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Quote by Annie Proulx

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The Shipping News

The narrative follows Quoyle, a failed journalist whose marriage ended in his wife's death, as he relocates from New York to the remote coastal community of Killick-Claw in Newfoundland. There he takes a position reporting on shipping news for the local Gammy Bird newspaper, a publication known for its eccentric coverage of car wrecks and sexual abuse cases alongside maritime traffic. The novel explores themes of family inheritance, community belonging, and personal transformation against the harsh backdrop of Atlantic Canada. The protagonist gradually adapts to the distinctive local culture, forms new relationships, and confronts the violent history embedded in his family name. The prose style incorporates elements of Newfoundland dialect and folklore, with chapter headings drawn from a mariner's handbook. The work received significant literary recognition including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. more

Author

Annie Proulx
Annie Proulx

Annie Proulx, born on August 22, 1935, is an American journalist and novelist known for her distinctive narrative style and profound portrayals of life in the American West. more

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“Wherever young people are growing up, they deserve to know what went into the making of their world. They have a right to be free to enjoy the richness that history and culture have bequeathed them.”

“He was conscious of a bliss that stole over him not infrequently now, had first stolen over him when he had first acquired this car, first bent over the bat-wing hood and seen the engine and drive-train, humble and useful like his own internal organs. It was a sense that at last what he knew of the world was sufficient to his being alive in it: that the world and what he knew of it were one. He called this feeling "growing up," and it did feel like growing, though in moments of mad elation he would wonder if what he was growing into weren't a Ford, or perhaps Ford: there was no other instrument, and no other man, so serenely purposeful and complete, August thought, so sufficient to the world and so self-sufficient: it would have been a destiny he could welcome.”

“It is true that we are the descendant of our circumstances, but is also true that we are the patrons of own improvement. Blaming the past without taking charge of the present is like driving a car cursing the rear-view mirror and shutting our eyes to the road ahead. - On Self Fulfillment”