Elizabeth C. (extensivereading) reviewed The Shipping News (Audio CD) (Abridged) on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 19
One of the most delightful reading experiences is to begin a novel that contains such misery and provides a tortured view of a pathetic existence, to lament that this book will only continue in that path and serve to fully depress, to almost lay it down from sheer fright of the future pages, and then to suddenly, magically, find that the novel is quite possibly one of the best you have ever read.
Quoyle is a tragic figure, not because he truly means to be, but because his circumstances and upbringing mold him into one. Proulx's genius is illustrated by her steady yet subtle transformation of his character while surprising readers with his innate goodness (originally hidden by every fault). And this novel is a classic example of the reason one must have the negatives - to fully appreciate the positives. Without the atrocious wife, Petal Bear, one could not fully grasp Quoyle; without Quoyle's deadbeat father and brother, one could not understand Quoyle's aunt; without all the tribulations in the story, one could not love the children, Bunny and Sunshine.
The Shipping News is a book that tugs at heartstrings without hurting the reader. It is a story that transforms its characters as well as its audience, leaving a message not of pain and suffering, but of hope, love and justice.
Highly recommended.
Quoyle is a tragic figure, not because he truly means to be, but because his circumstances and upbringing mold him into one. Proulx's genius is illustrated by her steady yet subtle transformation of his character while surprising readers with his innate goodness (originally hidden by every fault). And this novel is a classic example of the reason one must have the negatives - to fully appreciate the positives. Without the atrocious wife, Petal Bear, one could not fully grasp Quoyle; without Quoyle's deadbeat father and brother, one could not understand Quoyle's aunt; without all the tribulations in the story, one could not love the children, Bunny and Sunshine.
The Shipping News is a book that tugs at heartstrings without hurting the reader. It is a story that transforms its characters as well as its audience, leaving a message not of pain and suffering, but of hope, love and justice.
Highly recommended.
Helpful Score: 15
Proulx's solid, stunning, stellar writing sets the mood for this novel placed in a small shipping town in Newfoundland. Although the characters are physically isolated, they slowly break down and get to know each other in a natural way - not at all forced as in many other contemporary novels. Such a comment on the way of life in Canada.
Proulx's diction amazes and stuns as much as it puzzles, many times completing removing passive verbs from entire chapters. Along the way, you learn much about tying knots - and also about untying the complex knots of her characters.
Proulx's diction amazes and stuns as much as it puzzles, many times completing removing passive verbs from entire chapters. Along the way, you learn much about tying knots - and also about untying the complex knots of her characters.
Helpful Score: 14
I thought I would hate this book when I first started reading it. It is written in a style I have never come across before. Ironic would be the best way to describe it. I ended up loving the story. It gives a glimpse into a life most of us could never imagine.
Helpful Score: 13
I wasn't too sure that I would like this book when I first started reading it...After the first few chapters, though, I didn't want to put it down! It's a great read!
Helpful Score: 9
"The Shipping News" is the winner of the 1994 Pulizer Prize for fiction. This win is actually why I chose to read "The Shipping News".
I enjoyed reading "The Shipping News", but it was a little bit difficult to get into. Proloux's writing style was a bit different, and difficult for me to get used to. She sometimes didn't use subjects (sometimes not even verbs). This was interesting. I didn't necessarily like it nor dislike it. And it was actually fun to read something completely different like that.
So, you may be asking why I didn't rate it higher. Well, I was never "gripped" by the novel. There wasn't even one of those moments where I didn't feel like I could put the book down. The whole of "The Shipping News" was just ok. I enjoyed it, but it certainly isn't going to become a book I would read over and over again.
"The Shipping News" tells the story of a widower who moves from New York with his aunt and his two small children to Newfoundland after the death of his wife and his parents. It is really fascinating to see what life was / is like in Newfoundland. It definitely picqued my curiousity to visit the country where waves freeze.
With all of that said, I do still recommend that you pick up "The Shipping News" and give it a read. It makes for interesting reading anyway.
I enjoyed reading "The Shipping News", but it was a little bit difficult to get into. Proloux's writing style was a bit different, and difficult for me to get used to. She sometimes didn't use subjects (sometimes not even verbs). This was interesting. I didn't necessarily like it nor dislike it. And it was actually fun to read something completely different like that.
