I've read this one twice, the first time in 1994, then again 4 years later. It had an unusual writing style that took a little getting used to, then it grew on me. And the story is very interesting and full of quirky characters. ( )

I know it teeters on blasphemy to say anything negative about Annie Proulx in literary circles but I never understood all the bru-ha-ha surrounding The Shipping News. The first twenty or so pages caught my interest then cascaded into tedium. I could not even finish it. ( )

Gripping, moving, funny, wonderful language.

I had a great deal of trouble caring about the characters in this book. I knew I should care, but I really found that I didn't. The book had a gray hue to it from the start... it lightened a bit by the end, but I kept finding myself looking to see just how much more of the book I had in front of me!!

Mind you, I did like the art of Annie's writing; she is a very talented writer. The short, choppy, incomplete sentences were very cool - she said a great deal with these little packets. I found myself laughing from time to time...

I did enjoy watching the development of Quoyle - the frequency of his hand going to his throat decreased as the book went forward - I interpreted this as a barometer of his sense of self.

I'm sure this is someone's idea of a perfect book - I feel that I must have missed something deeper. Ah well, there are many more books to read, time to move on. ( )

I had a little trouble reading it at first because the characters never spoke in complete sentences. Also, there were a lot of professional terms or "lingo" that I couldn't be bothered to look up. I skimmed through it at first but later Quoyle grew on me. He was quite pathetic in the beginning as I got to the middle of the book, I could see that he was really trying. Doing all those things that he never dared to , like going into the water, fixing the shingles on his roof and such all for his children. I admire his courage. I especially liked the part where he carried Bunny (or was is Sunshine) off the roof when she climbed up to help him. I could almost feel what he was feeling. This writer's got style, I'll say. ( )

A disappointing opening eventually made way for an interesting book. Whilst this won't feature prominently on my list of books to re-read, The Shipping News was enjoyable enough.

The first few chapters introduce the main character Quoyle. I disliked him at first, and feared that the remainder of the book would be tainted by my antipathy towards him. Fortunately, he and his family grew on me as soon as the action shifted to Newfoundland.

The plot of The Shipping News is rather bizarre, but the reader is presented with an intriguing picture of Newfoundland and its inhabitants. Annie Proulx describes the harsh Newfoundland environment with great skill. It is a general impression of the difficult life that the characters lead, and the uncompromising nature of the setting, that stands out in my memory now that I have finished reading.

In summary, worth persevering past the first few chapters as the book does pick up once the action shifts to Newfoundland. However, don't expect too much. ( )

the best Annie Proulx I've every read. Once you're in the rhythm of this story and its characters, you'll be likely to bee sorry that it must end. ( )

Written in a very unusual style. ( )

A wonderful tale of a man moving from chaotic indirection to self-knowledge and happiness. Prouxl's writing mirrors Quoyle's state and captures the people and fauna of Newfoundland using language that is rare and precious. Read the book, don't see the movie. ( )

loved this novel. Very atmospheric and surprisingly soothing to read. Rich characters and setting. ( )

Fabulous style, but eventually tiresome since there is no particular story to enthrall. ( )

I picked up this book because I remembered multiple family members raving about it. I was expecting to be blown away by Quoyle's problematic life, and maybe I went into it hoping for too much, I don't know. Either way, I was left wanting more.

Quoyle, unlucky in life and love, marries Petal, a woman who continuously cheats on him - in his own house, with him there! Maybe there are some self-loathing people out there who l would tolerate something like that, but I am sure not one of them! After Petal is out of the picture, Quoyle moves to Newfound land with his aunt and his daughters, Bunny and Sunshine (poor girls), where all of a sudden his life gets better, like magic. Before, his friend Partridge had to rewrite all of his stories, and now he is a decent journalist, maybe I am supposed to believe that Newfoundlanders have low expectations? From there, Quoyle goes on to live his life, etc, blah blah blah.

Basically, my problem with this book was two things. One - the book was very anti-climactic, when I was done reading, I was confused, I felt like I just read The Life of a Self-Loathing Journalist With Two Little Brats. My second problem was that it seemed like this book was written purely to be made into a movie, which it was, with Kevin Spacey as Quoyle (I have a whole other problem with that, but I won't get into it.) I know I am supposed to suspend my belief in reality when reading a novel, but I don't. And there was one part (I won't say because I don't want to ruin it for anyone) that just would NOT happen. Actually, there was more than just one part, but this one was the icing on the cake.

So overall, I'm not saying it was awful and nobody should read it, I just would have liked a reality check every once in a while. But from a designer's standpoint, I really liked the fact that there was a different knot shown at the beginning of each chapter from The Ashley Book of Knots, I do love a good visual! ( )

Not sure what to say about this one. The main charcter, Quoyle, draws you in and you wait and wait for things to go his way. The story of his life and everyday survival include details of life in a Newfoundland fishing community and work at a small town newspaper. I honestly considered putting this one down several times, but kept going and was glad I did. ( )

Unbelievable that such a dark, miserable life could be so charming! Worth all the misery for a modicum of joy and a picture of someplace no one has been...Newfoundland.

