A review by elizanderson1066
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

3.0

I really wanted to love this book but unfortunately it just never quite got there for me. I enjoyed the beginning, which held a great deal of promise in terms of plot and character building, but I felt that this soon disappeared - as soon as they reach Newfoundland - and the would-be plot is replaced by a meandering nothingness which offered very little to latch on to. I lost any connection to the main character that I had developed and I failed to connect to any new characters at all. This left it all very flat for me and whilst I didn't necessarily dislike the novel, not being able to sink my teeth into an engaging narrative was disappointing.

This is a particular shame because I found the writing to be absolutely sublime. Always highly evocative and often extremely beautiful, if this had been married to a great plot then this would have undoubtedly been a 5 star read for me. The author expertly gets the setting across through her descriptions (whilst the writing itself is lovely, the setting itself sounds like somewhere I very much would not want to live) and creates such a strong sense of atmosphere.

All in all not really for me, though I can appreciate the book for what it is.