This is my first Proulx, so I didn't know if the unusual writing style is typical, or specially chosen for this particular story. I hope it's the latter, as it works very well. Update: I've now read Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other stories (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which use similar language, but somewhat toned down.It covers a couple of years (plus some backstory) in the life of thirty-something Quoyle: a big, lonely, awkward and unattractive man, always having or doing the wrong thing. He is a not very successful journalist in New York, who ends up moving, with his young daughters (Bunny and Sunshine) and aunt, to a small, somewhat inbred, community in Newfoundland where the aunt and his late father grew up. Somehow Proulx keeps the reader on the fence: he isn't especially lovable, and yet he elicits more sympathy than mockery in this reader.I think one weakness is that the mother of the girls is too horrible, and the manner of her departure from their lives stretched my credulity somewhat. LANGUAGEThe narrative style is the first thing to hit. It is very distinctive, continues throughout the book, and could be infuriating, though I didn't find it so. It is telegraphic and observational, reflecting Quoyle's job. There are staccato sentence fragments, and some overworked analogies, some of which are wonderfully vivid, and a few of which are laughably awful. Grammar sticklers may struggle to enjoy this book, but it's their loss - context is all, and in this context, I think it works. If I were as clever and witty as some of my GR friends (you know who you are), I would have written this review in the style of the book.Anyway, some typical examples:This is the entire opening paragraph of a chapter:"The aunt in her woolen coat when Quoyle came into the motel room. Tin profile with a glass eye. A bundle on the floor under the window. Wrapped in a bed sheet, tied with net twine."Another whole paragraph:"Near the window a man listened to a radio. His buttery hair swept behind ears. Eyes pinched close, a mustache. A packet of imported dates on his desk. He stood up to shake Quoyle's hand. Gangled. Plaid bow tie and ratty pullover. The British accent strained through his splayed nose."Analogies:* "eyes the color of plastic"* "the sullen bay rubbed with thumbs of fog"* "On the horizon icebergs like white prisons. The immense blue fabric of the sea, rumpled and creased."* "parenthesis around her mouth set like clamps. Impossible to know if she was listening to Nutbeem or flying over the Himalayas"* "In a way he could not explain she seized his attention; because she seemed sprung from wet stones, the stench of fish and tide."* "eyes like a thorn bush, stabbing everything at once"* The ghost of his wife, "Petal's essence riding under his skin like an injected vaccine against the plague of love"* "Fingernails like the bowls of souvenir spoons." (That's the whole sentence.)THE TOWN AND COMMUNITYAspects of the town and its characters remind me of David Lynch's 1980s TV series "Twin Peaks": strange characters, often with impairments of mind, body or emotions, slightly strange names, odd superstitions, and dark secrets (murder, incest, rape, insurance fraud).The town of Killick Claw isn't prosperous, and the environment is still harsh, but it's better than when the aunt grew up there: "The forces of fate weakened by unemployment insurance, a flaring hope in offshore oil money."The Gammy Bird is the local paper, and it's like no other: lots of adverts (many of them fake), deliberate typos and Malapropisms, libelous gossip (including a regular catalogue of sex abuse cases!), shipping news and "we run a front-page photo of a car wreck every week, whether we have a wreck or not". Poor Quoyle is bemused and has the uneasy and familiar feeling "of standing on a playground watching others play games whose rules he didn't know". THEMESKnots are the most obvious one. Each chapter opens with a quotation pertinent to what it contains, and many are from Ashley Book of Knots, which Proulx found second-hand, and gave her the inspiration and structure she sought. Knots feature in the plot metaphorically (in terms of being bound or adrift), in a more literal and superstitious sense. We also learn that Quoyle's name means "coil of rope", and I suppose he is pretty tightly coiled for the first half of the book.Shipping is obvious, too, not just from the title, but because Quoyle ends up writing the eponymous shipping news in the local paper, in a community where everyone needs a boat. Most of the introductory quotes that are not from Ashley Book of Knots are from a Mariner's Dictionary. I confess there were times when the quantity and level of detail slightly exceeded my interest, but I'm glad I stuck with it.The book is riddled with pain, rejection, estrangement and mentions of abusive relationships (never graphic); many are haunted by ghosts of past events and relationships gone wrong. But although it is sometimes bleak, it is rarely depressing, and sometimes it's funny. Even close and fond relationships often have an element of awkwardness and distance; for instance, Quoyle always refers to "the aunt", rather than "my aunt". Even after living with her for a while, "It came to him he knew nearly nothing of the aunt's life. And hadn't missed the knowledge."Ultimately, it's at least as much about (re)birth and healing as death and doom. One character slowly realises it may be possible to recover from a broken relationship: "was love then like a bag of assorted sweets passed around from which one might choose more than once?"OTHER MISCELLANEOUS QUOTATIONS* "a failure of normal appearance" - if you can't even achieve that, what hope is there?* "believed in silent suffering, didn't see that it goaded"* In a shop, "the man's fingers dropped cold dimes"* "fog shuddered against their faces"* "the house was garlanded with wind"* In such a harsh environment, "The wood, hardened by time and corroding weather, clenched the nails fast"* "a few torn pieces of early morning cloud the shape and color of salmon fillets" (I think I'd prefer that one without the fish)* "the woman in the perpetual freeze of sorrow, afloat on the rise and fall of tattered billows"* a babysitter "doing overtime in a trance of electronic color and simulated life, smoking cigarettes and not wondering. The floor around her strewn with hairless dolls."From The Ashley Book of Knots:"To prevent slipping, a knot depends on friction, and to provide friction there must be pressure of some sort."
