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The Shipping News (Abridged) Audiobook
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(3.00) - 55,596 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family.
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 desserts. 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 seventy 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.
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"I read this when it was first published. Read it again after picking it up in a book exchange in a marina in the Gulf Islands. Even better than I remembered. The characters are almost fascinating; the writing exquisite. Creates a community and place that are larger than life and unforgettable."
— Jo (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Vigorous, quirky…displays Ms. Proulx’s surreal humor and her zest for the strange foibles of humanity.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Here is a novel that reinvents the tale and gives us a hero for our times.”
— Washington Post Book World -
“Strikingly original, richly energetic…A stunning book, full of magic and portent. The Shipping News is alive in every sense of the word.”
— Boston Sunday Globe -
“The writing is charged with sardonic wit—alive, funny, a little threatening; packed with brilliantly original images…and, now and then, a sentence that simply takes your breath away.”
— USA Today -
“This darkly comic, wonderfully inventive work…transforms the lore of Newfoundland—including shipwrecks, nautical knot-tying, horrid weather, and family legend—into brilliant literary art.”
— Amazon.com editorial review -
“An extraordinary…novel…[Proulx] is in her element both when creating haunting images and when lyrically rendering a routine of gray, cold days filled with cold cheeks, squidburgers, fried bologna, and the sea.”
— Publishers Weekly
Awards
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Winner of the 1993 National Book Award for Fiction
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Winner of the 1993 Irish Times/Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize
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Winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
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A USA Today bestseller
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An ALA Notable Book Finalist for Fiction
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A 1995 Book Sense Book of the Year Nominee
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A 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
The Shipping News Listener Reviews
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" I read it many years ago,but remember it still. I loved it! "
— Joyce, 2/17/2014 -
" This book was so quirky and I felt so sad about the main character. At least, he made something of himself. This one of my favorite books. Forget about the movie. in no way does it compare to the book. Pulitzer Prize winner and a must read. "
— Carey, 2/10/2014 -
" This is one of my all-time favorite books. It had all the things I look for in a book, it was beautifully written, was set against a unique and remarkably captured landscape (Newfoundland) and left me feeling good inside. "
— Nancy, 2/6/2014 -
" Really graphic and descriptive novel. Really takes you to the Northeast and in the mind of its people. "
— SD, 2/4/2014 -
" I hated the writing. Just too weird. Story was just "OK." "
— Paulamoney, 1/27/2014 -
" Unique writing style that pulled you into the place and story while the characters still remained distant. "
— Nikki, 1/21/2014 -
" I found this to be a strange book; strange characters with unusual names, strange events, and the setting, Newfoundland, was strange and exotic to me. It was beautifully written in places and weirdly choppy in others, but it left an impression on me of starkness and stillness. "
— Geni, 1/14/2014 -
" This is one of my very favourite books. I have read it three times over the years and enjoyed it just as much each time. The writing is amazing and simpley takes my breath away every so often, I looove this book. "
— Gabrielle, 1/6/2014 -
" enjoyed this very much ...well written "
— Kevin, 11/11/2013 -
" Loved the writing in this book!! I can't even describe how it is so different from any other book I've read but I want to read it again right now! "
— Diane, 11/3/2013 -
" One oft favorite books of all time. I have reread it numerous times. The quirky characters are so real and well drawn they feel like friends. I love the aunt. The story is heartwarming without being cloying. And the writing, oh the writing. When Annie Proulx is in her groove, this book sings. "
