Customer Reviews

The Shipping News

5 star:		(209)
4 star:		(116)
3 star:		(37)
2 star:		(41)
1 star:		(83)

 

 

Let me state at the outset that I am a Newfoundlander. I spent the first 38 years of my life on the island, cursing and loving the fickle weather, the stark landscape and the smothering isolation.

Concurrent with life in such a place is a certain xenophobia. Part pride, part fear, it tends to rear its head when someone from "away" decides to tell us about ourselves.

Annie Proulx is a "come-from-away", an outsider who came and settled for a time in Newfoundland, then went away and brought forth "The Shipping News".

By that time I'd moved off the island, like so many of my fellow Newfoundlanders. I left by choice to pursue a career opportunity, but it was still a wrenching experience. Thousands of others have had no choice but to leave, with the collapse of the fishery and the ensuing economic hardships. For them, leaving Newfoundland is a heart-breaking decision, because their loyalty to family and to the place is as fierce as a November gale.

A few years after I heard about a curious new novel written by an American and set in Newfoundland. So I read it.

As Quoyle made his inexorable if apprehensive way to Newfoundland I found myself wondering whether I would recognize Annie Proulx's version of my native province.

Not only did I recognize it, I came to know it better. She had found the poetry of the place, the brutal indifference of sea and stone, the soft light and the muffling fog. And the voices of the people.

Not a word rang false.

"The Shipping News" is rich in atmosphere, populated by people I know. It is a work fine in its observation and true in its telling. It's what Newfoundlanders would call a "fine yarn".

It's always fun to reread a novel that was a favorite ten years ago and discover that it's just as much fun the second time around. Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1994, The Shipping News is set primarily in Newfoundland, the ancestral home of Quoyle, a widower from New York, and his aunt, Agnis Hamm, who return to Newfoundland with Quoyle's two young daughters to try to create new lives. Quoyle, with minimal experience as a newspaper man in New York, gets a job at the local newspaper, the Gammy Bird, at Killick Claw, recording the weekly shipping news, doing features on visiting ships, and covering local car wrecks. Agnis continues her business of upholstering ship and yacht interiors, and Quoyle's little girls settle into school and daycare.

As Quoyle and Agnis become friends with their fiercely independent and often quirky neighbors, their own pasts gradually unfold for the reader, and as they face the stark challenges of their new lives in wintery Newfoundland, they begin to understand more fully who they are and to recognize what is important in their lives. As Quoyle, who is still coming to terms with the death of his flagrantly unfaithful wife, Petal Bear, gains respect from his colleagues for his work at the paper and from his neighbors for his strength of character, he also begins to gain some self-respect. Agnis's departure from Newfoundland many years ago was the result of a terrible trauma, and upon her return she finds unique ways to put some of that trauma to rest.

Life in Killick Claw is often bleak, and its population must deal with violent storms, winters lasting six months, few connections to the outside world, and sudden death at sea, all of which Proulx describes in vivid and moving passages. But survival in this world also inspires kinship among its residents and a kind of dark-humored resignation which is even more vividly depicted. All of Proulx's characters wrest grim humor from life's tragedies, buoying their spirits (and those of the reader) as they soldier on, refusing to engage in self-pity, no matter their difficulties. As irony piles upon irony, their resilience shines through, making this novel both a story of harsh reality and one of inspiring strength. n Mary Whipple

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.

It's hard to describe this novel. You can give a very vanilla summary on paper about a man named Quoyle who leaves his upstate New York life after his father's death, blah blah blah but that wouldn't take into account Proulx's very unique, at times perplexing, writing style (it's only perplexing until you receive little clues along the way that better explain the characters and situations), the odd names for the characters that are all nouns and adjectives, the cold locations and the fact that Proulx does nothing to make Newfoundland sound like a nice, cozy place when so many other writers, given the chance, may have tried to make it sound like Mayberry on the North Atlantic. You can take it or leave it, the island won't really miss you if you don't visit.

