The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Shipping News
Book Review: A memorable book...
Summary: 5 Stars
The Shipping News now lies back on the bookshelf, after a week of hills and valleys. Sometimes the reading was difficult for me because of the maritime jargon used. Often I found myself consulting my Third New International for clarification. What I loved most of all was Proulx's colorful, terse descriptions. I could almost see the snakes writhing under the large blanket when she describes the tumultous, white-capped sea. I liked Quoyle, had some sympathy for him, and even ended up liking him in the end. The plot is pure literature, full of hidden meanings and innuendoes. Sure, the book is full of sentence fragments, but Proulx executes them so well. This is certainly a book I would read again.Book Review: A must read for the psychologically intuned.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Shipping News is a wonderful coming of age story as well as a fantastic characterization of Newfoundland the unique characters that enter Quoyle's life and a little love story wrapped in one. Proulx takes you on a psychological journey through the eyes of Quoyle, an unlikely hero in his own right. Quoyle leaves you cheering for him to the end. Proulx's style is unique, vivid and powerful for the reader. A real treat for a change.Book Review: A new brand of "Americana"
Summary: 5 Stars
Occasionally I find a book which is "complete" -- character, theme, writing style, imagery, mood, different strands of story -- all become interwoven (or remain appropriately separated!) to a satisfying end. The story moves along at a clip and, having been told that Proulx is a good short story writer I fancied her short story style was nicely evident throughout. The mood and scenes in the book match my experience of the physical settings. The story line is good.Book Review: A novel full of original, raw, language.
Summary: 4 Stars
I enjoyed this novel. Proulx has ripped Newfoundland outof the northern reaches of the continent and placed it on
the page. The novel's language is as rugged as the coast of
Newfoundland. The characters are unusual, yet sincere. You
know you've entered another culture when you open this book.
Proulx's words paint a memorable picture. Yet, the language
becomes heavy toward the end of the novel.
It
watches
itself play with the
characters' dialogue. Perhaps because
I do not know Newfoundland, I
could not appreciate the extent to
which Proulx stretches the English language.
But even with this possible
flaw, the novel is beautiful and
very worth reading, especially if you are a fan of the English language and all of its nuances
Book Review: A poetic and stormy novel
Summary: 4 Stars
This is not generally the kind of novel I read. Either I am reading heavy material for my doctoral studies, or I read trash fiction for lighter fare. But, my wife happened to have this book lying around and I picked it up and was startled by Proulx's writing style and the ponderous emotion that is evoked by reading this book.
The novel is centred around what I see as a rather unlikely, but likeable, anti-hero, Quoyle. Presented as a lumbering sub-intelligent ox in the first few pages of the book, the reader is slowly led to find Quoyle's character to be deeper than we thought. His love for his daughters and his inner turmoil sparked by scorned love from his former wife bathes the story in sadness and a greyness that is reflected in the Newfoundland climate to which he and his family has moved.
Like the house he moves into, the characters in The Shipping News are stark and down-to-earth, struggling against the remoteness of their geography and the progress of technology into the old way of life. There are many themes in Proulx's book and she guides you through them with depth and feeling.
While beautiful, the writing style takes a bot of getting used to and I suppose I am used to having certain aspects of a plotcome to some kind of resolution. The murder of a yaught owner seems rather superfluous and appears to be an attempt at some kind of murder-mystery, but is never adressed any more than the actual event. I guess that's life...but I wanted more somehow.
Overall, a fascinating and emotional read.
Read and Enjoy!