Rating: 
Summary: Painfully written and boring
Review: The reviews of this book focus on Annie Proulx's 'Contemperary style of writting' in truth the writting style is anything but, it's confusing and most of all irritating. Reading this book was like trying to wade through a swimming pool full of syrup.
The plot had potential but the story was completly masked by the truly terrible writting. I can not for the life of me work out how this book won the Pulitzer Prize. (Friends in high places maybe?)
Rating: 
Summary: Elegant and Intricate Writing
Review: Annie Proulx combines elegant, intricate writing and depth of compassion for human frailty to make "The Shipping News" a rare, valuable addition to late 20th century American writing. Not since Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" do I recall reading so powerful a book of loss, redemption, and hope.
The book's central character Quoyle, an insecure, overgrown, clumsy, journalist-by-default, initially repels us somewhat, but we keep reading anyway, drawn deeper and deeper into his story. For as Quoyle, whose strength as a reporter lies in his innate ability to keep the people he interviews talking, so Proulx possesses a rare ability to keep her readers reading.
The book is carefully crafted, weaving together memorable characters, local anecdotes, news items, and, yes, the shipping news, to make a whole that is much, much more than the sum of its parts. After reading "The Shipping News," I know more about sailors' knots, brutal Artic storms, Newfoundland and its people, and hometown newspaper editors. I hope I never again forget to pray for those at risk at sea and for those waiting at home.
I will buy this book for my own children and for those friends who do not already own it.
Rating: 
Summary: 2nd time star
Review: Annie Proulx writies an amazing love story that incaptures readers with mystery and empathy for her hero, Quoyle. When I first read this book I was disappointed by the writing technique and the repetitive whinning and bad luck of the characters. After some study I became impressed by the characters and my second time through this book I noticed myself enjoying it more and became even excited with the way Ms. Proulx introduced some of her plots and her character's lifes. The depth of this book hit me the second time around.
The first couple pages need to be read twice before you even continue with this book. You will be surprised with how much you missed in just a few pages. This author creates characters that have lived through so much and still continue on living through their hard ships with some purpose, usually for someone else. Quoyle for example has the worst life but continues it only for the love of his daughters.
The Shipping News is for readers who hate sappy love stories, but believe in love. This book is about love at it's finest, something very unusual in this society and at this time.
Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: I can't believe anyone would find this book boring. There is so much happening in this story, if you take the time to carefully read it. So much in the way of symbolism, with the knots, and the character's names! Ms. Proulx' style is original, and her descriptions really take you there. I could picture in my mind the villages, the sea, the people, everything. I could smell the salt air, feel the cold and the damp, the wind and the water. Almost like taking a trip! Quoyle was a sad creature, but he learned to overcome his real and imagined hardships, and to appreciate what life offered him. I kept rooting for him to get over it, to start allowing himself to live, and finally he did. A great book, one I would highly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Too long, too boring
Review: I felt like I should really like this book, but it was a chore to read.
Rating:
Summary: My English Teacher would have killed me...
Review: I have never in my life seen in one book so many run on and sentence fragments in my life! "Sucked in a mouthful of tea." That's it! THAT is a sentence? If I wrote sentences like this in High School I would have failed English, and this book won the Pulitzer?
Other than that the story was slow, uneventful, bland caracters and a snail-paced plot. Even the movie was a horrid flop.
Rating:
Summary: A Pulitzer Prize-winning Classic
Review: I pray that you have not seen the movie first! The beauty of this book is the author's writing style. This did not come through in the movie, making the movie very boring.
Annie Proulx managed to take bleak geography (Nova Scotia) with a dull subject (shipping) and make a wonderful novel out of it.
