The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (1992)

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The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
               


                I’m not going to lie. This book was a struggle for me. From the very beginning of the novel I felt completely disconnected. I didn’t care for Proulx’s writing style. I didn’t care for the pace. I didn’t necessarily care for the plot. I’m saying all of this early on so you can understand why this review may have a very negative tone.
                The Shipping News is the story of Quoyle, whose philandering wife has stolen his kids and left him, leaving a hefty amount of debt and a note. She dies in a car accident and he is able to retrieve his kids around the same time his father and mother die. Quoyle then decides to move with his aunt and two children to the small town in Newfoundland where his family hails from. There he begins working for a newspaper.
                I think I understand what Proulx was trying to do: create a novel about an adult male and how he recovers from loss. The problem was she created a character that in my opinion was devoid of any likeable characteristics. And there wasn’t much growth. He came off as a character you wanted to pity. Someone who wasn’t used to making many decisions, was easily manipulated and walked all over. I can only root for a character for so long. If he doesn’t start to root for himself then I can’t commit. Eventually there was growth, near the end of the book. The world building was ok. I got a complete sense of how miserable it would be to live there.

                Overall, this book just felt shallow to me. This book won a Pullitzer prize so obviously a lot of people have loved this novel. The cheese will stand alone and proudly. This book wasn’t for me. It may be for you but I wanted to more depth from all the characters. I wanted a more meaningful plot. I wanted some rhythm to the pacing of the novel. I wanted to fall into this story and I didn’t. I give this novel 2 out of 5 stars. 

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