Rating: 
Summary: Yet another collection of many ink blots on dead flat trees
Review: This is an okay book. I am quite unaffected by it. I am not impressed with Quoyle's development as a blah blah blah and his harrowing trials and tribulations with blah blah blah. Nor does the. Paragraph structure. Really have a negative effect. On. Me. All in all, this was yet another of the multitude of books assigned for me to read by my English teacher. One final note: Why give it a 2 and not a 3? This book reads slower than an upside-down, mirror-imaged, badly-spelled Swahili manual on sub-atomic particle dynamics.
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Summary: I wish there were more hours in a day to read this book
Review: I am so dissapointed in myself for letting my senioritis get in the way of enjoying this book. In the beginning I found myself letting my book collect dust in my bag because the most trivial topic from the book discussed in class was an ugly disfigured malajusted father. As my grades began to near a failing mark, I started to read just beacuse I had to. Then I began to love it. I read the last 150pgs in depth, absorbing each of Proulx's magnificent annecdotes and literary magic. Some might find the first 100pgs difficult to read as her style resembles that of Faulkner, drawn out and descriptive prose. As Quoyle's character develops, her style changes and it becomes easier to read. The bleak Newfoundland setting may seem like a dismal topic to read about but the stories of Quoyle, his family, and friends take the reader into their world. The most unusual topics arise in the plot, bringing life to a somewhat dismal scene. It is a beautifully written book, interesting and very insightful. I really liked this book and I look forward to reading it when I am not longer under the constraints of High School English. PS. This book should not be read if you are on anti-depressent medication or you have a family history of mental illness.
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Summary: The Shipping News, a novel of metamorphosis and completion.
Review: Anyone who doesn't love this book has never gone through (or can't remember) the agony of growth. Annie Proulx takes the reader, in the character of Quoyle, from the self-absorbed adolescence of unrequited, delusional adoration of his dead wife and excruciating self doubt through the painful but ultimately satisfying process of growth into the maturity and acceptance of adulthood. And she does it in the skeletal environs of the Newfoundland coast, an ambience which serves to highlight the penultimate dilemma of every man and woman struggling to understand the world in which he/she lives. Reminiscent of Emily Dickinson with her ethereal accuracy and brusque but brutal beauty, she leaves no reader untouched with her poignant description of Quoyle, his reconciliation to his ungainly body, and his arrival at the uncertainty, genuine love and gratification of adulthood in a haunting, lovely, naked land where only honesty and self examination suffice for survival.John M. Henderson, M.D., Baltimore, Md.
Rating: 
Summary: I would give this book 0 stars if that was an option.
Review: One of the worst books I have ever read. How did this book ever win the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize? The story was absolutely banal. It was a struggle just to finish the book, and I wish I hadn't.
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Summary: Metaphor for home/family being valuable anchor
Review: However we define family today, "Shipping News" will be a classic defense for the importance of home and family values. Her picture of trying to anchor the home against the ravages of storm and flood woke me up one night with the realization that her description was a metaphor for our valuing family and friends. The making and keeping of deep and abiding relationships is THE most important work we can do on this earth with the short time we have. We can leave a solid legacy to those who follow us if we'll take the time to really care about others. I found this book a warm and moving testimony for building friendships. Let's bring back the old, front porch and spend time with our neighbors.
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Summary: I loved the book. Thank you Ms. Proulx
Review: It is obvious after looking through the reader reviews that this is a book one either loves or hates. I found it to be wonderful.
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Summary: Growth in hell
Review: Compelling - a richness of detail. I could almost smell the salt. I enjoyed seeing Quoyle start emerging from his dysthymic life (and all he did was start - I wasn't convinced at all his good streak would last). I am thoroughly bewildered and actually angered by the casting of John Travolta; Quoyle isn't a small change or two away from becoming some kind of woman magnet, he's fat, grubby, and truly unattractive. I suspect Proulx's Newfoundland was her own invention, a composite morality-play place perhaps 150 years behind current behavioral standards - but that was OK for me. Unfortunately, the setting of the book didn't approach even Quoyle's modest brightening. This is a hideous place! People are cruel, living standards are austere at best (though Quoyle always seemed to spend more money than he could reasonably have had), the weather is atrocious, and the collective history is brutal, almost subhuman. He was doing penance of sorts by staying there. Wavey, sort of a female version of Quoyle, was emerging from a similar masochism. Would they make it? If Proulx thinks so, a sequel should start with them hopping a plane for not only a tolerable life but a happy one. I never felt uplifted by this book, just wanted to get out of there. I hope Quoyle and Wavey would grow further by thinking the same.
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Summary: E. Annie Proulx is gifted in her pointillistic writing style
Review: Annie Proulx has produced a masterful work that shows her depth as a portrait painter using pointillistic brush strokes to tell her moving tale. Like an impressionistic painter she has created a master work through word pixels or tiles that offer splashes of color to ultimately create a larger mosaic. Her style is somewhat reminiscent of J.P. Donleavy and infinitely more accessible than but probably influenced by the writing styles of James Joyce and Faulkner. The fragmented sentence structure captures in its very essence the chaos that engulfs Quoyle's life and worldview. After all, life doesn't simply engage our consciousness in neat little subjects and predicates. It's chaos out of which we shape in the smithy of our souls our own meaning. Her writing style serves to bring us intimately into the perspectives of the characters with an empathy that other voices can't attain. Her writing style rounds out her characters and makes them full and real. The medium is also the message. Hence, I have to laugh at those who criticize her writing style, which I found accessible,commanding and original. Her use of metaphor is magical -- one of a kind. Having listened closely and extensively to the dialect of Newfoundlanders as a child in Boston, it was off in a number of places, according to my ear. I shall cherish and long remember my reading of this worthy work of American literature.
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Summary: Completely worth it
Review: I'm not a seasoned reader of 'great literature,' and I found this book extremely dense and intensely difficult. However, despite that it took me longer to read than any 350 page book of my life, I absolutely loved it. The stream-of-thought writing style is involving, the characters are real, developed human beings whom the author retains a certain affection for despite their flaws, and Quoyle's personality and gradual humanizing is particularly real and moving. The setting is bleak and the humor is dark, but it's an intense and an abstract story that I HIGHLY recommend.
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Summary: This book has won so very many prizes!
Review: I found Annie Proulx's book "The Shipping News" very difficult to read. The text, and vocabulary, do not make easy reading. However, I appreciated the sentiment engendered by the author, and I read the entire book with great satisfaction. Even though it took me approximately three months to read, I found the content so awe-inspiring, and irresistable, I resolved to finish it, with enormous relief, and satisfaction. If any prospective author wants to win a book-prize; he/she should read this novel for inspiration.
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