So, you may be asking why I didn't rate it higher. Well, I was never "gripped" by the novel. There wasn't even one of those moments where I didn't feel like I could put the book down. The whole of "The Shipping News" was just ok. I enjoyed it, but it certainly isn't going to become a book I would read over and over again.
"The Shipping News" tells the story of a widower who moves from New York with his aunt and his two small children to Newfoundland after the death of his wife and his parents. It is really fascinating to see what life was / is like in Newfoundland. It definitely picqued my curiousity to visit the country where waves freeze.
With all of that said, I do still recommend that you pick up "The Shipping News" and give it a read. It makes for interesting reading anyway.
Helpful Score: 6
Hated the book! It was dull, dry and dreary. I found myself completely lacking in sympathy towards the characters. I never like a movie better than the book, and yet in this case, the movie was better (although, I didn't love the movie, either).
Helpful Score: 5
I am an Annie Proulx fan ... so it follows that I loved this. It is a wonderful combination of pain, laughter, sorrow and joy all of which is expressed in a vivid, compelling use of the English language.
Helpful Score: 5
Winning the Pulitzer Prize, it's not hard to see why...amazing narrative voice, very spare. If you read this in conjunction with Russell Russo's Empire Falls, you'll get two Pulitzer Prize winning novels, both about small towns, both amazing examples of narrative voice and characters-- and both so very different. Recommended!
Helpful Score: 4
Slow at first the book becomes near and dear to your heart as a man comes to terms with death,violence and other tragedy and learns to love again
Helpful Score: 4
It takes a little while to get used to her writting style. I finally realized that her style of writting is more similar to how I think than how I write. I really enjoyed the story and characters. I felt a loss when the book came to an end.
Helpful Score: 4
The National Book Award-winning novel by the pulitzer-prize winner. The prose is luminous in places. Quiet story.
Helpful Score: 4
Great book, I felt that I was actually in the world of which it was written.
Helpful Score: 3
Ms. Proulx has a very sparse writing style that takes some time to adjust to, but well worth the effort. The book was different and enjoyable with characters that are memorable.
Helpful Score: 3
I enjoyed this book very much. It was a unique story of family and I learned alot about fishing, knots and Newfoundland history.
Helpful Score: 3
a slow start but very entertaining. Pulitzer prize for Annie Prolux and a movie staring Kevin Spacey. Interesting characters throughout. Reminds me much of Steinbeck's "Cannery Row"
Helpful Score: 3
A great read! I love her writing style..short and to the point. The movie version with Kevin Spacey doesn't disappoint!
Helpful Score: 3
Set in Newfoundland, darkly comic family story, a bit heavy going at times.
Helpful Score: 2
This was an enjoyable novel with a great cast of characters and a glimpse into what life is like on the Newfoundland coast.
Helpful Score: 2
Great writing style.
Barbara P. (gotchagal) -
Helpful Score: 2
"A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family. The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as oneof the most gifted and original writers in America today.
The writing is charged with sardonic wit - alive, funny, a little threatening; packed with brilliant original images...and now and then, a sentence that simply takes your breath away.
At 36, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up newe lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons---and the unpredictable forces of nature and society---and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
Beautifully written. Winner of the PULITZER PRIZE. Stunning and original. Do read it.
National Book Award winner, Pulitzer Prize Fiction, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Pulitzer Prize, made into a movie, Fiction, Newfoundland
The writing is charged with sardonic wit - alive, funny, a little threatening; packed with brilliant original images...and now and then, a sentence that simply takes your breath away.
At 36, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up newe lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons---and the unpredictable forces of nature and society---and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
Beautifully written. Winner of the PULITZER PRIZE. Stunning and original. Do read it.
National Book Award winner, Pulitzer Prize Fiction, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, Pulitzer Prize, made into a movie, Fiction, Newfoundland
Larraine F. (phillyartlovesbooks) reviewed The Shipping News (Audio CD) (Abridged) on + 59 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I adore Annie Proulx. This book is wonderful - it makes you think, laugh and believe in the human spirit.
Helpful Score: 2
Beautiful, stark, strange. Fantastic writing.
Melinda S. (melinda010100) reviewed The Shipping News (Audio CD) (Abridged) on + 20 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
original, wonderful use of words!
Helpful Score: 2
Winner of the Pulitzer prize - this book was turned into a movie. At 36, Quoyle, a third rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workday life when his wife dies. He takes his daughters and relocates to his ancestral home on the Newfoundland coast. This is a really great story - I enjoyed the book more than the movie.
