At thirty-six, 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 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.
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
Ładna historia o odnajdywaniu siebie w rzeczach małych
4 stars
Pewnie bez zaskoczenia, ale zaczynałem od obejrzenia filmu. Dopiero wiele lat później zdecydowałem się na przeczytanie książki. Akcenty są rozłożone nieco inaczej, choć tutaj i tak muszę powiedzieć, że filmowa wersja jest bardzo wierna oryginałowi (jak na to, że mówimy o zupełnie różnych mediach). Ogólnie, historia nieco ku pokrzepieniu serc, czasem mocno przerysowania, ale bardzo czytalna.
Schön geschrieben, schöne Geschichte. ZB die wie Zeichnung des Protagonisten sich ändert von der absolut überzeugenden Figur eines eher langweiligen Lappens zu einem ausgesprochen sympathischen Zeitgenossen, der endlich seinen Weg gefunden hat.
My mother read this in the early 90s, not long after it came out, and recommended it to me. It's just now, six years after her death, that I've read it. I can see why she thought I would like it. Amid Proulx's dazzling, inventive prose is a simple story of a man coming to terms with life, his career, fatherhood, and love. There are no explosions of earth shaking drama, just thought, hard work and acceptance. If you wanted high drama but don't find it in The Shipping News that's OK; the descriptions of Newfoundland and its colorful characters are enough.
This book took me forever to read. FOREVER. (Six and a half months, according to Goodreads.) I kept putting it down for months at a time, in order to read books in which things actually, you know, happened.
But the thing is, I liked the writing itself. I'm trying to resist using the word "lyrical" because it's on the back cover but I just can't help it. There's an undeniable poetry to the language and the tone of the novel is truly lovely and unique, really evoking a strong sense of place.
So I found it very readable, when I was reading it. But then I'd put it down and realize I didn't care in the slightest what happened next. Each individual chapter flowed along nicely enough, but I had zero emotional connection to anything about this book.
The characters are passive, unlikeable and interchangeable; the actual plot …
I'm torn.
This book took me forever to read. FOREVER. (Six and a half months, according to Goodreads.) I kept putting it down for months at a time, in order to read books in which things actually, you know, happened.
But the thing is, I liked the writing itself. I'm trying to resist using the word "lyrical" because it's on the back cover but I just can't help it. There's an undeniable poetry to the language and the tone of the novel is truly lovely and unique, really evoking a strong sense of place.
So I found it very readable, when I was reading it. But then I'd put it down and realize I didn't care in the slightest what happened next. Each individual chapter flowed along nicely enough, but I had zero emotional connection to anything about this book.
The characters are passive, unlikeable and interchangeable; the actual plot points in the entire novel could be summarized on a 3x5 index card (and you wouldn't even have to write small); the narrative point of view shifts around pointlessly; the metaphors are heavy-handed and the overly-predictable ending is sticky with contrived sentimentality. It's not only a big letdown in terms of action, it's a disappointment if you're hoping for a big emotional payoff too: insofar as the relationships change over the course of the novel, it's in a very "things left unsaid" kind of way. And not an interesting, charged-with-tension kind of "things left unsaid" either. Just the ordinary kind.
I suppose I should give the book credit for telling a story of ordinary, flawed, wounded people stepping sideways and slowly into a second, truer love, and in it finding healing, but I got so bored just writing that sentence that I fell asleep. It also feels less like a story about that and more like a story that desperately wants to convince you (and itself) that it's about that, when in fact it's just a haphazardly strung-together series of vignettes that hand-waves at the above storyline, slaps a coat of metaphor on it and hopes you'll do all the work for it and then give it a Pulitzer.
Quirky, funny exploits of the unlikely protagonist Quoyle and his departure from journalistic and day-to-day uselessness as he acquaints himself with the place where he apparently belongs. Reader impressed by dry, sharp narrative.
I finally finished this book after I have no idea how many months. I liked the characters; I found Quoyle to be a relatable character and it was nice to "watch" him flourish over time. I even had a strong desire to visit Newfoundland no matter how cold and treacherous a picture the author drew. Still, this book didn't grab me. I enjoyed the writing, but I couldn't wait to be done with the book.
