The Shipping News
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the indie rock band, see Shipping News.
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| Author | E. Annie Proulx |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Scribner |
| Released | 1993 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-684-19337-X (hardback edition) |
| The Shipping News | |
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| Directed by | Lasse Hallström |
| Produced by | Rob Cowan, Leslie Holleran |
| Written by | E. Annie Proulx (novel), Robert Nelson Jacobs |
| Starring | Kevin Spacey Julianne Moore Judi Dench Cate Blanchett |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
| Release date(s) | 18 December 2001 (premiere) |
| Running time | 111 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~ US$35,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
The Shipping News is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by E. Annie Proulx which was published in 1993, and a film of the same name, released in 2001.
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[edit] Plot summary
The story centers on Quoyle, a hack journalist from New York whose father had emigrated from Newfoundland. Shortly after the suicide of his parents, Quoyle's unfaithful and abusive wife Petal sells their daughters to a child pornography photographer and attempts to leave the city and her husband. Petal and her lover are soon thereafter found dead in a car accident and the children are located by police. Despite the safe return of his children, Quoyle's life is collapsing and his paternal aunt Agnis Hamm convinces him to return to life in their ancestral home of Newfoundland for a new beginning. The ancestral home is situated on Quoyle point (see below).
Through previous work contacts, he obtains work as a car-accident reporter for the Gammy Bird, local newspaper of the town of Killick-Claw. The Gammy Bird's editor also asks him to document the shipping news, arrivals and departures from the local port, which soon grows into Quoyle's signature articles on boats of interest in the harbour.
Quoyle gradually makes friends within the community, learns about his own troubled family background, and begins a relationship with a local woman, Wavey. Quoyle's growth in confidence and emotional strength, as well as his ability to be comfortable in a loving relationship become the main focus for the book. A series of deep and disturbing secrets about his ancestors emerge in strange ways. In time, he also learns about his father having raped Agnis (his sister) in their childhood.
[edit] Film plot variation
The film climaxes with a storm which destroys the Quoyle's ancestral family home and almost drowns the Gammy Bird's editor Jack Buggit, caught in the rope of a lobster pot while fishing. Though thought dead, at Buggit's wake it is found that the man was actually in a state of shock resulting from hypothermia, regaining consciousness in front of a large crowd of mourners, central to the theme of rebirth in the optimistic ending of the story.
[edit] Film version
The film was directed by Lasse Hallström and stars Kevin Spacey as the protagonist Quoyle, Judi Dench as Agnis Hamm and Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse. It also stars Pete Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans, Cate Blanchett, Jason Behr, and Gordon Pinsent.
The film makes a multitude of changes from the book, notably: Quoyle had two daughters in the novel, but only one in the film, in the film he does not begin working as a reporter until after arriving in Newfoundland, and a number of characters such the younger Buggit family were deleted or merged.
Some critics felt that three significant themes were not fully realised in the movie: Quoyle learning that love could be comfortable rather than painful, Quoyle growing from being a bumbling incompetent to being a competent manager, and his daughter Bunny learning about death (while overcoming her fears and learning to be more secure in the process).
The film drew some criticism within Canada for what some saw as stereotyped portrayals of Newfoundlanders, although a number of themes from the book, such as the allegations of incest reported in the newspaper, were toned down significantly in the screenplay.
[edit] Quoyle Point and Killick-Claw
Quoyle Point is a fictional point of land on the Newfoundland coast bearing the family name of the protagonist in both the book and the movie. The actual town used for "Killick-Claw" in the movie was New Bonaventure in the Trinity Bight area of Newfoundland. This area is home to approximately 2,000 Newfoundlanders, most of whom are descendants of 18th-century settlers from England's West Country, the Channel Islands and Southeast Ireland all intermingled and speaking Newfoundland English
In the movie, Quoyle Point is a remote, spectacular site with a cove and dramatic cliffs. There is a desolate, weathered green house on the point, the old family home of the Quoyles. At some time in the past, the house had been dragged across the sea-ice from a neighboring island and cabled to the ground at the four corners to protect it from being blow away.
The film crew pre-built the green house on a stage in Halifax, Nova Scotia, dis-assembled it, transported it via ferry to Newfoundland, and then reassembled it piece-by-piece on 'Quoyle Point,' using snowmobiles so as not to disturb the natural location. All traces of it were removed at the end of filming.
[edit] Awards and nominations
| Preceded by: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler |
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1994 |
Succeeded by: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields |
