The Shipping News
Books | Fiction / Classics
3.7
(183)
Annie Proulx
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, and "a rare creation, a lyric page-turner" (Chicago Tribune).At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman is wrenched violently out of his world 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. The Shipping News “is charged with sardonic wit—alive, funny, a little threatening: packed with brilliantly original images…and now and then, a sentence that simply takes your breath away” (USA TODAY).
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More Details:
Author
Annie Proulx
Pages
368
Publisher
Simon and Schuster
Published Date
2008-01-01
ISBN
0743519809 9780743519809
Ratings
Google: 3.5
Community ReviewsSee all
"1 star, honestly I kept turning my brain off and could not concentrate on what was on the page. It was so boring to me that I just disassociated.
DNFR"
Ann D
"Every sentence is 👌"
Aviva Downing
"I don't know how to review this book. It is a bizarre book about very strange people living in a very strange place called Newfoundland. Honestly at times I couldn't tell if we were supposed to take the author seriously or not, if this was supposed to be reality or fantasy. I was trying to read it fast to complete a challenge, and Annie Proulx just wouldn't let me. The language is so poetic and almost hypnotizing, that I would be slowing down and so tired of reading, but just couldn't stop or give up until I got to the very end. I will be trying more of her work"
R T
Rebekah Travis
"Distant. Cold. Short sentences. Damp. Slow.<br/>Probably exactly the intention of the writer. <br/>A literary imitation of the setting of the book. <br/>Well crafted. And boring as hell.<br/><br/>====<br/><br/>Original review in Dutch:<br/>Afstandelijk. Kil. Korte zinnen. Koud. Traag. <br/>Waarschijnlijk precies de bedoeling. Schrijven in de stijl van de omgeving waarover het boek gaat. Knap gedaan. En doodsaai."
Lisa Mallinckrodt
"This is one of those books that make you wonder: What the hell was the buzz about? All the critical reviews, the awards, the movie with Kevin Spacey... But reading the book itself? Ugh!<br/><br/>Quoyle (see! See the symbolism of his name!) is a fat loser (or so he feels), who gets a job working on a small newspaper (the Shipping News). He also inherits the family homestead in the backwoods of Maine. He gets there and finds the place falling apart, and he hasen't a clue how to 'be a man' and 'make his place in the world'. That's the end of the novel part of the book. The last half is chapter-length anecdotes about Quoyle in his 'fish out of water' life. He buys a boat, but gets a bad one! He tries to fix the house! He has a crazy cousin who tries to drive him off with magic! He finds a girl but feels too bad about himself to do anything about it! Ha-ha! The final chapter is the real slap in the face, though. After all these misadventures, showing what a helpless goof Quoyle is, he looks at himself getting out of the bath and decides that maybe he is big and powerful instead of being fat.<br/>...What... the...?<br/>I'm sorry, but give this one a pass."
Jason Lang
