E. Annie Proulx’s second novel, The Shipping News, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1994. Reading the first few pages, I thought it would be a rare book I gave up on. I’m glad I stayed with it, although it was a challenging read, mostly because of the author’s fondness for run-on sentences. I also thought she was unusually hard on the characters in the beginning. I felt zero empathy. Fortunately that changed. I was treated to a setting, Newfoundland, with which I was completely unfamiliar, although I can find it on a map. Why people would choose to live in such a harsh climate is beyond me, but the fact that some do made the narrative all the more interesting. There is no plot here. This is an intimate look at the lives of realistic figures. The protagonist is a big lug who grew up under difficult circumstances that engendered a poor self image. He is easy to root for, as are his two adolescent daughters. The struggles of the family and the other residents of the small town are at once common to humanity and unusual because of where they take place. I enjoyed the various dialects, and the quirks of the players. Proulx has homes in both Wyoming and Newfoundland, and her knowledge of place and writing skills account for the authentic feel of the novel. Many of the run-on sentences were stream of conscious thoughts. I was often confused whose they were, but this may have been the result of my own haste or inattentiveness rather the fault of the critically acclaimed author. Curious, I checked the book’s ranking at Amazon. It’s still selling modestly. 20 years after its publication, it is 26,000th+. The 573 contributors who have rated it forge to a consensus of four stars out of five. I agree. Proulx has written three other novels, four short story collections and several works of non-fiction, several of which have garnered awards. She is 78. She found commercial success with a novel one would think as uncommercial as can be. Kudos. I added the movie version to my list at Netflix. As great an actor as Kevin Spacey is, I can't imagine him as the lead, certainly not physically.
ABC’s Resurrection continues to enthrall. Last night scores of people began returning from the dead, not as zombies but as how they appeared before their demise. The ending was terrific. It had a Sheriff running home, hoping his unfaithful wife had returned. His adult daughter knew better and found her at the house of the man with whom she’d been having an affair. Hardcore.
L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, 81, has been taking massive heat for racially insensitive comments. He should think about writing hip hop.
I put aside the Russian books today, added literary prize winners to the crates, and headed to Park Slope, supposedly one of the most literate neighborhoods in Brooklyn. It worked. A young woman overpaid for four of them, and a middle age one bought two odd books of non-fiction and a best of Eurythmics CD. Thank you, ladies.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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