The Shipping News was first published in 1993 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1994. It was made into a film in 2001, starring Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, and Judi Dench as “the aunt.”

The story centres on Quoyle, who is called only by his surname throughout the book and is the despised younger son of an expatriate Newfoundland family living in the United States. Friendless except for the chance-met Partridge, Quoyle lurches from debacle to disaster in a life distinguished only by intermittent employment as a hack journalist, a loveless marriage with an exploitative and emotionally abusive partner, and becoming the father of two neglected small daughters.

The turning point comes when his parents die and his wife is killed in a car crash, and he meets his aunt, Agnis Hamm, for the first time. Agnis is returning to her childhood home in Newfoundland and persuades Quoyle to bring his daughters and return with her. Through the good offices of Partridge, now living in California, Quoyle obtains a job on another newspaper, The Gammy Bird*, where one of his responsibilities is to cover the shipping news.

When I first tried to read The Shipping News, close to first publication and its Pulitzer Prize win, I couldn’t get past Quoyle’s complete hopelessness and rock-bottom life. Recently, though, a friend discussed it in such positive terms, particularly the lens into Newfoundland history and more contemporary (i.e. 1990s now!) society, that I was encouraged to give it another go. I was going to get it from the library, but almost immediately saw a very nice copy in a local hospice shop for the princely sum of $4—and the rest, as the saying goes, is history. 😀

This time, armed with foreknowledge of the book’s dreary beginnings, along with the encouragement of my friend’s positive recommendation, I kept reading—and did end getting into the swing of the book. It still took a while, because there is a rhythm to the writing and the character interactions that I needed to adjust to, but in the end I did enjoy the read.

I agree with my friend that the story provides insight into the history and culture of Newfoundland, but it’s still a book that’s very much about the characters–and there is an array of them, from Quoyle and his aunt, to the assorted, Gammy Bird journalists, and locals such as Wavey Prowse with her Downs-Syndrome son, and Dennis Buggit, a local builder, and his wife, Beety.

And yes, I do believe almost every character has a name that is unusual in some way, such as Tert Card, Diddy Shovel, and Petal Bear. So you see, it isn’t just fantasy fiction that is distinguished in this way. 😉 As the names suggest, the cast are all “characters”, and shaped by the Newfoundland environment, which is dominated by the sea: boats, shipping, fishing, wrecks and drownings lie at the heart of the book as they do the society it portrays.

However idiosyncratic the characters, the core of the story is the is always Quoyle and his slow adjustment to the Newfoundland way of life, an adjustment that keeps pace with his development, not only of a sense of personal identity, but also of self worth.

I believe The Shipping News story will appeal to those who like historical context and social history in their fiction, as well as “coming of age” elements and personal redemption elements, and a focus on the foibles and oddities of human nature. If you’re a reader who enjoys writing by Barbara Kingsolver and Ann Patchett, John Banville and Ian McEwan, I think you may also enjoy The Shipping News.

I read the 1994 paperback edition, 337 pages, published by Fourth Estate. As mentioned, I acquired it secondhand.

—

* “Gammy bird” apparently, is a Newfoundland term for the eider duck.