Helpful Score: 2
This is the most interesting book I have read in a long time. It is a real page turner that I couldn't put down!
Helpful Score: 2
A truly Original work, of life on the Newfoundland coast. Pulitzer Prize and worth it.
Helpful Score: 2
Proulx has followed Postcards , her story of a family and their farm, with an extraordinary second novel of another family and the sea. The fulcrum is Quoyle, a patient, self-deprecating, oversized hack writer who, following the deaths of nasty parents and a succubus of a wife, moves with his two daughters and straight-thinking aunt back to the ancestral manse in Killick-Claw, a Newfoundland harbor town of no great distinction. There, Quoyle finds a job writing about car crashes and the shipping news for The Gammy Bird , a local paper kept afloat largely by reports of sexual abuse cases and comical typographical errors. Killick-Claw may not be perfect, but it is a stable enough community for Quoyle and Co. to recover from the terrors of their past lives. But the novel is much more than Quoyle's story: it is a moving evocation of a place and people buffeted by nature and change. Proulx routinely does without nouns and conjunctions--"Quoyle, grinning. Expected to hear they were having a kid. Already picked himself for godfather"--but her terse prose seems perfectly at home on the rocky Newfoundland coast. She is in her element both when creating haunting images (such as Quoyle's inbred, mad and mean forbears pulling their house across the ice after being ostracized by more God-fearing folk) and when lyrically rendering a routine of gray, cold days filled with cold cheeks, squidburgers, fried bologna and the sea.
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent book.
Helpful Score: 1
Annie Proulx, a Pulitzer Prize winner, pulls the reader into the unusual life of Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, as he tries to move his family back to his ancestral home in Newfoundland. At times the story is charged with wit and humor of typical Newfoundland conversation, while at other times, the hard life of those who try to make a living on the rocky, often foggy, coast seems to wrap around us and pull us through with Quoyle. The Shipping News is different from any other book I have read, but I really did enjoy it!
Helpful Score: 1
This is a wonderful first novel. Characters are real and interesting and you'll learn something about life in Newfoundland, and the sea, too.
Helpful Score: 1
super good. recommend to anyone.
Helpful Score: 1
beautifully written novel.
Helpful Score: 1
Pulitzer prize winner, with good reason!
Helpful Score: 1
This book was gripping and enthralling...beautifully written and what an original plot! Thankfully, for all its grittiness, there is a happy ending! I loved it.
Helpful Score: 1
I found this book a little odd and not as much of a "page-turner" as I'd heard that it was but all in all a good one.
Helpful Score: 1
Very good book!
Helpful Score: 1
this is the fun story of Quoyle who finds himself by returning to his ancestral home. The home is in a town in Newfoundland and has a unique and interesting history, just like all the people in this small town in Newfoundland. The story is quirky & fun. I really enjoyed it! Quoyle is used to being a failure in love, in work, in his family of origin but in this new life he discovers his calling, his abilities, and really overcomes the shadows in his life. Great story!
Helpful Score: 1
Different and interesting story.
Helpful Score: 1
What a beautiful and uplifting book.
Helpful Score: 1
Quirky, yes, that's definitely a word I would use to describe this book. I imagine some of the humour and going-on's in this book are all attributable to the fact this takes place in a very small, very isolated town with not much to do there...though I did not love this book, I did like the happy little ending. Sometimes it is refreshing to read a down-to-earth book about a simple guy just looking for his own peace and quiet life.
Just couldn't get into this book. I found it quite depressing, didn't like the characters.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a lovely, charming story of two damaged people who find love.
Suzanne R. (Suzanne60637) reviewed The Shipping News (Audio CD) (Abridged) on + 98 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
One of my top 5 favorite books of all time. I have read it several times. The movie is quite good as well, but I think the book is wonderful.
It took me forever to get through this book. I persevered to the end because I read so many good things about it and several reviews noted that it started off slow (it did) and then turned into a "wonderful" something or other by the end. I reckon I slept through the "wonderful" part.
I found the writing to be very intriguing and very visual, I kept rereading phrases and wondering how the author came up with some of the comparisons in her phrases.
But the story was not interesting, it dragged, and it took all my will to get through to the end. Disappointing.
I found the writing to be very intriguing and very visual, I kept rereading phrases and wondering how the author came up with some of the comparisons in her phrases.
