner pain, the humor that keeps them going in bad times, or their slowly-awakened capacity for love that makes this novel ultimately so satisfying. Each chapter is prefaced by a drawing of a rope knot from an old maritime handbook -- a fitting metaphor for a book that is about the sea, the bonds that link us to one another, and the knots of the spirit that must be untied for us to be made whole.Book Review: A Sense of Place and People
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished this--one of those novels to which I've been meaning to get to for about five years now. The story of a man named Quoyle, forced by circumstance to return to his ancestral land, writing for a small local paper...Trying to fit back in, as no outsider would be able to, learning the language of boats, local cuisine (squidburgers?!?), superstition and journalism. I really, really liked this book. A distinct narrative voice, a complex plot-matrix (nothing so simple as a plot-line), and the whole thing well and truly anchored in a place. A concrete and vivid depiction of a Newfoundland seaside town. And the quotations beginning each chapter were nice, too, mostly from The Ashley Book of Knots, with directions for tying--and by chapter's end, I picked up each knot's metaphor. I'd read Annie Proulx's short story collection, Heartsongs, and enjoyed that, too. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to this really fine novel.