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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love to read Annie Proloux, this is my favorite of her books. I find her dark humor wonderful and her characters always well developed and interesting. Her settings and families are always captivating and real to me, if a bit quirky.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault
reflective
slow-paced
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Outright you'd notice Annie Proulx's unique and somewhat odd sentence structure. She sets the scene with descriptive phrases not in a complete sentence. It's distracting at first but suddenly I realized I was actually doing the same with my email correspondence and technical notes at work! It's very efficient as well as if a poem where you only get the important words. Nonetheless, this odd technicality did not hinder how she beautifully and menacingly conjured her version of Newfoundland and dynamically enliven her characters.
Quoyle was meant to be pathetic, downtrodden, and insecure in a way most of us understand and would relate to. This way we'd clearly observe his transformation not in any superficial way but substantial and from the soul. Set in the backdrop of an uneventful Newfoundland—if not for car crashes, sexual assaults, and harsh winter—each character moved forward with their daily lives with one foot at a significant moment from their past and one foot hopeful for a better future. I'm always fascinated on how an author very effectively build their setting and how, on top of that, managed to bring to life a place as another character in the story. Proulx used words not in the standard English dictionaries because they're possibly Newfoundlander slang, if not a slang by seamen and people who live by the coast. Together with the metaphors, they added colors to an otherwise bleak community.
The makn thing that kept me going in reading this novel was the anticipation of Quoyle's news articles. He worked at a newspaper in New York and was able to make a fresh start in Newfoundland working in The Gammy Bird, a small town newspaper which for the most part did not publish stories with journalistic integrity albeit harmless. There were occasional moments that his article was laid out in the book and they were lively and informative features. I was hoping for more of that.
One thing I wanted to highlight though was the occasional mention of incidents about rape and sexual assault. It is always interesting when the setting is a real world place and if it's not a work of fantasy or alternate history then such mentions of a very common local violence intrigued me. I wonder how real were those and how rooted they were in real point in the island's history. Interestingly, this idea of sex and intimacy frequently associated with deceit and violence—from Quoyle's relationship with Petal and her excapades to the news from I think it's Billy Pretty's to Wavey's husband to implicitly but I assumed possibly Aunt Agnis' childhood—would somehow be a part of Quoyle's transformation; love can be without pain and misery.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Rape, Violence
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had avoided this book having seen (and been disappointed by) the film starring Kevin Spacey. As a lover of Annie Proulx’s short stories, I finally got around to reading this and what a joy it was.
Proulx pulls forgotten words out from the ground like long buried treasure. Never did I think I could become so invested in a world made up of an icy volcanic island, nautical knots and fishing ships.
5/5