— Kami, 11/3/2013 -
" Quietly wonderful. A great read for people who love words as Proulx handles them in a unique and satisfying way. "
— Kreuterheidi, 4/18/2013 -
" While I enjoyed this book, it never really grabbed me and swept me away. Zin the end, I was a bit disappointed. "
— Ann, 3/16/2013 -
" Rich with nautical metaphor but ulimately predictable and -- notwithstanding the accolades it won from Oprah Winfrey -- as unforgiving as the landscape in which it is set. "
— Patrick, 2/23/2013 -
" What the heck? If they mention this guy's big chin one more time, I'll scream. Horribly written and boring! Tried an hour and gave up. Who cares about these characters? Not me. "
— Kendar88, 1/22/2013 -
" It took two starts, but the second time I wondered what was up with myself! I love love loved this book. "
— Stacie, 1/3/2013 -
" I loved this story. In fact, I think it's time I picked it up to read again. "
— Molly, 11/14/2012 -
" Movie was good. Also "
— Kathleen, 10/30/2012 -
" Loved this. Unexpected tale of a man learning to stand up for himself finally. Great character development "
— Fiona, 9/17/2012 -
" Excellent prose about dull people. The author described the fog, tides, cliffs in a thousand interesting ways and paints Newfoundland as a starkly beautiful place. But I finally could not enter into or care about the lives of the characters. "
— Turtlesongs, 3/12/2012 -
" Loved it. What more can I say? -k (FitOldDog) "
— Kevin, 3/4/2012 -
" Amazing, the first work of fiction I have finished in years, it was truly beautiful. "
— Jeremy, 1/18/2012 -
" Annie Proulx's descriptions of the bitter weather even made me cold while sitting on a beach in Belize! "
— Carol, 1/1/2012 -
" The story of Quoyle, a hopeless hack journalist, whose wife is killed. He returns to the land of his forefathers - Newfoundland - with his daughters in tow, and an eccentric aunt. Made into a great film with Kevin Spacey and Judi Dench, but as always, the book is better. "
— Ann, 12/6/2011 -
" A fish out of water tale, which resolves with a change of geography. I read this book when I am homesick for the Maritimes. The turns of phrase are spot on. "
— Ekaiserattoe, 9/25/2011 -
" One of my favorite books. It was inspirational, atmospheric and humorous. Gotta go now. Having cod for dinner. "
— Charles, 9/24/2011 -
" Very compelling read. Interesting characters, interesting location. Very hard book to put down. Writing style very interesting, very descriptive. Saw the movie once. Liked both the book and the movie. "
— Bob, 6/25/2011 -
" Whoa. This book was cray-cray. Very much looking forward to seeing the movie now because there are scenes in the book that I am CERTAIN will not translate to film. Pretty darn good. "
— Jenni, 6/13/2011 -
" This was slow reading for me. A different type of writing style. I actually stopped reading it, read another book and then went back to it. The last 100 or so pages were the best. "
— Mia, 6/12/2011 -
" It's been a really long time since I read this. All I really remember is that I liked it. "
— Amberica, 6/10/2011 -
" This book came highly recommended to me. It is one that you should take your time on so that you can get lost in the story. Prolulx' writing manages to fully engage you Quoyle's life. It is like you are on this journey with him trying to find what home really means. "
— Marian, 6/8/2011 -
" I don't remember what I didn't like about it with certainty. However, I think that it was the main character was so hapless that I couldn't stand him. "
— Heidi, 6/4/2011 -
" Re-read this because it is one of my all-time favorites! I love these characters and the landscape. "
— Debra, 6/1/2011 -
" I really liked the first 100 pages or so, but then it got really slow and boring. I kinda wish it was short story or novella. "
— Angela, 6/1/2011 -
" Read it with my dictionary next to me. "
— Mary, 5/30/2011 -
" I thought this book was beautifully written in it's descriptions of Newfoundland and its characters, however the story was painfully slow in unfolding. I was listening to it as an audio book, so perhaps it is better if you are reading it, so you can control your own pace. "
— Karen, 5/26/2011 -
" (Only reason for low rating is that the subject matter was very hard to get through.) "
— Natalie, 5/24/2011
About Annie Proulx
Annie Proulx is the author of eight books, including the novel The Shipping News and the story collection Close Range. Her many honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and a PEN/Faulkner Award. Her short story “Brokeback Mountain,” which originally appeared in the New Yorker, was made into an Academy Award–winning film starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Proulx currently lives in Wyoming.