THE PENNY PUB

A Twisted Wife and Suffering Husband in ‘The Shipping News’ — Annie Proulx’s Masterpiece

One of my fave books includes a hellish, scuzzy first wife, darling children, and a pasty, overweight protagonist named Quoyle

Annie Proulx can write her way out of a paper bag. Out of the Grand Canyon. Out of the Newfoundland waters of Canada. Simply put, she’s a writer with chops. Skills and talent those serious about writing marvel at.

You probably know her from one of the movies made from her novels or short stories. “Brokeback Mountain,” for example (a short story made into a famous movie), or the book I love the most, “The Shipping News.” They are both worthy but of course, “The Shipping News” is a novel, and its grandiosity makes it the greater accomplishment. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1994 as well.

Why have I kept “The Shipping News” on my home bookshelf? It’s an old favorite — written in ‘93. First, you should know I gave up a library of perhaps two-thousand titles when I retired from teaching English. Of all those books — worthy, every one — I maintained a handful, including “The Life of Pi,” a few others by Maya Angelou, and recently, I’ve acquired several Medium authors’ books. “The Shipping News” has common themes that appeal to me, and many of my high school students loved the heroic journey aspect too.

An unlikely protagonist, in this case a homely, dumpy fellow named Quoyle (coil of rope!) falls in love with a beautiful woman (with good looks but a shockingly evil character). They have children — two. When she dumps Quoyle and moves on, selling their kids to a would-be pornographer, he gets them back fast. I won’t tell you what happens to Mrs. Quoyle, but she gets her just desserts.

The power of Proulx’s writing emerges with this fast hook — the horrid ‘Petal,’ who engages Quoyle with zero subtlety at some meeting (he’s a journalist).

“Get out of this place”, she whispered, “…I think I’m going to fuck you by ten…” (13).

They marry quickly, with “a month of fiery happiness….Then six kinked years of suffering” (13).

Quoyle loves his children dearly, only four and six years old when Petal flees the marriage and runs off with another man. His red-haired, big-boned children are everything to him. Petal sells the children for several thousand dollars to a low-life pornographer who douses them with dish soap and has them rolling around on linoleum. Fortunately, his camera jams — yes, he was preparing to film them — and the police burst in and recover the children.

All of this happens in the first twenty-four pages! It’s stunning, people. If you’re not hooked, disgusted by the filth of Petal and her friends, and rooting for this large, kind, slump-shouldered man who works to get his children back, well.

I love how the novel plays out. Each chapter is marked with an epigraph — a brief bit of text that explains the image of a knot at the beginning of each chapter. This is one technique in which the reader is immersed in the culture of Newfoundland, where Quoyle takes his children. They flee to his ancestral home in the easternmost province of Canada — a cold, rugged place with the Atlantic Ocean on its doorsteps.

One of Proulx’s talents is soaking readers in regional description and tradition. And of course, as Proulx is a Canadian writer, she excels at doing this with “The Shipping News.” I scarcely noticed how educated I became about Newfoundland as the plot rolls along. As the children and Quoyle become accustomed to their new life, we watch Quoyle’s unfolding as a once-abused human.

He blossoms, slowly. Ever so slowly. He begins writing for the local paper “The Shipping News,” in his cold town in Newfoundland. By the novel’s end, we are cheering him on. His story is one of overcoming odds and the crimes of an abusive spouse, along with the trappings of his physicality.

As a woman who wasn’t born particularly attractive (don’t argue with me! I know my worth, but I’m not classically beautiful), I identify with Quoyle, and love him. I’m so happy for him by the end of this book.

That’s why “The Shipping News” is one of my most-loved books. There are many others; “Charlotte’s Web,” for example, one of my favorite children’s books. Another Pulitzer-prize winner is also one of my favorites: “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” by Junot Diaz (another overweight protagonist, interestingly).

I see similarities in books I like. A downtrodden protagonist rises like a bright star and shines!

Thank you for reading, and I highly recommend “The Shipping News,” as it will hook you, entertain and thrill you. I’d love to know if you’ve either read the novel or seen the movie.