The Shipping News
4 journalers for this copy...
Pulitzer Prize Winner - this was so well done I've read it twice.
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.
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.
Journal Entry 2 by MarilynD at Bellamy's Deli - 694 N Germantown Pkwy @ Trinity in Cordova, Tennessee USA on Saturday, September 30, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (9/30/2006 UTC) at Bellamy's Deli - 694 N Germantown Pkwy @ Trinity in Cordova, Tennessee USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Left on bookshelf
Left on bookshelf
Took from the bookshelf - thanks :)
This was an interesting book. Found the Newfoundland setting fascinating (although cold!) - sounded like a colder, bleaker version of Nova Scotia. The character of Quoyle grew on me as I read so that I was more interested in his life by the end of the book.
While I thought this story was good, I didn't really think it was Pulitzer Prize Winner-good ... but hey, what do I know? LOL. I did like the somewhat unusual writing style of the author however - very descriptive but you didn't tire reading long descriptive passages.
Thanks for sharing it - I will bring it back to the OBCZ in hopes of finding another reader. :)
While I thought this story was good, I didn't really think it was Pulitzer Prize Winner-good ... but hey, what do I know? LOL. I did like the somewhat unusual writing style of the author however - very descriptive but you didn't tire reading long descriptive passages.
Thanks for sharing it - I will bring it back to the OBCZ in hopes of finding another reader. :)
Journal Entry 5 by dancing-dog at Bellamy's Deli - 694 N Germantown Pkwy @ Trinity in Cordova, Tennessee USA on Saturday, January 20, 2007
Released 17 yrs ago (1/20/2007 UTC) at Bellamy's Deli - 694 N Germantown Pkwy @ Trinity in Cordova, Tennessee USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Meet-Up release
Meet-Up release
I've tried this a few times and want to try again since it gets such great reviews - thanks!
This arrived today in the movie bookbox. Thanks so much!