I started out not liking the writing style of this book at all. This is the first Proulx book I’ve read, but if her other books are written in the same style, she is the queen of both the sentence fragment and the comma splice. I get that some of the sentences were supposed to be news headlines, and I found that to be clever. However, not all of them were and it truly was like fingers on a chalkboard to me. After a few chapters, though, I found the storyline very compelling. The characters were well drawn, and I was sympathetic to their life situations. I discovered that I wanted to keep reading so I could learn what happened to them.
Quoyle and his family go from the States back to Newfoundland, which is where his father was originally from. Everyone there knows about the Quoyles and it isn’t all good. Quoyle is a kind man, but a bit of a bumbler, or so he thinks. He has a job at the local newspaper writing about car wrecks and the shipping news. (I could have done without the detailed newspaper reports of the s*x abu se cases.) He takes care of his little girls, Bunny and Sunshine, as well as his aunt. Or is his aunt taking care of him? (I was fascinated by her character, especially the certain incident with the outhouse!) All in all, it’s an engaging domestic drama taking place in a freezing, unforgiving climate.
In the end, I still didn’t like the writing style, but I did enjoy reading about this family and Newfoundland. I’m now looking forward to viewing the movie adaptation.
1993, 337 pp.
Rating: 3.5
Winner, Pulitzer Prize
Winner, National Book Award
I read this book some time ago, but really liked it. Proulx does have an interesting style of writing…I didn’t mind it, perhaps because I liked the story itself so much. I never was able to get through her book Accordion Crimes; but I LOVED That Old Ace in the Hole (even better than Shipping News in my opinion). To be honest, I don’t remember now if That Old Ace in the Hole was written in a similar style or not!
I felt the same way about writing: liked the story but not the style. As well, as a Newfoundlander, I can honestly say it’s not a very accurate portrayal of the place (she does a horrible job with the accent, for instance). A friend of mine was in France when the movie came out and she said it was simply entitled “Terre Neuve” over there. That’s “Newfoundland” in French; as if this book some how summed up the place. I’m glad the English title didn’t make such assumptions!
I’m not compelled to read any other of her books.
I really liked The Shipping News but I think I was drawn into the characters and the story. I agree that the style did get annoying. I also quite liked the movie, even though Kevin Spacey was not how I pictured the main character at all. I also put down Accordion Crimes after 20 pages. I’ve never gotten through anything else!
Wendy, I might have to try that one, thanks!
John, I had similar misgivings about Plainsong by Kent Haruf, which is set where I grew up. It’s harder to read a book when you’re close to the subject matter.
Bookgal, I’m really looking forward to the movie!
I just finished dreading the Shipping News this weekend. I actually liked the writing style – it’s kind of how I think and easy for me to follow, but yes it was certainly the characters that drew me in.
I haven’t watched the movie yet either but I don’t think I’d expect much from it.
i notice how nobody is truly in love with this book. In my opinion this is an atrocity of a novel that is read only because Annie Proulx succeeded in writing a fully fledged 200-odd word book. People fall so easily. How it won the pultizer prize is beyond comprehension. This is for the Richard and Judy book club audience to read during a pleasant summer on a holiday. With a glass of wine. It follows the most predictable and routine storyline of ‘rebirth and redemption.’ Perhaps that is beyond the point, but the means of delivery is exactly as predictable as its story. It slowly bends from the start to the end, deep in its lull. The characters are entirely one-dimensional, the aunt is a les…. and the wife is a man enslaving wh…-b..ch, and that’s all there is to it. I apologise for being on the offensive, but this book is undeserving of the praise it has been given. I’m sure Proulx was a thoroughly depressed woman and now in the wake of her pulitzer she has given herself a sense of esteem. Now that he believes she is a writer is one of the reasons Brokeback Mountain will be as unreadable, if not moreso, than this one.
Everyone there knows about the Quoyles and it isn’t all good. Quoyle is a kind man, but a bit of a bumbler, or so he thinks.
I love Proulx’s writing style and found it such a lovely departure from the constraint of the grammatically corrrect sentence. It felt to me more in line with the way the mind thinks, and so the wording and the reading of it, for me, felt very natural. Maybe a little like a jazz artist, riffing? I thought it was great. So sensory.
I love this story and it’s the first work of fiction I’ve read in several years. It makes me want to read more often!
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