This Pulitzer Prize award winning book delves into the lives and changing times of a group of Newfoundland misfits and eccentrics.
It’s a book that charts the redemption and changed fortunes of many of the characters. Quoyle, an ugly lump of a man with no self-esteem, returns to Killock Claw with his two young daughters after the death of his unfaithful wife. With the help of his practical aunt who accompanies them, herself with many dreadful family secrets, they patch up the old family home and start a new life. Quoyle gets a job on the local paper and with the support of a bunch of eccentric reporters, confronts his fears and heals himself. Eventually he finds a loyal local widow, herself also betrayed by her former husband. Together they create a better life there for themselves.
But Newfoundland itself is a major force in the novel. Its savagely harsh environment and ferocious and deadly storms are superbly rendered by Proulx. From the lawless days of the early settlement, through the annexation by Canada and the destruction of the fishing industry, to the more promising potential of modern times, the weather rules.
A good book from one of America’s major writers.
At our next session on Tuesday 1 July: -
What Happened to Nina by Dervlar McTierman; and
The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Members can choose one or read both on the long winter nights to come..
Meg Dillon
It’s a book that charts the redemption and changed fortunes of many of the characters. Quoyle, an ugly lump of a man with no self-esteem, returns to Killock Claw with his two young daughters after the death of his unfaithful wife. With the help of his practical aunt who accompanies them, herself with many dreadful family secrets, they patch up the old family home and start a new life. Quoyle gets a job on the local paper and with the support of a bunch of eccentric reporters, confronts his fears and heals himself. Eventually he finds a loyal local widow, herself also betrayed by her former husband. Together they create a better life there for themselves.
But Newfoundland itself is a major force in the novel. Its savagely harsh environment and ferocious and deadly storms are superbly rendered by Proulx. From the lawless days of the early settlement, through the annexation by Canada and the destruction of the fishing industry, to the more promising potential of modern times, the weather rules.
A good book from one of America’s major writers.
At our next session on Tuesday 1 July: -
What Happened to Nina by Dervlar McTierman; and
The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Members can choose one or read both on the long winter nights to come..
Meg Dillon
