The Shipping News

There are really two main characters in this pulitzer winning novel by Annie Proulx; a man Quoyle (pronounced like coil) and Newfoundland (which is not somewhere in England, my ignorance of geography really knows no bounds, but in Canada or rather in Canada but kind of independent of it I think). A little synopsis of the story would be Quoyle, a man who has never quite fitted in or felt comfortable in himself is living in New York with his 2 daughters bunny and sunshine and wife Pearl who he loves inordinately but it's all rather unreciprocated, when she dies (it's ok though she's entirely unlikeable). He ends up packing his life and kids up and under the influence of his Aunt Agnis moves to Newfoundland where all his ancestors are originally from. It is a rugged harsh place and it's really about how he finally finds himself at home in this bleak environment, finds friends a place in this odd little fishing community and going from a man who wouldn't set his foot on a boat to writing the shipping news for the local paper. Newfoundland comes quite alive in your head through Proulx's portrayal and she uses a lot of wit in her writing. A warning though, if your squeamish about fish this might not be the book for you, not that there's graphic descriptions of the gutting of fish or what not, it's just that being a fishing town they eat a lot of squid and such things which isn't my idea of fun. It's a good book well, very good really and some of the things the author touches on are dealt with very wel, Quoyle's sense of unease within himself rang very true plus it really is pretty funny, 4 out of 5 for this one.