The Shipping News (4th Estate Matchbook Classics) (The Perennial Collection)

by Annie Proulx

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

The short sentences and protagonist’s name (amongst others) really threw me off for a long while. The short sentences really made it easy to skim over parts and not pick up on the little things. For a long time I thought Wavey was a male but I was oh so wrong. The book was socially awkward all the way through, but you found real passion and feeling in the characters that really helped drive this story.

I do admit the first 120 pages were a struggle, but when everything started to settle and life was trying to become normal, this is when the characters blossomed and the story picked up. Once the story was moving and I was use to the writing style, the book was oddly mesmerizing, and a joy to read; not something I would read normally but I felt like I cared about these characters and wanted to know what would happen next.

I do feel the sentence structure played a big part in this book. The sudden stops and odd pauses all drove this story along. If it wasn’t written so spectacularly, I think this book would have fallen flat on its face.