But the story was not interesting, it dragged, and it took all my will to get through to the end. Disappointing.
At first I wasn't sure about this book. The author's writing style is almost truncated. But, then I found I couldn't put it down and was sad to finish because I missed the characters.
It took me 40 pages to really get into this book. Some of the setup for the main character I found a bit formulaic, but once the setting moves to Newfoundland, the narrative comes to life, and you can tell the author feels more at home here. It's worth slogging through the initial 40 pages for the rest of the story.
A Story about a man, Quoyle, who is down on his luck and finds some relief in Newfoundland. The book starts with his horrible life and shows him going through a transformation from someone who lets life put him down to someone who can rise up and get back onto the horse. He becomes a newspaper columnist who writes about the very thing that killed his wife, car accidents. In doing this he learns that he is not alone in his struggles.
Gritty, quiet, tough and tender all wrapped in one.
Loved this book. Good movie too!!!
I really enjoyed this CD! It was far easier to listen to than to read the actual paper version. It is read by Robert Joy.
Such an interesting writing style! Really enjoyed it.
It is a beautifully written novel with an interesting style, but it somehow didn't speak to me on a personal level, which is why I am willing to give it up. It makes for good depressing Winter reading.
Loved the book, loved the movie...
it's interesting, but not fascinating.
A little quirky, a little deep, but very enjoyable non the less.
It's slow moving & the type is small.
Kinda slow read. Not nearly as fun to read as her Wyoming Stories books.
I love this book-
difficult, delves deeply into psyches
got the book before the movie came out--didn't hold my attention very well, but I have heard it was a lot better than the movie?
Needs concentration as the writing is sophisticated, but it's WELL worth the effort!!!!!! Wonderful book!!!
This is a truly beautiful book. Readi it.
While not a lot actually happens in this book, the mental landscapes of the characters are very interesting and the portrayal of life as a Newfoundlander is enthralling.
From Publishers Weekly: "Proulx has followed Postcards , her story of a family and their farm, with an extraordinary second novel of another family and the sea. The fulcrum is Quoyle, a patient, self-deprecating, oversized hack writer who, following the deaths of nasty parents and a succubus of a wife, moves with his two daughters and straight-thinking aunt back to the ancestral manse in Killick-Claw, a Newfoundland harbor town of no great distinction. There, Quoyle finds a job writing about car crashes and the shipping news for The Gammy Bird , a local paper kept afloat largely by reports of sexual abuse cases and comical typographical errors. Killick-Claw may not be perfect, but it is a stable enough community for Quoyle and Co. to recover from the terrors of their past lives. But the novel is much more than Quoyle's story: it is a moving evocation of a place and people buffeted by nature and change. Proulx routinely does without nouns and conjunctions--"Quoyle, grinning. Expected to hear they were having a kid. Already picked himself for godfather"--but her terse prose seems perfectly at home on the rocky Newfoundland coast. She is in her element both when creating haunting images (such as Quoyle's inbred, mad and mean forbears pulling their house across the ice after being ostracized by more God-fearing folk) and when lyrically rendering a routine of gray, cold days filled with cold cheeks, squidburgers, fried bologna and the sea." Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
I found this book to be totally boring
A easy read, enjoy! Kathleen
I really enjoyed this book. It was different, in the way it was written, from a lot of things that I read. It was refreshing to see something new. The story itself it hilarious and heartbreaking, and it captures a glimpse of Canadian Maritime life that you can't get elsewhere.
Good, Quick Read.
Good, Quick Read.
Even better than the movie. Read it and weep for joy.
I enjoyed this book much better than the movie. It is a great easy read and very interesting.
I love the movie and when I came across this book at a church booksale I snatched it up. Its a great book. I highly recommend it.
There's a reason this book won a Pulitzer Prize. It's a great story.
Interesting book about Quoyle and his family. I would recommend this book to anyone
Great read!
I enjoyed this book and although I gave only 3 stars, it is a worthy read as readers go. Not all books hit the bulls eye of what we expect but none the less it is a good story written in the vernacular of Newfoundland.
An accaimed novel,a funny and magical story of a contemporary American family.
Loved the book and the film. Very thought provoking.
Annie Proulx rocks - sparse but full of flavor
The opening was depressing - but was good after the family relocated; Newfoundland is a fascinating historically, so am still enjoying the book. Hope it has a good ending.
Much better writers than I have reviewed this book in detail, and I certainly agree with their views. But I have to add that even though the story itself is rather mundane, the prose is outstanding. Not difficult to see why it was awarded so many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The author's descriptive phrases delighted and amazed me. I was nearly gasping at the beauty, wishing I could write them all down. Sentences like "Beyond the glass the sea lay pale as milk, pale the sky, SCRATCHED AND SCRIBBLED WITH CLOUD WELTS. The empty bay, far shore, creamed with fog." And: "The sky a net, it's mesh clogged with glowing stars." Wow! Reading a regular book after this one will seem dull, no matter how well written. LOVED IT! D.
I didn't really get into the story. It's well written, but the big themes, of life and death, love and loss, don't come together until the end, leaving most of the story without context. I learned a lot about knots.
I've never seen the movie. Judging by the cover of the book, it's a lot different. Quoyle doesn't look like Kevin Spacey. No way. And the picture of them dragging a house across the ice - well, that happens before the book.
Anyway, this is a really great character piece. I was slightly put off by Proulx' overuse of sentence fragments. Most were everything but the subject. It really deadened the prose. I'm sure it was intentional. I didn't like it.
But overall, still well worth a read. Really good book.
Anyway, this is a really great character piece. I was slightly put off by Proulx' overuse of sentence fragments. Most were everything but the subject. It really deadened the prose. I'm sure it was intentional. I didn't like it.
But overall, still well worth a read. Really good book.
Wendy H. (donkeycheese) -
When Quoyle's two timing wife meets her just deserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancenstral home on the beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclain his life. As Quoyle confronts his demons - and the unpredictable forces of nature and society - he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
A vigorours, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family.
A vigorours, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family.
now a major motion picture.. but the book is always better..lol
When Quoyle's two timeing wife meets her just deserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on beautiful Newfoundland coast where characters and family members help him to reclaim his life.
I loved this audio book! I couldn't wait for my commute to work to listen to this audio. The reader was wonderful!
I really enjoyed this book and hope Annie has a few more stories like this one and "The old Ace in the hole" left in her mind.
I thought the book was better than the movie.
Very good.
Back of Book Reads:
When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just deserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons-and the unpredictable forces of nature and society-he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, "The Shipping News" shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just deserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons-and the unpredictable forces of nature and society-he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, "The Shipping News" shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
Worthy of the Pulitzer, which it won...........
At Thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his towo-timing wife meets her just deserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a
rich cast of loca characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to
reclaim his life. Three generations of his family cobble up new lives.Quoyle confronts his private demons and the unpredictable forces of nature and society and begins to see the possibility of love
without pain and or misery.
rich cast of loca characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to
reclaim his life. Three generations of his family cobble up new lives.Quoyle confronts his private demons and the unpredictable forces of nature and society and begins to see the possibility of love
without pain and or misery.
The story of a "loser" who finds his own way in his peeople's land of Newfoundland. A story of place and finding oneself. Author of Brokeback Mountain. Winner of Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, among others.
The author won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize for this book.
When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just desserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons -- and the unpredictable forces of nature and society -- he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
The best known work of the author of "Brokeback Mountain."
life in Newfoundland. Life as a fisherman with many experiences.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award
Pulitzer price winner; made into a movie.
At 36, Quoyle, a 3rd rate newspaperman, is wrenched out of his woarkaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. He retrates to his ancestral home of Newfoundland, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons - and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
E. Annie Proulx won a Pulitzer Prize for this one.
International Fiction Prize Winner
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
From the Publisher
When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just deserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons -- and the unpredictable forces of nature and society -- he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just deserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons -- and the unpredictable forces of nature and society -- he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
Pulitzer Prize winning novel. From the back..."At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workday life when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of
his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons-and the unpredictable forces of nature and society-and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery."
his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons-and the unpredictable forces of nature and society-and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery."
Samantha Y. (samanthachels) - reviewed The Shipping News (Audio CD) (Abridged) on + 137 more book reviews
Synopsis
When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just desserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons -- and the unpredictable forces of nature and society -- he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
When Quoyle's two-timing wife meets her just desserts, he retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts his private demons -- and the unpredictable forces of nature and society -- he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
I haven't read this book yet. My mother gave it to me, and said its a great book about some american family.
