title: The Shipping News by: Proulx, Annie published: 2008-01-01 read: 2023-02 preview

I read an interview with the author in the FT, and decided to read something by her.  I forgot how I chose this book, but can’t complain.  It was a bit of a hard one, directly after the previous book, with more intricate language, a courageous use of adjectives and adverbs; indeed, used in such a way that the characters, which are close to real people, come to life, and be part of one’s life.

Well, I liked the book, and I will try to remember to read more by the same author.  The book gives the tale of Quoyle.  He is a reporter in New York state, for some local newspaper. 

A great damp loaf of a body. At six he weighed eighty pounds. At sixteen he was buried under a casement of flesh. Head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair ruched back.

Quoyle is described as obese and unattractive, and is lucky to find the love of his life with whom he starts to raise their two girls; until his wife Petal, who sleeps with every man she can, dies in a car accident while eloping. 

In the long unfurling of his life, from tight-wound kid hustler in a wool suit riding the train out of Cheyenne to geriatric limper-in-wool-pants down in the sunny town square, Quoyle experienced two accidents of fortune.

This is where the main part of the story starts: Quoyle, his two daughters, and his aunt emigrate to Newfoundland, which is perhaps remotely comparable to our Hebrides.  It’s rough, it’s beautiful, it’s governed by sea, rain, snow and ice. 

As they rounded a bend in the road they saw ocean ahead and below, as if they were on top of a world consisting mainly of sky.

and

He looked at the stone walls streaked with lichen and rust stains, at broken windows, at weedy pavement where plants forced up through cement with muscular patience.

Their life evolves there, and many things happen but, well, read for yourself.  No huge stories or plots, but the intricate life of people.  In the whole story it was never clear to me how I associated with Quoyle.  I’m not fat; nor did a wife of mine die; nor do I have 2 daughters; nor do I live in the Americas; nor am I a newspaper reporter.  But, he is so human, so real, that indirect associations sort-of come automatically.  As in, yes, I might have done that in that situation.

The language is beautiful in this book (but the figurative use of adjectives may put some people off).  The characters are beautiful, from a humane perspective.  In short, the book is beautiful.