The Shipping News
Book, 1993 by Annie Proulx
This darkly comic, wonderfully inventive work, winner of the 1993 National Book Award, transforms the lore of Newfoundland--including shipwrecks, nautical knot-tying, horrid weather and family legend--into brilliant literary art. It is the story of the rebirth of Quoyle, a hulking, inarticulate, misery-ridden widower who flees upstate New York to take up residence in Newfoundland. The island of his forebears, Newfoundland is a dreary rock in the north Atlantic beset by lousy weather. Proulx lovingly recreates this hardscrabble location in her vivid, distinctive prose and populates it with a cast of amusing, richly human characters. Quoyle, a "third-rate newspaperman," makes a hit with his "Shipping News" column, while his anguish at the loss of his faithless wife is slowly transformed by the strengthening ties that bind him to the place and to his fellow Newfoundlanders.
Movie, 2001 directed by Lasse Hallström
Features: Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett
Tagline: Dive beneath the surface.
Awards: Nominated for 2 Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actor (Kevin Spacey) in a Motion Picture - Drama and Best Original Score
Have you read the book or seen the movie?
The novel is on my 100 books list but I haven't gotten to it yet. I've already seen the movie but it was a while back and I don't remember much about it. I've heard that the movie is much different from the original novel. Did you know that Annie Proulx is the author of Brokeback Mountain?