Hard work, 26 Aug 2008
Either you love it or hate it, unfortunately I belong to the latter group.

Narrative style was really hard to get into and none of the characters possessed any sparkle that made me care what happened to them next.

Sadly, I never finished reading the book as I just couldn't stand it anymore. There are plenty more books out there for me to read and enjoy rather than wasting my time on.

Persistence, 11 May 2008
Gave up once on this book. Damn near gave up twice. But a good book, in the end. By the end, maybe. Worth the long haul. Ar, a long haul, like pulling a net full of cod off them Grand Banks, after a day's going out of No Name Cove, past Loopy Lolly Rock and Far Away Island. Sea the colour of sky and sky the colour of paint.

But you pull in the net. Full of cod. not one or two. Many. Many, like the old times. but they was hard, the old times. Hard.

That's broadly the style. And it is. Hard. Work. At first. But it was worth it. She made sympathetic, even likeable, a lead character for whom most wirters would only have managed to arouse pity. The landscape and the people start to make pictures in the mind. I looked up images of Newfoundland once I'd finished and it all matched. There is never a problem telling one character from another, though some of the names were deeply unlikely, such as Nutbeem for a Briton who, though saying 'bloody' and 'Rather!' - who says 'Rather!' now unless taking the mick? - then says that someone must 'come visit'. Aargh! No!

On the whole, though, the story balances the dark and light sides of life, shows that there is comfort to be found in unlikely places, and does well on both the close networks of belonging and the cramping of opportunity to be found in a small town.

Transports you......., 22 Apr 2008
I read this the week after seeing the film.
A highly evocative book, using a number of devices to engender the spirit of Newfoundland. I feel like I have been there.... The oft mentioned style of prose is spot on; life there clearly has no room for padding.
I virtually never read fiction, but did not find this book in any way slow or turgid. I would strongly recommend this to any reader wishes to engage with a novel viscerally, emotionally and intellectually.
As for the film...remarkably faithful to the original. Beautiful cinematography revealing how brilliantly the author has captured the essence of Newfoundland. Sure there are differences which may jar to some, but as a whole, the two complement each other very well.


Pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again, 11 Apr 2008
Whereas the English equivalents of novels based in small-town America often seem so claustrophobic they have an unreal quality about them, this is not true of their US counterparts. North America is so vast, the novels also have a quality of space about them. Sure, everyone still knows everyone else, but they're not squashed together like sardines, they have to make an effort to interact. This is so in the Pullitzer prize-winning novel by E Annie Proulx, where one of life's failures, Quoyle, betrayed by his wife, opts to start all over again in faraway windswept Newfoundland. The novel is all about how he starts to fit in with the local community which takes time, as they're mostly failures of a kind too. The quirky characters are superb, both comic and sympathetic. If you liked the TV series Northern Exposure, you'll find similarities here, but that's where it ends, as Annie Proulx's writing leaps off the page and makes everything seem totally real.

Lyrical, engrossing, magical, 02 Jul 2007
I am guessing that a significant percentage of people will be put off by the first 40 pages or so of this novel. Quoyle is painted as an unsympathetic character and the thought of spending an entire book in his company is not enticing. And yet, this (deliberate) portrait is a false one, for in Quoyle we find all of the awkwardness that we have ever experienced and all of the redemption that we have ever hoped for. His journey (literal and figurative) to a new life, a new way of being is engrossing, sad and deeply funny. Each character on his journey is mad, bad and dangerous to know, such that Quoyle becomes our touchstone of normality, the person we most want to be like. And on the way there is death, sexual deviancy, and the mysticism of the sea to keep you intrigued. Proulx's evocation of the far, far north will have you longing to be there, to feel 'the rock' beneath your feet, to go picking berries with a bucket in the all too short summer, and to witness great storms, huge frightening storms gathering in the overpowering Atlantic.

I came to this book late- it has been on my shelf for 10 years and I read it as part of the '1001 books to read before you die' series. I wish I had read it sooner, and I wish I could still be reading it. I hope Quoyle is still out there, and he has finally mastered his boat!