(HarperCollins, $24.99)oy book shortage continues, which is why I am reviewing a book that was THE Christmas present about 13 years ago. But it was either this or a Dutch version of something by John Grisham, and I am happy to report that I made the right choice because recycling The Shipping News has been a reading highlight.
The main character is an oafish chap called Quoyle, who has two young daughters with the flighty Petal, only to be abandoned by her at about the same time he loses his job (and both his parents). There’s nothing for it but to relocate to the cold, wet, stormy, grey, icy, end of the earth hellhole from whence his parents came Newfoundland in Canada.
Quoyle gets a job writing the shipping news for the eccentric local paper, the Gammy Bird, and with his aunt sets about doing up the house, perilously perched atop a rock, that his family left 40 years before. It’s hardly a fun life, but then Quoyle has very low expectations. Yet as he settles into the tough new community, it seems the future may not be quite as bleak as he thought.
To be honest, I didn’t wildly enjoy The Shipping News the first time around because the location made me feel cold and miserable and I somehow missed one of the book’s best attributes: its humour. This time, however, I adored it. I laughed like a hyena. It’s hilarious and hopeful and, while I might not want to go to Newfoundland on holiday, I thank Annie Proulx (formerly E Annie I wonder what happened to the E?) for bringing it to my attention in the first place. And I thank Mandy, whose name is written in the front of my current copy and who had abandoned it in a holiday house in Puglia, for leaving it for me in the second place.
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