READING GROUP
The Shipping News: Proulx's Newfoundland
The extremity of the location is one of the most memorable aspects of the novel. But how recognisable is it?
SAM JORDISON
THU 22 DECEMBER 2011
No one who has read The Shipping News will be surprised to learn that Annie Proulx found Newfoundland inspiring.
"Within 10 minutes of landing on the rock I knew that this was a tremendously important place for me," she once told an interviewer. "The more I saw the more I loved. I knew I wanted to write something about this place. And it's hard to explain – because it's not a loveable place. It's very harsh, the weather is cruel, you can hardly drive for a mile without having a moose get in your way… "
Equally importantly, she also explained that her story could only have happened in a place "where people are kind". Quoyle was trampled on everywhere apart from Newfoundland. When he got there, he was able to have a shot at happiness.
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| Kevin Spacey as Quoyle and Judi Dench as Agnis in the film version of The Shipping News |
Judging from the comments under the first few Reading Group articles about the book, however, not all Newfoundland residents feel quite so fondly of Proulx as she does about them.
"I live in Newfoundland and have spent some time up on the coast whose environment and people she 'describes' and I can tell you that book is a bunch of malarky from page one," frankthefist wrote. "But one detail in particular made me angry. She has people put a Bible in an outhouse to use for toilet paper. Those people are particularly religious and tidy. The idea that they would use a Bible to wipe their arses with is too insulting to pass. The whole book is full of bullshit 'observations' that make a Newfoundlander's skin crawl. Typical Yank making it up to seem more real."
Ouch!
"I'm also from Newfoundland" Millieb added, "and I agree with frankthefist. There might be much to admire about the book, but the culture it describes isn't one that I recognise at all (and I grew up spending a fair amount of time visiting relatives and family friends who lived not that far from the part of the coast she's describing). Proulx is an evocative stylist, but the book is more of an imaginative fantasia on Newfoundland than any sort of accurate representation of it – not, of course, that that's necessarily a bad thing. And while I have eaten flipper pie (wouldn't recommend it), the only place I've ever come across mention of a squid burger is in this novel."
I'm disappointed about the non-existence of squid burgers, but I don't have many objections to Proulx's depiction of the place itself. Surely it's Proulx's right to write fiction? As plenty of other people below the line pointed out, the fact that The Shipping News isn't entirely accurate shouldn't be seen to detract from Proulx's achievement.
"As others have said, she draws you in so powerfully that you become part of these places and lives – however 'other' they are from your own experiences – so that they resonate in your imagination afterwards," wrote Soixante10.
I would agree with that. It's now more than a fortnight since I put the book down – and I've read a lot since – but my quiet moments are still often filled with thoughts of fog rolling in, windswept coastlines and how strange it would be to have a moose get in the way of my car. Even if Proulx's depiction isn't strictly accurate, it is inspiring - as the Guardian's own Alison Flood can testify. "I love The Shipping News so much that we went on our honeymoon to Newfoundland," she wrote, "and it is every bit as gorgeous as Proulx makes it sound".
Sadly, constraints of time and budget have prevented me from being able to visit the place myself. Besides, I've learned there are few flights from the UK to Newfoundland outside May to October. Newfoundland, it's safe to say, is out on a limb. It contains the easternmost city in the American continent (St John's) and is so far removed from most of the rest of the world that it has its own timezone (Newfoundland Standard Timezone, a fiercely inconvenient three and a half hours behind GMT). It is also regularly visited by icebergs from May to July – and even if you can't see them for yourself, you can follow them on Twitter.
While I haven't yet visited, I have at least spoken to a few people on the island and while none of them are prepared to admit to the existence of squid burgers, they have all confirmed that other aspects of the book are true. Most notably, that there's an awful lot of rough weather and fog. Erin Skinner from Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism (the main source of the splendid photos in the gallery that accompanies this articlefdafdfasdfsdad) told me that she's seen days where warm sunshine has given way to snow, hail and rain in quick succession. She also attests that there are parts of Newfoundland where "everybody knows your name" and that there are a great many "thriving" community newspapers. L'Anse Aux Meadows, the isolated northerly part of Newfoundland that roughly corresponds to the area described in the novel, is served by The Northern Pen. I'd advise any fan of The Shipping News to give it a read. When I clicked on it, joyfully, the lead article contained a picture of a grounded boat and notes about a storm. (Sample line: "He's confused not only to how his home of 17 years survived last Thursday night's violent wind storm but also what to do with the bridge considering it is no longer attached to his house instead it lays upside down about 15 metres away.") Other pleasures included a piece about snowmobiles, and one about iceberg surveillance.
Quoyle would be in his element. So too, I'm beginning to think, would I. I haven't even mentioned the fact that Newfoundland is also reputed to offer some of the world's best whale-watching opportunities and it's stunningly beautiful. There's even a thriving literary scene, with a literary festival in a national park in August – and if that sounds a little too hectic, there are a number of writing residencies available on a retreat on the isolated Fogo island. I fondly await having an excuse to see it for myself…
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