I probably should revise my opinion of literary fiction
. My impression has been that it dreary and boring. A lot of it is, I’m sure. But I’ve now read three Pulitzer Prize winners in the last few months and I’ve liked all three very much.
The Shipping News is the story of Quoyle, a character I did not like at first. More than did not like
. Hated. Disdained. He’s a loser who works on and off for a small newspaper in New York, covering boring municipal meetings. His dad kicks him around. His boss kicks him around. And his wife, Petal, especially kicks him around. She spends far more time with other men than she does with Quoyle. Flaunts it. Throws it in his face. And he takes it. He covers his face with his hand to hide his perceived imperfections. He whines pitifully at Petal to please stay home one night. It does no good, and eventually she decides to leave his loser ass and takes the two kids she doesn’t like.
This is all just in the first couple of chapters. It’s a setup. All together, Quoyle loses his job, his parents commit suicide (before cancer takes them), and Quoyle gets his kids, Sunshine and Bunny, back. Petal has killed herself in a wreck after selling the kids to a pornographer. The girls are found before too much abuse can occur, but even a little bit can be devastating. And as unrealistic as it is, I’m glad that Proulx does not dwell on the aftermath of child abuse. The girls adjust well. On the other hand, they don’t take well to their mother being gone. They want Petal back. And Quoyle only tells them that Petal is asleep, avoiding the explanation of what death is.
A long-lost aunt enters the scene, and convince Quoyle to return to his family roots in Killick-Claw, Newfoundland. There he takes a job in the local weekly newspaper, writing up the weekly car wreck story (including required gory pictures) which always appears on page one. He’s also assigned the weekly shipping news, detailing the list of boats that put in and go out of port.
Life isn’t exactly hard, but it’s not a piece of cake either. Enduring the cold. Moving in to small town life. And the part I liked, starting to participate in his own life. It’s a gradual thing in the book. There are no epiphanies. I like that as well.
The characters are all likable, if a bit too much on the quirky small-town character
side. Jack Buggit owns the paper, The Gammy Bird. He’s the one who’s decided that car wrecks and sex abuse stories get prominence. Wavey Prowse is the love interest who has similar issues with her ex as Quoyle does. There’s another long-lost cousin, holed up in an abandoned town, weaving knotted charms in an insane fog. Great characters in fact. Quirky, but not stale re-hashes.
Anyhoo, I may have to try to make myself some fried bologna. Of the food mentioned in the book, that for some reason really sounds good.
Title: The shipping news
Award: 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Award: 1993 National Book Award for Fiction
Author: Annie Proulx
Imprint / publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction / Simon & Schuster
Format: Paperback
Length: 337 p.
Publication date: 1993
ISBN-10: 0-671-51005-3
Subject: Newfoundland and Labrador — Fiction
LC classification: PS3566.R697 S4 1994b