Bottom line: I loved this book and have read it three times. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: A Culmination of Style, Almost a Masterwork
Review: If this is the first Annie Proulx you read, you may get confused and then you've missed the point. Don't start with Shipping News. Delve back into Ms. Proulx's history and start with her earlier works. These are the primers for her style and it only gets better with each new work. Disregard the other reviews posted here about the book being difficult or tedious. These are readers that want a quick fix and they would be better served reading a book of her short stories, such as Wyoming Stories. The reviewers who gave her bad marks are also readers who don't recognize prose, even when it is at it's best. Annie Proulx paints the page with words as much as she writes. The style is delicious and much like a great meal, you don't want the book to end. The characters may be somewhat on the edge of unbelievability, but this is fiction, so relax and enjoy. No character gets killed off suddenly and you get to learn about each person as they evolve throughout this dense and complex work. Don't let the movie throw you off, either. The producers picked badly with Kevin Spacey, and would have done better with Nick Nolte or Gerard Depardieu. These actors have the height, coloring and bulk needed to play the central character of Quoyle, a huge, shy and clumsy man who is both pathetic and lovable. The only Proulxism that I'm not fond of is her "laundry list" style of discription in some cases. Mention 2 or 3 items in the list and you've given me enough to get a feel for the scene. Mention 9 items in a list and you've started to become tedious. But, that said, she does what she does well, and these are temporary setbacks in an otherwise perfect book. So, read Wyoming Stories, move on to Postcards and then try your hand at Shipping News. You'll love each for the rich discriptions and the eccentric characters woven throughout.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful writing, but misses the mark....
Review: The first thirty pages of the story are engrossing with lots of things happening and lots of great character development, but unfortunately the story then stalls to a turtle's pace. The entire middle of the book details the process of the weaving of the bonds between Quoyle, "the aunt", his daughters, and the cast of characters he encounters while rebuilding his life. Some interesting anecdotes are offered during this rebuilding phase, but it was overdone and tedious. Every nuance of Quoyle's healing is examined in painful detail, and the reader is repeatedly banged over the head with the premise that it takes a long time to heal from tragedy and loss.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: The Shipping News
As a fan of Newfoundland and its culture, I was recommended the novel The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. For the first time I was not hesitant to pick up the book that shined proudly with the silver of the Pulitzer Prize. I began to read, not quite
sure of what to expect or what the characters would bring but quickly I was drawn in.
The novel is the story of a man Quoyle, whose luck has been far from good. In the first few chapters we are made aware of the trials that occur over a short period of time. During these hardships, Quoyle's aunt, Agnis Hamm appears in search of something that has haunted her life for years and in the mean time encourages Quoyle to abandon his awful job and even more awful life to come and live with her in the house that she was
raised in. From there he takes a job working at a local newspaper called, "The Shipping News" where he is thrust into a scene full of ship and car wrecks and town folk who care
little for anything other than gossip.
Throughout the novel we are introduced to insightful, interesting, characters who come off as the type of folk you'd find in any small town. The traveler not native to the land (and with plans to leave soon), the old boss who prefers fishing to actual work in the newspaper office, and the antagonist who spends time trying to debunk Quoyle's work, are just a few of the interesting people we encounter. In between is a great tale of love that forms between two people enveloped with grief. The progression is honey like; slow, sweet. It is not the main focus of the novel but in all reality, there really isn't one focus.
Essentially, I believe Proulx set out to write a novel about people. As a reader you become more aware of what the characters are doing than what the actual plot is and it makes for an interesting read. We see the evolution of characters and the heavy process that healing entails, and we are able to familiarize ourselves with at least one of the characters. If not, they become our friends. We see the man who sits alone every day on the same stool of a restaurant. We know the waitress that calls certain customers by name because she has gotten used to their regularity. Quoyle's insecurities are the ones we deal with every day and because of all of this, we are easily drawn into the book.
Proulx has mastered and written word and her description is so wonderful that you are able to see each person and each scene vividly. Each time a name is mentioned you can draw up the picture of the person who's face was mentioned in one of the earlier chapters.
Quoyle is described early on as, "A great damp loaf of a body. At six he weighed eighty pounds. At sixteen he was buried under a casement of flesh. Head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair ruched back. Features as bunched as kissed fingertips.
Eyes the color of plastic. The monstrous chin, a freakish shelf jutting from the lower face." Throughout the novel we are reminded of this image when Quoyle hides his chin in embarrassment.
This novel is overall humorous due to funny scenarios and memorable jokes, however there is an overwhelming feeling of serious backed behind this. Each character is subject to the terrible things of the world and each person partakes in soul
searching in order to achieve a level of normality in their lives.
I was very touched by how these people from a small town in Newfoundland, Canada lived their lives. I was amazed at how Proulx could take these ordinary folks and make them interesting. And I was blow away at how much compassion I could feel in the last few pages and blown away by the change that was underwent. This novel is inspiring, amazing, and a great read and if you have even half a heart you will fall in love as I have done.
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