The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Shipping News
Book Review: An Unlikely Hero
Summary: 4 Stars
Reading E. Annie Proulx is taking a walk in the world of the familiar. The hurdy-gurdy old-time carnival poetics of Proulx's work make it more akin to reality, and all of the unseen vital forces swirling around it, than any photograph.The //Shipping News// is one of Proulx's best works so far. Not only the books characters, but its objects, locales and narratives are presented in a close up voice lending them an almost tangible quality.
Quoyle is the unlikely hero. Both he and his ancestral homeland of Newfoundland are flawed with countless foibles and difficulties, the offbeat harmony of which make them both strikingly attractive, more-so than any catalog of perfections.
Just out of the bath Quoyle surveys his bulky self in the mirror: "He guessed he was at some prime physical point. Middle age not too far ahead, but it didn't frighten him. It was harder to count his errors now, perhaps they had compounded beyond counting or blurred into his general condition." Proulx's //Shipping News// regards flaws, failures and mistakes not so much as problematic- but as building blocks for the jumbled up, amazing works our lives become in the living.
Quoyles fortunes and misfortunes are played out in an uncanny kind of quotidien drama while we share in his discovery of the raw landscapes and mythic histories of his family turf Newfoundland. "The Newfoundland in this book, though salted with grains of truth, is an island of invention." This is 'invention' like the tall tales of grannies everywhere: refabricated and evolved so much no one really much remembers the /real/ truths anymore...or whether they were so real after all.
Book Review: An Unlikely Hero
Summary: 4 Stars
Reading E. Annie Proulx is taking a walk in the world of the familiar. The hurdy-gurdy old-time carnival poetics of Proulx's work make it more akin to reality, and all of the unseen vital forces swirling around it, than any photograph.The //Shipping News// is one of Proulx's best works so far. Not only the books characters, but its objects, locales and narratives are presented in a close up voice lending them an almost tangible quality.
Quoyle is the unlikely hero. Both he and his ancestral homeland of Newfoundland are flawed with countless foibles and difficulties, the offbeat harmony of which make them both strikingly attractive, more-so than any catalog of perfections.
Just out of the bath Quoyle surveys his bulky self in the mirror: "He guessed he was at some prime physical point. Middle age not too far ahead, but it didn't frighten him. It was harder to count his errors now, perhaps they had compounded beyond counting or blurred into his general condition." Proulx's //Shipping News// regards flaws, failures and mistakes not so much as problematic- but as building blocks for the jumbled up, amazing works our lives become in the living.
Quoyles fortunes and misfortunes are played out in an uncanny kind of quotidien drama while we share in his discovery of the raw landscapes and mythic histories of his family turf Newfoundland. "The Newfoundland in this book, though salted with grains of truth, is an island of invention." This is 'invention' like the tall tales of grannies everywhere: refabricated and evolved so much no one really much remembers the /real/ truths anymore...or whether they were so real after all.
Book Review: An acquired taste
Summary: 3 Stars
I picked up the Shipping News after a recent trip to Canada, where I listened to some Newfoundlanders debating as to whether or not the novel captures the spirit of the life and people there. Proulx's writing style has a strange rhythm to it, which takes some getting used to. Once I got accustomed to the strange sentence fragments and occasional run-on I had an easy time getting into the mood of the novel. This is not a plot-driven story, nor is it filled with eventful scenes or dynamic characters. However, in my opinion this quiet-ness is an appealing quality; Proulx does a good job in fleshing out characters that, despite their ordinariness, I found to be compelling.
One character that Proulx does seem to have a bit of fun with is Petal, the protagonist's wife whose unexpected death sets him off on his adventure. She's neither the deepest nor the best developed character in the novel, but Petal does make a good villain and the reader cheers her demise.
That said, the book's pacing is slow. It hooks you just enough to keep you turning the pages, wondering where all of this will lead. In the end this works because Proulx takes some risks with then conclusion. If the plot's quiet uneventfulness had simply coasted through the final pages I would have been frustrated with the Shipping News, but in the end Proulx saves the novel.
Not everything works. Near the end there is a clumsy bit of foreshadowing (a dream which predictably turns to reality) and at times Proulx's poetic style can be distracting. I haven't read other work by her, but one supposes that her style might be more suitable for poetry or short stories. Shipping News is not a must-read, in my opinion, but I found it to be interesting and, at times, compelling. And like most poetry - either you'll like it or you won't; depends on your taste.
Book Review: An excellent read
Summary: 5 Stars
The Shipping News
As a fan of Newfoundland and its culture, I was recommended the novel The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. For the first time I was not hesitant to pick up the book that shined proudly with the silver of the Pulitzer Prize. I began to read, not quite
sure of what to expect or what the characters would bring but quickly I was drawn in.
The novel is the story of a man Quoyle, whose luck has been far from good. In the first few chapters we are made aware of the trials that occur over a short period of time. During these hardships, Quoyle's aunt, Agnis Hamm appears in search of something that has haunted her life for years and in the mean time encourages Quoyle to abandon his awful job and even more awful life to come and live with her in the house that she was
raised in. From there he takes a job working at a local newspaper called, "The Shipping News" where he is thrust into a scene full of ship and car wrecks and town folk who care
little for anything other than gossip.
Throughout the novel we are introduced to insightful, interesting, characters who come off as the type of folk you'd find in any small town. The traveler not native to the land (and with plans to leave soon), the old boss who prefers fishing to actual work in the newspaper office, and the antagonist who spends time trying to debunk Quoyle's work, are just a few of the interesting people we encounter. In between is a great tale of love that forms between two people enveloped with grief. The progression is honey like; slow, sweet. It is not the main focus of the novel but in all reality, there really isn't one focus.
Essentially, I believe Proulx set out to write a novel about people. As a reader you become more aware of what the characters are doing than what the actual plot is and it makes for an interesting read. We see the evolution of characters and the heavy process that healing entails, and we are able to familiarize ourselves with at least one of the characters. If not, they become our friends. We see the man who sits alone every day on the same stool of a restaurant. We know the waitress that calls certain customers by name because she has gotten used to their regularity. Quoyle's insecurities are the ones we deal with every day and because of all of this, we are easily drawn into the book.
Proulx has mastered and written word and her description is so wonderful that you are able to see each person and each scene vividly. Each time a name is mentioned you can draw up the picture of the person who's face was mentioned in one of the earlier chapters.
Quoyle is described early on as, "A great damp loaf of a body. At six he weighed eighty pounds. At sixteen he was buried under a casement of flesh. Head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair ruched back. Features as bunched as kissed fingertips.
Eyes the color of plastic. The monstrous chin, a freakish shelf jutting from the lower face." Throughout the novel we are reminded of this image when Quoyle hides his chin in embarrassment.
This novel is overall humorous due to funny scenarios and memorable jokes, however there is an overwhelming feeling of serious backed behind this. Each character is subject to the terrible things of the world and each person partakes in soul
searching in order to achieve a level of normality in their lives.
I was very touched by how these people from a small town in Newfoundland, Canada lived their lives. I was amazed at how Proulx could take these ordinary folks and make them interesting. And I was blow away at how much compassion I could feel in the last few pages and blown away by the change that was underwent. This novel is inspiring, amazing, and a great read and if you have even half a heart you will fall in love as I have done.
Book Review: An extremely well-written but morose story
Summary: 4 Stars
The Shipping News is an extremely well-written, albeit morose story whose cast of 'poor souls' is brightened by succinct, appropriate descriptions that shift scale flawlessly to reflect both individual and global observations about both the character's natural and human environment.