Those readers expecting a nice little travelogue about life in Newfoundland should look elsewhere: "The Shipping News" fully depicts the tough life that people experience on that great expanse of rock, not sparing us from tales of abuse and incest. But Proulx also shows how people in those same small communities do come together when needed and that the bonds of friendship are at times stronger than the bloodlines of family.

For those who only know Proulx from "Brokeback Mountain", this book will further acquaint them with her unique writing style and depictions of the "have nots" of society. Once you are deep enough into Quoyle's story, the pages fly by and I finished this book wishing it had been even longer. A one of a kind read.

I was assigned "The Shipping News" for my Senior English class and it invoked rather indifferent feelings. I appreciated Proulx's unique, pensive, and insightful descriptions of everyday objects and occurences that often go unnoticed. There is an underlying humor in the quirkyness of the character's lives and experiences that adds enjoyment to the reading. However, the plot is rather dull as well as the lives of the characters in the book. It is similar to Faulkner's " As I Lay Dying" in the fact that it deals with the stream of conciousness of the characters,psychology,and choppy, matter of fact sentences. I highly recommend the book to readers who appreciate unique, offbeat writing styles, and the development of character's subconcious minds. However, for the reader who is engaged by exciting, action filled literature, this book is not for you; you will find it extremely difficult to become engaged in it and be enthusiastic to be following the lives of the characters. " The Shipping News" is highly recommended for careful readers who are appreciative of unique descriptions and the development of the mind and lives of ordinary people.

This compelling. story start slowly and then gradually ropes you in. Quoyle is the main character; his name means coiled rope, and he is certainly a man with many knots. The book starts very painfully, as you're plunged into Quoyle's childhood. He is a true loser, demeaned and shunned. He lumbers through his first 2 decades oozing self-deprecation. Life happens to him, from meeting his only friend in a Laundromat, to stumbling into a journalist's job, which he does poorly. Quoyle is a self-esteem vacuum, waiting for disaster. Which happens when he meets and marries Pearl. He falls utterly in love with someone incapable of reciprocating, thus continuing the searing agony of his life.

When a series of tragedies leave Quoyle to raise his daughters alone, he is helped in his grief by a distant aunt. And is encouraged to return with her to their ancestral home in Newfoundland.

The first few chapters are a bit brutal because Quoyle's pain is so understated, and therefore so palpable. He's a hard character to follow along; there seems to be so much wrong in his life. But he's got a heart of gold, which makes it worth the discomfort of watching him suffer. The aunt is bracing; like cold sea-water thrown into your face. She too has heart, and old wounds. But unlike Quoyle, her response is to buck up and start problem-solving. At times this causes her to be brusque, but she is a needed tonic to Quoyle's lethargic self-loathing which threatens to consume him. The car ride up the eastern seaboard from New York begins the journey to the aptly named Newfoundland.

What at first appears slow, is actually the subtle "unknotting" of Quoyle's life. In his new job with the local weekly paper, he is assigned the shipping news, and begins to uncover his writing voice telling the stories about the ships. With the aunt's help they begin rebuilding the family house that's stood empty for 40 years. He meets Wavey, also a single parent, also nursing hurts from the past. Very slowly Quoyle's life takes on a rhythm as he gets to know his neighbors and co-workers. He also begins to unravel the unsavoury heritage of his ancestors. Being thrown into these strange situations, he needs to start making choices, and so doing starts to shape his own life.

Of course its not an easy path, which is another reason why the story needs to be slow. To be believable, to be a book you want to read, Quoyle uncoiling must be something we could hope for ourselves. One of the threads throughout the book is the role of community in making one whole. The small fishing village with its staggering poverty and abuse cases seems an unlikely place to get your life back together. In spite of their hardship, maybe because of it, many of the characters remain connected to a spirit of hope and compassion. The rugged landscape with its sound-changing mists and kaleidascope weather is backdrop to something more enduring that happens when people remember themselves and each other. And a warning when we forget. Isolation happens in crowded cities, as well as abandoned villages.

