Annie Proulx's highly acclaimed, international bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Quoyle is a hapless, hopeless hack journalist living and working in New York. When his no-good wife is killed in a spectacular road accident, Quoyle heads for the land of his forefathers -- the remotest corner of far-flung Newfoundland. With 'the aunt' and his delinquent daughters -- Bunny and Sunshine -- in tow, Quoyle finds himself part of an unfolding, exhilarating Atlantic drama. 'The Shipping News' is an irresistible comedy of human life and possibility.
The Shipping News
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Joep Cornelissen has done a masterful job in integrating many ideas and approaches to corporate communication: academic theories, professional cases, management and communication theories, stakeholder theories, and U.S. and European perspectives. As a result, students, scholars, and practitioners all will gain a broad understanding of the discipline by reading this book (James E. Grunig 2011-04-25)
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Limited edition (1 of 2000) cover design by Caragh Thuring.
Caragh Thuring was born in 1972 and lives and works in London. Her oil paintings have been exhibited at many galleries including the Saatchi Gallery in London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Other reviews swing wildy between perfect 5 and damning 1. I'll settle for a contented 4. Only because it took a while to get into the book. Believe me: it's worth it.
Agree that it's hard to sympathise with Quoyle (our, um, hero) in the early chapters. Not the heroic type at all... wounded by his father's totally undisguised favouritism towards his spiteful brother. Overweight and ugly. Lacking self confidence, self control... Nor the clichéd anti-establishment anti-hero. In fact dull, dull, dull......
But hang on. Isn't this every man? Who among us is perfect in mind and body? Fat and unsure of ourselves. Tall, gangly and introspective. Tough on the outside, vulnerable and drawn towards self-destructive behaviour on the quiet.
That's how the book draws you slowly in. Characters may have improbably names, but they're more real than most perfect size 8, gym-toned fiction you'll ever read.
The small kids are drawn so well. Such a rarity in an adult novel.
The island and the sea are characters in themselves. Newfoundland, its inlets and offshore islands, abandoned settlements, pragmatic architecture. Punished by - and yet so dependent on - the sea, like the cruel parents that seem to crop up all too often in the book. Buffeted even more by wavering subsidy from remote government that really cannot see through the fog to get a proper picture of life on the the Rock. By the vagiaries of globalisation....
Sounds depressing. But ultimately a redemptive, quiet, gorgeously imperfect celebration of community and finding the inner strength to accept yourself, for all your flaws and the stuff you found it hard to deal with. I'll read it again and again.
Agree that it's hard to sympathise with Quoyle (our, um, hero) in the early chapters. Not the heroic type at all... wounded by his father's totally undisguised favouritism towards his spiteful brother. Overweight and ugly. Lacking self confidence, self control... Nor the clichéd anti-establishment anti-hero. In fact dull, dull, dull......
But hang on. Isn't this every man? Who among us is perfect in mind and body? Fat and unsure of ourselves. Tall, gangly and introspective. Tough on the outside, vulnerable and drawn towards self-destructive behaviour on the quiet.
That's how the book draws you slowly in. Characters may have improbably names, but they're more real than most perfect size 8, gym-toned fiction you'll ever read.
The small kids are drawn so well. Such a rarity in an adult novel.
The island and the sea are characters in themselves. Newfoundland, its inlets and offshore islands, abandoned settlements, pragmatic architecture. Punished by - and yet so dependent on - the sea, like the cruel parents that seem to crop up all too often in the book. Buffeted even more by wavering subsidy from remote government that really cannot see through the fog to get a proper picture of life on the the Rock. By the vagiaries of globalisation....
Sounds depressing. But ultimately a redemptive, quiet, gorgeously imperfect celebration of community and finding the inner strength to accept yourself, for all your flaws and the stuff you found it hard to deal with. I'll read it again and again.
42 of 45 people found the following review helpful
By "rutta"
Format:Hardcover
I can't believe it has taken me so long to discover 'The Shipping News'. Not just a soul enhancing story but a beautiful and refreshing narrative style. I have never come across a writer like Proulx, her mastery of prose and particulary description is unforgettable. From the first page I knew I was delving into something remarkable.
Reading this I was absoultely transported to life in Newfoundland. The cold, the ice, the wind and the danger all penetrated my imagination and I was frozen stiff reading most of it!
A tragedy with a loveable oaf as a hero, the unforgettable stalwart aunt with her grief and her memories, children with a hope for the future away from modern times. Escape into a harsh world which demands courage and resolution, but the rewards and the education the Quoyle family receive is touching and satisfying.
A tale of loss, history, roots, grief and new beginnings. Never does Proulx weave her plot through rose tinted spectacles and soft nostalgia, rendering this novel as among the best I have ever read.
