THE SHIPPING NEWS by ANNIE PROULX.SOURCE: Ex-library stock.
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 his delinquent daughters, Bunny and Sunshine, in tow, Quoyle finds himself part of an unfolding, exhilarating Atlantic drama.
..... Outer back cover
FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1: Quoyle}: Here is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle, born in Brooklyn and raised in a shuffle of dreary upstate towns.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 72} "Nephew, we've got to do something. These children need a place to go. Out at the house, if we had a lion tamer, we could have them weeding potatoes and sweeping, washing dishes and windows instead of clawing and biting each other .....
MY THOUGHTS: Yet another author with an, err, lets say, unusual style. Just like Marmite I'm sure readers will either love or loathe the prose style writing of this award winning international bestseller. For myself, with its all too frequently used short, choppy sentences (I'm excluding the one that ran for an excruciatingly long 16 lines) that I often found nonsensical (I mean what is 'Sliced purple tomato. Changed the talk to descriptions of places he had been, Strabane, South Amboy, Clark Fork' all about?), overuse of metaphors and heavy going imagery, I'm afraid it was the latter.
The one thing I did quite like? A sucker for characters with unusual/fun names, I adored monikers such as Diddy Shovel, Tert Card and Reeder Gouch.
8 comments:
The blurb from the cover didn't really appeal to me and you clinched it with your comments. I always appreciate your honest reviews.
The names do sound fun, but the sentence structure doesn't sound like one that will work for me. Always love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for sharing.
Oh I think the sentence carry on would drive me insane. Think I will miss this one, thanks for reviewing and saving me a read.
Lainy http://www.alwaysreading.net
I have not read the book but I thought that the then film version of this was good.
I tend to like odd writing styes. I find them a nice change of pace.
I think that the odd writing style would be too distracting for me and I wouldn't be able to enjoy the story. As always, I appreciate your honest reviews!
Thanks for your honest and well-written review! The names do sound creative.
I always meant to watch the film version of this one but I haven't yet. Thanks for the honest review Tracy. Those names are different and memorable!
This is not really my type of read anyway, but it would be sheer torture for me to read such choppy sentences, and then have to plow an extra-long one! Such a prose style doesn't even make sense.
As for the names, they are very whimisical, and I like them, too!
Thanks for your thoughts!! : )
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