The characters are quirky and memorable. You can tell Proulx lived in Atlantic Canada for awhile, because she writes such poignant stories about the people. The lure of the sea, living with the constant expectation of bereavement, the resourcefulness that weathers changing economies coupled with government ineptness. The tragedy that isolation can bring. The aunt with her lost loves and cable-whipped memories she must heal. Billy Pretty, a gnarled old batchelor and unlikely philosopher. Tert Card, ..., who gives you the creeps. Wavey's courage to raise her handicapped son. Al Yard's constantly singing the only song he knows. Quoyle's six-year-old daughter Sunshine, in her own journey of recovery from menacing white dogs. The subtle humour woven through the book is like one long joke in some ways, except the Newfie is having the last laugh.

Proulx's language is interesting. She sprinkles sentence fragments into her text, giving it a choppy, wavy feeling. "Tert Card in a red shirt and white necktie, on the phone: Billy Pretty on the other line. Billy laughing, choking out dark sentences Quoyle couldn't understand, almost another language. Drumming rain, the bay stippled. The gas heater howled in the corner." After awhile you don't notice the choppiness, but it works on you anyway, like the way you feel the ocean swells even after you've been on dry land for awhile.

It would take an extreme land at the extreme edge of a country to balance the extreme injustice of Quoyle's life. Not that he'd see it that way. In a way he just ended up in Newfoundland, and began trying to make the best of it. But it almost seems as if the place found him, opened him up, showed him himself, like the way one day he sees his naked body in the mirror and for the first time sees "strong" instead of "[fat]". And in another sense, Quoyle found himself. He had to or be lost forever; again the extreme places in our lives are often our friends. He had to start entering life, make choices, give of himself, instead of waiting for what would never come.

This story stayed with me along time. It was very satisfying to read, like all good stories about healing. Reminds you that life is always more than what you can figure out. This mystery can be frightening or encouraging; often its both. But these characters endure with their human spirit intact. And so can any of us, when we become open to the life we've been given.

Proulx's The Shipping News is a truly great work of contemporary American fiction and a wonderful example of what a novel ought to be. Real people, harsh truths, a rare imagination and a superb, unusual writing style come together in this novel where the reader is transported to the symbolic Newfoundland. Proulx's metaphors are truly original and add new twists to the reader's imagination. Quoyle is a simple, unlikely hero who, like all the characters in The Shipping News, is compellingly portrayed through his efforts to untie tight, old, painful knots and replace them with new bonds of joy. We are reminded of the value of every human life, regardless of how apparently simple it may be. Ultimately we remember that happiness is the truest success and there is a Newfoundland for everybody where one can forgive, heal, discover joy and really live. Packed with insight, emotion, truth, symbolism and imagery, The Shipping News will open new doors, be a cause both for reflection and sheer enjoyment; there is something new to think about on almost every page. Proulx offers a complete reading experience that is in a single word, memorable

THE SHIPPING NEWS by E. Annie Proulx

The winner of the 1994 Pulitzer for Fiction, THE SHIPPING NEWS is a story that stands out and will be remembered in this reviewer's mind as something that cannot be imitated or copied. Annie Proulx created a set of unique and quirky characters and fit them into the setting that is the cold north of Newfoundland, centering on the sorry life of one man named Quoyle. His life changes when he moves himself and his two young daughters from Brooklyn to the land that was home to his ancestors. His memories of his own immediate family are not happy ones. But family ties are strong.

Life for Quoyle was never good. He never heard a loving word from his parents or brother. As an adult, life was not great either. He goes from job to job, doesn't have many friends, and lives the life of an outcast. One day he meets a man named Partridge at the local Laundromat, and the two become fast friends, despite their differences in background. When Quoyle is unemployed once again, Partridge helps him get a job at a local newspaper where he also happens to work, and soon Quoyle is working semi-regularly for this newspaper, but isn't doing that much better. He's not "getting it" and is not what one calls a great asset to the company. He gets fired and rehired seasonally, and then Partridge and wife Mercalia announce they are moving to California. Quoyle feels his life is about to end, his only friends leaving to move across the country.