I read the critical acclaim, and then it won some prestigious literary award (the Pulitzer or Nobel?), so that did it for me, I had to have this novel. Well, I can usually find something redeeming in everything I read, but not this time. This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I forced myself to finish reading it only because it won a prestigious award. Plus, I had already spent money on it. Now, if you love stories that really give you a sense of place, then this may be the book for you. But that's all that it is, an overwrought meditation on place and setting. If Proulx had put as much emphasis on character development and storyline, this could've been a masterpiece. Let me retract that, I guess it is a masterpiece or up for masterpiece contention, but that status flies way over my head. And I don't mind. ( )

My inner stickler is sobbing. Buffetted by Proulx's use of incomplete sentences - stand alone prepositional phrases, descriptions in brief, lists with no action - that little niggling voice of grammatical precision railed and ranted...and I deliriously enjoyed every minute of it. Like the weather that thunders and soaks through the novel, Proulx's syntax acts like a force of nature. With a decisive listing of adjectives, she could gather a picture of a character, their emotional state, their demeanor, with very few words, something for which my verbose self has great respect.
Proulx's characters are remarkable. Quirks, nuances, pithy utterances - all contribute to populating the tiny Newfoundland town and surrounding areas. The main character Quoyle is perhaps best known by his synecdoche: his chin. His jutting, highly visible chin, marker of shame for him, resting point for his massive hands in a vain effort to hide its protuberant nature, can best illustrate Quoyle's flummoxed and pusillanimous self. Perhaps my favorite part of this novel (besides the thrill of being beset by incomplete sentences!) is to see the gentle Quoyle adapt to the harsh Newfoundland life, discover the joy of clearing a path through thickening brush to his quiet cove, hop aboard his wreck of a boat and assemble the bones of his new vessel, sloppily gut a fish and then do so as a matter of course, court a mirror of himself and see in her his ability to experience joy. With skill does Proulx unfold this progression of character, in bits and chunks, slowly, as Quoyle with his bulk is wont to do things, but with an incrementally increasing confidence amid confusion that makes him a truly interesting character.
My inner stickler is still sobbing, the baby. Hearty book of cold places, yakking people, rain snow wind, creaking timbers, fishing industry diatribes, glorious sunlight, cod fried and breaded and pied, ocean swells, multiplicity of knots. ( )

Deliberately paced, highly descriptive story of a man seeking, and finding late in life, happiness and contentment. I think Quoyle's final achieving esteem and self respect is what saves this novel. Interesting characters populate a sparse seaside community in Newfoundland eeking out lives of quiet desperation. ( )

An uplifting story that doesn't shy away from the darkness of life. Quoyle is truly likeable, and the strength with which the characters deal with events is ultimately what made this book a pleasure to read. I'm always nervous when I read a book that has won high-brow literary awards that it will all go over my head - but nevertheless I enjoyed the time I spent in the company of Quoyle and the people and places of Newfoundland, and found plenty to think about and identify with. ( )

Great book. I'm sorry I took so long to pick it up, but at least I waited until I'd appreciate it. Really fine, spare, clear writing--Proulx has a gift for concise, perfect descriptions. She also uses a wide vocabulary, which is something surprisingly few fiction writers seem to appreciate. I'll definitely be reading more Proulx. ( )

Quoyle is an overweight loser with a cruel past, stuck with no friends or relatives, a dead-end job and a beloved wife who is inventively cruel. After the worst tragedy he can imagine, his only hopes are his two small children, one of whom is decidedly peculiar, and a mysterious aunt who shows up to help out. When they set off for Newfoundland, in the direction of his dubious family roots, adventures of a startling nature ensue. Although the story’s details are rather grim – haunting visions, shocking tragedies, brutal weather, shipwrecks and people dying right and left -- one is surprised and delighted by sudden scraps of wit that are likely to provoke a laugh-out-loud response. All of this told in a voice like a journalist talking with a cigar in his mouth, spouting poetry. Finally, a growing crowd of charming, quirky characters joins hands to move the story toward small triumphs and great truths, and it all ends too soon, no matter how slowly you read. An absolute gem of a book. ( )

This is a strange book. Some of the writing is wonderfully poetic, and yet the story is so bitty in places that the thread can be hard to follow.
There is also some very good humour that an idiot like me is prone to miss - in the place names, the cruel but funny things that happen to Quoyle and (more obviously) some of the things his Aunt and daughters come out with. Proulx doesn't telegraph the humour (good) but if you're tiredly sitting on the train, you could miss stuff.
Anyway, on the whole I enjoyed this book with it's realistic cruelty and a bit less than realistic though interesting people. I wonder wehat on earth the film is like. ( )

An all time favorite. I loved the writing. ( )

Proulx has followed Postcards , her story of a family and their farm, with a 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.

The first three chapters, though difficult to read through, set the stage for a pleasant and interesting story. ( )

I read this novel while living in New York City. Now, having lived in Newfoundland and Labrador long enough to appreciate the local dialects, I wonder how my reading of this would differ today. ( )