There is a very naked truth in this novel and it will grind you hard. I'd call it catharsis.
Read this. It's an exploration.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I have just about finished reading this book for the 2nd time. I read it about a year ago and it has stayed in my memory so much I had to read it again. The book transports you to the cold and icy Newfoundland where Quoyle finds himself after leaving the tragedy of his 'other' life behind, and doesn't let you forget it even after the final word has been read. And whilst the book is not full of laughs or semtimentality, still through the bleakness and the melancholy is a feeling of hope, of identifying with Quoyle and to some extent with the other characters like the Aunt, Wavey Prowse and even Bunny and Sunshine Quoyle. I found putting the book down extremely difficult, thinking 'just another page'. Proulx drew me into the knot of Quoyle's life and emotions, and I felt more that I was watching events rather than reading about them. I would recommend this truly amazing, touching and thought-provoking book to anyone.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By J C E Hitchcock
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
The central character of "The Shipping News" is Quoyle- we never learn his Christian name-, a thirty-something journalist with a local newspaper in upstate New York. Quoyle is physically unattractive- we are repeatedly told about his big chin-, does not enjoy his work, and his private life is a mess. His parents have committed suicide, and his cold, unloving wife Petal is repeatedly unfaithful to him. When Petal is killed in a car accident along with one of her lovers, Quoyle decides to escape to Newfoundland, where his family originally comes from. Together with his aunt, Agnis, and his two young daughters, Bunny and Sunshine, Quoyle moves into the old family home near the Newfoundland town of Killick-Claw, and finds a job on the local paper, "The Gammy Bird". (The name is a local dialect term for the eider duck). The book's title derives from the fact that, as part of his duties, Quoyle is expected to report on the movement of ships in and out of the town's harbour.
The central theme of the book is what can be described as Quoyle's emotional healing during his time in Newfoundland. When we first meet him he is traumatised by his experiences with Petal and haunted by the feeling that his life has been a failure. Gradually, however, he is accepted into the community of Killick-Claw, enjoys greater success in his job and begins a romance with Wavey Prowse, a young widow with a handicapped child.
This is a book which appears to divide opinion. Critically it was a success and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, but a number of reviewers on this site have criticised it severely. Annie Proulx's prose style seems to be particularly controversial.... Read more ›
The central theme of the book is what can be described as Quoyle's emotional healing during his time in Newfoundland. When we first meet him he is traumatised by his experiences with Petal and haunted by the feeling that his life has been a failure. Gradually, however, he is accepted into the community of Killick-Claw, enjoys greater success in his job and begins a romance with Wavey Prowse, a young widow with a handicapped child.
This is a book which appears to divide opinion. Critically it was a success and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, but a number of reviewers on this site have criticised it severely. Annie Proulx's prose style seems to be particularly controversial.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
I did not like this book although the story did pick up in the second half. I would probably never have got that far if it had not been a book club read. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Sue Almond
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Shipping News
I read this book when it first came out, and read it for a second time very recently as part of a book club.
The group of 10 readers gave it 9 out of 10 and loved it.
The group of 10 readers gave it 9 out of 10 and loved it.
Published 26 days ago by Mrs. F. Harvey
5.0 out of 5 stars
great read
I gave The Shipping News five stars because it is another excellent story from Annie Proulx. She keeps you guessing all through the book at how Quoyle is going to resolve the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Wendy
4.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant And Evocative
E. Annie Proulx 1993 award-winning novel is an evocatively told tale of a family's struggle to survive in the remote community of Newfoundland (a Canadian province off the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Keith M
4.0 out of 5 stars
Atmospheric novel.
this book was recommended by several friends and I admired the use of language and the atmosphere created by the writer.
Action moved a little slowly for my taste.
Action moved a little slowly for my taste.
Published 2 months ago by W D Blanche
4.0 out of 5 stars
spare, intense, atmospheric
Proulx's characteristic writing style is not to everyone's taste, but it follows in an honorable line of american novels that break with the classic literary forms of English to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by W. James
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shares the top spot on my 'Best Books' list
I've read it before, but mislaid my copy. A wonderful story, and so atmospheric you can almost smell the fish. Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Peppiatt
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic
Just a great book, so atmospheric. I read this years ago, and decided to put it on my kindle and read again and I think I love it more second time around.
Published 3 months ago by Gail Crane
4.0 out of 5 stars
may contain seafood
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... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Sarah Smith 1986
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shipping News
A wonderful book, Proulx always plays with language beautifully and the story is more calming and optimistic than some of her short story collections. Totally worth the money.
Published 5 months ago by CaitrionaH
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