Then, Quoyle meets Petal in a bar. Their relationship starts off on the right foot, but soon they are married and things fall apart fast. He now has a wife that cheats on him openly, a wife he loves with a passion but Petal looks down upon him with disdain. The more he loves her, the more she stays away, flaunting her lovers in his face. And now with two children, Quoyle rarely sees Petal at all. A few years of unhappy living, and he receives word from his father that both parents are on their last legs. With the death of both mother and father, and a brother that doesn't seem to care, it is the last straw when Quoyle finds out that his wife has taken off with the kids. Petal's car is in an accident, the children are missing, and his wife is dead. Quoyle is beside himself, and the last thing he wanted to hear was that the children had been sold to some man. What else could go wrong in his life?

Amazingly enough, this all happens within the first 26 pages of the book. Quoyle soon finds his two daughters, and is now on his way to Newfoundland with them and his father's sister Agnis and her dog Warren. The life they lead in his family homeland is quite a difference from what they experienced in New York. It's rougher, tougher, but yet Quoyle adapts. With the help of Partridge, Quoyle is hired by the local paper THE GAMMY BIRD and as the reader discovers, Quoyle transforms from a pathetic loser to someone that has merit and credibility. And he also finds love.

THE SHIPPING NEWS was a somewhat funny look at a man who needed just a little push (or a big boost) in the right direction to get his life on track. Written in a style that may put off some readers, this novel was enjoyable and the story always kept this reader wanting to read more. It's a story of love, life, and the need to be loved back, all told through the story of Quoyle. The interesting characters throughout the book enhance his story, and one comes to love each one. This reviewer highly recommends THE SHIPPING NEWS but with a word of caution: although it can be a fast read, one needs to adjust to the style of writing that Proulx uses to tell this tale.

Anyone who lives in a rural area can relate to the characters in this book. But beyond a gift to express place and time Ms. Proulx has mastered characters in a new and different manner. Her technique is unusual and verges on poetic prose. It has the unique ability to invoke the imagination common to all great literature. The two major themes: First; "community" following an allegorical theme of knots she weaves (pun intended) through the whole book. This theme centers on a place that bring human existence to its central essence of survival in rural Newfoundland with all the inherent and symbolic references to the sea as both life and death. It is the sea, and the community that deals with it, that saves the unlikely hero Quoyle. The second theme is the "emotional baggage" that all of us carry and suffer the weight of. Quoyle is a loser of the utmost magnitude. So pitiless that for the first fifty pages he is hard to relate to. But through interaction with a variety of newfound friends and his own self-honesty we are allowed to watch a subtle, yet believable transformation. Quoyle becomes a man of dignity and overcomes literally everything through hope and the community around him. I discovered the book by accident having never heard of Ms Proulx before. I was entranced. I am the type of person who detests the usual hype that goes with the book world and had I known it was a popular book I would have avoided it. I would have lost something. This book should also be required reading for all Canadians as there is a very real parallel between Quoyle and the people around him, and the Newfoundland relationship with Queben and the rest of Canada. If Proulx is not Canadian then she has absorbed much of the Canadian psyche. Quoyle literally discovers a "new found land".

I was skeptical of this book at first. When it's summer in the Northwest the last thing you want to do is pick up a book set in the dreary weather of Newfoundland. The first few chapters were tough to get through but once I got into it I couldn't put it down! I found the setting of the story more beautiful than depressing. Proulx's descriptions of Newfoundland are completely breathtaking. This book also contains some of the most memorable dialogue and characters you will ever read. Some of it will make you crack a smile, while other passages will just plain make you laugh out loud! The voices of these characters are just so real, you can't deny Proulx's incredible story telling talent. "The Shipping News" is well deserved of the National Book Award and if you stick with it it will be one of the most enjoyable books you've ever read.