At thirty-six, bereft, brimming with grief and thwarted love, Quoyle steered away to Newfoundland, the rock that had generated his ancestors, a place he had never been nor thought to go."Quoyle lives the life of a sad cliche. His family doesn't like him, his wife has affairs and he's socially awkward. His only thought is for his children, Bunny and Sunshine. When a situation causes them to move from Mockingburg, New York to Newfoundland, Canada, home of Quoyle's ancestors, he finds himself in over his head. Proulx is a master manipulator in this story as she forces the reader to sympathize with Quoyle's situation. He's dumped into a new setting, new country with only his children and Aunt Agnis to keep him company.The descriptive detail in this book is fresh and full. "In the bay they saw a scallop dagger halfway to the narrows, a wake like the hem of a slip showing behind it." I feasted on this line because I loved it so much and you can look forward to this richness throughout the story.Proulx makes Newfoundland come to life. This is likely due to the fact that she splits her time between there and Wyoming. This may not be the kind of Newfoundland you know though. It has this wild and dark, mythical side to it that you may have heard as a stereotype about the province. Incidentally when this book came out, there was some controversy about Proulx`s portrayal of Newfoundlanders. Some people from the province thought readers would assume these stereotypes were true. I would say the novel does nothing to dispel the stereotypical view of `The Rock` and its inhabitants but you have to remember this is Fiction. This is clearly stated on the back of the book.Watch for the chapter titles. Each relates to a type of knot and informs the reader on the content of the section. Chapter One is entitled "Quoyle", 'a Flemish flake is a spiral coil of one layer only. It is made on deck, so that it may be walked on if necessary.' This gives you an idea of Quoyle`s character even before you start reading.Something that deserves mention is the book won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1994.Proulx's writing style is unlike anything I've read before. Her syntax is fragmented and her removal of pronouns interrupts the fluidity of the story. For some this may be difficult to get around.As well, a suspension of disbelief is required as various coincidences and other `unbelievabilities` pop up throughout the book and would be difficult to take otherwise. This includes the strange characters with quirky names like Billy Pretty, Tert Card and Beaufield Nutbeem.Please note, this novel is not for everyone. The climax of the story occurs at the very beginning of the story and settles into a slow denouement. This is completely contrary to the normal story arc. This a quiet, steady book about family and the idea of home. It is not, I repeat, not a page turner. That being said, I enjoyed the stillness and contemplative quality that rose out of the book. For those who like stories about how a person can change and the influence of the land on the mind, this book is for you.
What do You think about The Shipping News (2015)?
It took me a while to get into this book, but once I did I really liked it. Annie Proulx does a fantastic job writing this novel in a style that places you in the heart of cold, fish-stinky Newfoundland. She then fills that land with such a warm, genuine and quirky cast of characters that you have no choice but to warm up to the novel. By the time you finish, her themes and motifs are very obvious, but she develops them so subtly that they are completely believable and not at all forced. To top it all off, the novel ends with the most perfect final sentence of any book I have ever read. Sometimes I wonder about books that win top literary prizes, but this one definitely deserved it.
