Shipping News, The - E. Annie Proulx [0]
FOR FICTION
WINNER OF THE 1993 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
FOR FICTION
WINNER OF THE IRISH TIMES
INTERNATIONAL FICTION PRIZE
Named one of the notable books of the year by The New York Times
Winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award
“Ms. Proulx blends Newfoundland argot, savage history, impressively diverse characters, fine descriptions of weather and scenery, and comic horseplay without ever lessening the reader’s interest.”
—The Atlantic
“Vigorous, quirky ... displays Ms. Proulx’s surreal humor and her zest for the strange foibles of humanity.”
—Howard Norman, The New York Times Book Review
“An exciting, beautifully written novel of great feeling about hot people in the northern ice.”
—Grace Paley
“The Shipping News ... is a wildly comic, heart-thumping romance. ... Here is a novel that gives us a hero for our times.”
—Sandra Scofield, The Washington Post Book World
“The reader is assaulted by a rich, down-in-the-dirt, up-in-the-skies prose full of portents, repetitions, hold metaphors, brusque dialogues and set pieces of great beauty.”
—Nicci Gerrard, The Observer (London)
“A funny-tragic Gothic tale, with a speed boat of a plot, overflowing with Black-comic characters. But it’s also that contemporary rarity, a tale of redemption and healing, a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit, and most rare of all perhaps, a sweet and tender romance.”
—Sandra Gwynn, The Toronto Star
ALSO BY E. ANNIE PROULX
Heart Songs and Other Stories
Postcards
THE
SHIPPING
NEWS
E. ANNIE PROULX
A TOUCHSTONE BOOK
Published by Simon & Schuster
New York London Toronto
Sydney Tokyo Singapore
TOUCHSTONE
Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places
and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination
or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or
locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1993 by E. Annie Proulx
All rights reserved
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.
First Charles Scribner’s Sons Edition 1993
First Touchstone Edition 1994
TOUCHSTONE and colophon are
registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available. ISBN: 0-671-51005-3
For John, Gillis and Morgan
“In a knot of eight crossings, which is about the average-size knot,
there are 256 different ‘over-and-under’ arrangements
possible. ... Make only one change in this ‘over and under’
sequence and either an entirely different knot is made
or no knot at all may result.”
THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS
Acknowledgments
Help came from many directions in the writing of The Shipping News. I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts for financial support, and to the Ucross Foundation of Wyoming for a quiet place to work. In Newfoundland, advice, commentary and information from many people helped me understand old ways and contemporary changes on The Rock. The Newfoundland wit and taste for conversation made the most casual encounters a pleasure. I am particularly grateful for the kindness and good company of Bella Hodge of Gunner’s Cove and Goose Bay who suffered dog bite on my account and showed me the delights of Newfoundland home cooking. Carolyn Lavers opened my eyes to the complexities and strengths of Newfoundland women, as did novelist Bill Gough in his 1984 Maud’s House. Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue personnel, the staff of the Northern Pen in St. Anthony, fishermen and loggers, the Atmospheric Environment Service of Environment Canada all told me how things worked. John Glusman’s fine-tuned antennae caught the names of Newfoundland books I would otherwise have missed. Walter Punch of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Library confirmed some obscure horticultural references. Thanks also to travel companions on trips to Atlantic Canada: Tom