Today is the day I've been looking forward to for almost 30 years - discussing The Shipping News. I can remember reading it with a newborn Justin in one arm and the book propped on my lap while two-year-old Ryan played nearby and wanted to know what I was reading. I remember reading a bit of it to him, but the only part he liked was that there was a girl called Bunny. I've read it twice more over the years under more relaxed circumstances and now I'm looking forward to hearing what all of you think about the book. Hopefully, you found a few things besides Bunny to enjoy.
Kym, Carole, and I are each posting discussion questions on our blogs today, and you are welcome to respond in the comments. I would also encourage you to reply to others' comments if you choose. This is a book discussion, after all, so there are no correct answers or right opinions.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, The Shipping News is a celebration of Annie Proulx’s genius for storytelling and her vigorous contribution to the art of the novel.
Quoyle, a third-rate newspaper hack, with a “head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair…features as bunched as kissed fingertips,” is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just deserts. An aunt convinces Quoyle and his two emotionally disturbed daughters to return with her to the starkly beautiful coastal landscape of their ancestral home in Newfoundland. Here, on desolate Quoyle’s Point, in a house empty except for a few mementos of the family’s unsavory past, the battered members of three generations try to cobble up new lives.
Newfoundland is a country of coast and cove where the mercury rarely rises above 70 degrees, the local culinary delicacy is cod cheeks, and it’s easier to travel by boat and snowmobile than on anything with wheels. In this harsh place of cruel storms, a collapsing fishery, and chronic unemployment, the aunt sets up as a yacht upholsterer in nearby Killick-Claw, and Quoyle finds a job reporting the shipping news for the local weekly, the Gammy Bird (a paper that specializes in sexual-abuse stories and grisly photos of car accidents).
As the long winter closes its jaws of ice, each of the Quoyles confronts private demons, reels from catastrophe to minor triumph – in the company of the obsequious Mavis Bangs; Diddy Shovel the strongman; drowned Herald Prowse; cane-twirling Beety; Nutbeem, who steals foreign news from the radio; a demented cousin the aunt refuses to recognize; the much-zippered Alvin Yark; silent Wavey; and old Billy Pretty, with his bag of secrets. By the time of the spring storms, Quoyle has learned how to gut cod, to escape from a pickle jar, and to tie a true lover’s knot.
So the questions I'd like to pose are these:
- Do you think the chapter headings from The Ashley Book of Knots, The Mariner's Dictionary, and Quipus and Witches' Knots add to the atmosphere of the book? Did their humor illustrate some of Proulx's points, or did they simplify some of her issues?
- Does this novel have a happy ending? Is it too hopeful? What is the difference between happiness and the absence of pain?
What do you think? I can't wait to hear your thoughts!
And don't forget we will have an in-person Zoom discussion at 7:00 pm Eastern this evening. You can send me an email (the email address is in the upper right) to RSVP and I will make sure you get an invitation with the Zoom link if you haven't already. I've been looking forward to discussing this book for quite a while, and I don't know of a better bunch of people for a book discussion than all of you.
Thankyou for the recommendation, I hadn't heard of this book before, I've added it to my amazon wish list in the hopes that it will come down to 99p - I am trying hard not to buy any more books (I have 700 waiting on my kindle !!!) but if they are 99p I make an exception!
ReplyDeleteJillxo
It's an older book so the price might come down, but I also think it's an excellent book well worth reading!
DeleteI loved the knots as guideposts of sorts for the chapters, but I think the use of them overall served as an extended metaphor for how tied together all the characters were. This town felt like such a harsh, unwelcoming place when they first arrived, but it's clear by the end that Quoyle and his daughters have truly made it a home and become tied to those around them. And I liked the ending, though I felt it seemed perhaps a little rushed to tie things up. I felt that it was happy and hopeful but also realistic -- everyone still has their own personal pain, but they've found a way to move on and thrive.
ReplyDeleteI personally loved the knots and thought they gave a great little introduction to what was going to happen in the chapter, and I like your idea of tying people together. I've read other things that Annie Proulx wrote and didn't enjoy them as much, but I think her use of the Ashley Book of Knots in The Shipping News was just brilliant.
DeleteI can't decide if the ending is a happy one or not but I suppose that depends on your definition of happy. Quoyle learned that love did not have to include pain, and I think he was contented with his life, but his happiness was more muted,
I did not get the knots at all in my first reading of The Shipping News, so your links were so helpful. I agree with Sarah's comment of the metaphor of the knots...yes, I agree!
ReplyDeleteI did not think the ending was "happy" but I thought it was right. I don't think the ending was to "move on and thrive" but to realize that you will survive. The pain, the memories... well, they don't really ever go away, but there are moments when life is good... and so many more moments when life is okay. I think Proulx tucks that into the ending so perfectly.
Like I replied to Sarah, I think Annie Proulx's use of knots in this novel is brilliant. It's easily one of my favorite things about the book, and I would welcome little hints about chapters in other books!
DeleteI like how you've characterized the ending. I've gone back and forth about whether it was happy or not. I agree that Quoyle's life probably went on to have its good and okay moments, and maybe even moments of happiness or contentedness. Proulx did a rare interview with the BBC and she talks about it being a happy ending that only gives the appearance of happiness: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fpwdg
Well, here I am stuck in the middle (isn't that a song? Stuck in the middle with you?). Anyway, I digress. I agree with both Sarah and Kat about the ending. I think realizing you will survive can be a happy thing. A happy ending doesn't have to be all rainbows and smiles and sugary coatings. Rather it can be fitting in and finding your place in the world (which I think Quoyle has done). It was interesting to me that I did not remember a single thing about this book, but I know I did read it earlier. I enjoyed the knots at the beginning of chapters. They fit the chapter they were attached to and I liked reading the descriptions. Looking forward to tonight's discussion!
ReplyDeleteI think you've hit the nail on the head with your thoughts about fitting in and finding your place. Quoyle certainly did that and I think that might even have been a real form of happiness for him. He didn't fit in anyplace at the beginning of the book - not with his family, or school, or any of his jobs, so I think that Newfoundland was a place of happiness for him. I loved the knots and think they are some of my favorite parts of the book. I have a hard time grasping how you (and Sarah, too) didn't remember much at all from your first readings, but I guess it's just a book that's stuck with me!
DeleteSuch fun questions, Bonny! I love the descriptions of the knots (etc.) at the beginning of each chapter. I think they do a great job at setting the tone for the coming chapter . . . without giving much away. I like the knots-as-nautical-theme concept, but I also like Sarah's notion of "tying" the characters together and to the place. As far as the ending, I don't think it's . . . a happy ending, really. But it is hopeful. I think Quoyle has found a way to like himself enough . . . to understand that he is in a "good" place in his life. Bad stuff will happen (because life), but he seems to have developed the resources he needs to deal with any eventuality. It doesn't get much better than that.
ReplyDeleteThe knots will always be one of my favorite things about this book! And I think you're right about life. Despite Quoyle's beginning, he had found acceptance and could also accept himself and others. So many are constantly looking for that, so to have found it is a good thing indeed.
DeleteI'm not sure it has a happy ending but I think they are all hardy and make due with what they have and help their neighbors. I read the knots at each chapter but really didn't think anything of it.
ReplyDeleteQuoyle certainly had a happier life at the end than he did at the beginning and I think in Newfoundland he found a community where he was accepted, could begin to accept himself, and give back to others. Many people would give a lot to have that kind of happiness and contentedness.
DeleteAnd the knots just fascinated me!
Delete