—Rachel
First off, just to set you straight, I liked this book. A fine piece of literature for sure: tight, creative writing, deeply human and interesting characters, a stellar setting, and a well-fashioned plot. Yet...something was missing here for me. In the middle of the book I really found myself struggling to care about these characters. Really, and what bugs me is why. Was it the overall depressing tone of the book, the weak-mindedness of some of the characters, the sometime stilted dialog, or something else entirely, subtle and unidentifiable? Maybe it was that I just didn't like it. I remember a childhood argument with a friend where I told him that I didn't like a particular piece of music and he asked why and I told him that I really had no reason, I just didn't like it. This didn't work for him at all. You must qualify you answer, he said. Well, I think I tried but in the end it really just came down to not liking it, ya know? I now think it’s quite OK to just not like something. Not that you shouldn't TRY to understand why something doesn't work for you, ask and question what makes or doesn’t make something great, what propels a piece of art into something special and memorable. In the end, though, to simply say "I don't like it" is A-OK with me. Definitive, right? Clearly positioned. Given the subjective nature of all art, I am amazed that this is not the answer we all give when asked our opinion on something (perhaps it should be!).But again, I did like this book, especially the end (never has so much happened in the last 30 pages!) Also, there are some real gems of diction here, like this: "It was harder to count his errors now, perhaps because they had compounded beyond counting, or had blurred into his general condition." Great. Or this: "For the devil had long ago taken a shine to Tert Card, filled him like a cream horn with itch and irritation. His middle initial was X. Face like cottage cheese clawed with a fork." Yikes! Love it. Also, great name, Tert Card. So anyway, three stars from me, which is actually pretty low if you haven't noticed. Still a good book and a good read, but not one of my favorites.
—Scott
To prevent slipping, a knot depends on friction, and to provide friction there must be pressure of some sort. --“The Ashley Book of Knots” It is necessary that someone should be on the side of the defeated. Quoyle is a defeated man, “He knows the taste of brack and seaweed.” Even his name, “Quoyle,” is a mariner’s term for a coil of deck rope to “be walked on." People walk all over Quoyle, a clumsy man whose doughy and weak-chinned face is “camouflaged torment with smiles and silences.” The epigraph for each chapter of “The Shipping News” defines a different type of a sailor’s knot or a nautical term. Indeed, there are more than 256 combinations of sailing knots— and some of them are metaphors for this defeated man whose twisted life is set adrift. “Miss one rope swing-- over or under-- and you have a different knot—or no knot at all.”“Love shot Quoyle through the heart and lungs and caused internal bleeding.” Quoyle married “Genghis Khan.”—Petal Bear—“a woman with arctic eyes,” who smelled submission in Quoyle and hated his “cringing hesitancy.” She uses Quoyle as a baby sitter for their two children (Bunny and Sunshine) while she goes out dancing, drugging, drinking and “driving” with other men, some of whom she brings home with her. When Quolye pleads his love for Petal, she replies, “It’s your funeral.” Quoyle reunites with his Aunt Agnis, a widowed lesbian who aches to return to the family homestead in New Foundland, a place she once escaped: As you get older you find out the place where you started out pulls at you stronger and stronger. I never wanted to see Newfoundland again when I was young, but the last few years it's been like an ache, just a longing to go back. Probably some atavistic drive to finish up where you started. Aunt Agnis, a woman of mystery and pain, is stronger than Quoyle and acts as his buttress.With Agnis’ prompting, Quoyle moves to Killick Claw, Newfoundland, a close-knit community that forms a seawall against the harsh subarctic air of the North Atlantic. “Waves bursting. Exploding Water. Silence and the gnawing sea.” The Atlantic Ocean becomes a metaphor of love’s force that may bring either nature’s bounty or its destruction.Quoyle works for the local newspaper, “The Gammy Bird,” covering car wrecks and shipping news (i.e., he reports on the various boats that dock at the local harbor). This is an unusual beat for a man who knows nothing about boats and is terrified of water. One of his features is about the Hitler Yacht [“The Killer Yacht at Killik Claw”]. Quoyle also summarizes his own life in newsspeak headlines: “Stupid Man Does Wrong Thing Once More.” Will Quoyle ever learn to write a positive headline about himself? Annie Proulx won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for this beautiful book, which exhibits her splendid blend of words-- poetic and pared. She populates Killick Claw with eccentric and loveable characters who eat strange foods like “seal flipper pie.” One of these important characters is Wavey Prowse –a woman like Quoyle who has endured misfortune and abuse. Will Quoyle, absorbed in his own self-image of failure, find love with Wavey? Victory is almost within reach of this defeated man if he can just find strength in himself and in his community to seize it. As a life-long reader, I snuggle up to failures like Quoyle and listen carefully, lest I overhear myself. Voices of self-condemnation and self-defeat are enemies to be overcome along with the adversity that all humans face. “The Shipping News” is about second chances and the restoration of dignity. Reading can make the weak strong and remind the strong to help buttress the weak, who need our encouragement. Like the Atlantic Ocean-- books can be a force of nature to batter us into submission or to bestow us with the fruit of their bounty. Let down your net for a catch.November 30, 2012********I also reviewed another Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, "Empire Falls," whose main character, Max Roby, struggles to overcome a life of defeat. Here is a link to that review:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
—Steve Sckenda
