The
Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Published by Fourth Estate, 1994
Quoyle
is the main character in "The Shipping News". He is described
as a "great damp loaf of a man." His father disliked him,
his brother teased him and his childhood seems to have been generally
miserable. He falls in love with a woman with the unlikely name
of Petal Bear and though he loves her hopelessly she treats him
very badly. "There was a month of fiery happiness. Then six
kinked years of suffering". They have two daughters Bunny and
Sunshine. Inevitably, Petal Bear leaves him but is killed in a car
crash. She had earlier tried to sell her daughters to a porn movie-maker.
Quoyle rescues the young girls but his life is devoid of hope until
the arrival of his aunt Agnis. She relates tales of her childhood
in Newfoundland and he is encouraged to make a fresh start in the
land of his ancestors. He moves to Killick Claw, Newfoundland with
his aunt and two daughters. There, he gets a job as reporter of
shipping news on a local newspaper called "The Gammy Bird".
The staff is made up of many eccentric characters. As well as the
shipping news, Quoyle reports on car wrecks in the area - a photo
and article printed each week "whether we have a wreck or not."
Life here is harsh, particularly in Winter, and the abandoned ancestral
home is in a bad state of repair. Against all the odds they set
out to renovate it. Meanwhile, Bunny, Sunshine and the aunt are
also dealing with the many traumas in their lives. Gradually, Quoyle
begins to feel attracted to a local widow, Wavey Prowse. Can they
recover from their sad and tragic past?
The
story unfolds slowly and continues at this pace throughout the book.
Some members of the Book Club found the story depressing, gloomy
and tragic. Newfoundland is an icy, harsh land and the foggy coastline
seems to permeate the book. There is an almost cruel humour running
through it. Those who liked the book (and some loved it!) say it
is beautifully written poetic and very atmospheric. Annie Proulx
captures the local speech patterns perfectly. "The Shipping
News" won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1994.
Reviewed
by a local Book Club |