the shipping news.

First Tessa's mom gave it to her, then Tess passed it on to me and now it is with Jess. I like how books can flit from one person to the next and never be labeled as 'whorish' despite how many people they go through. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx is one of those books that simply must get passed on because one can only appreciate its true starkness and beauty if one reads it.

Although, I must admit that while Tess was reading it she raved and referenced the book so often that I felt like I had read it in some previous life. Annie Proulx has one of the most fascinating styles of writing I have ever encountered. She writes so casually and poetically that she can be talking about the most traumatic series of events and describe a darkly violent scene that you aren't even properly aware of it until a few pages later. You'll read something that is pretty twisted and sick, skip along a few pages and then pause, asking yourself the question, "What just happened? Did that just happen?".

And the names! Ha! Every single character in her book has the most bizarre name yet you couldn't imagine that character with a different name. I don't know how she thought up those names but it just shows that at the end of the day, imagination is still highly prized and important. And the plot, especially the beginning, is so sad but so matter-of-fact that you couldn't possibly get mopey about it, just deeply thoughtful and obsessed with the book.

So you can tell I liked the book. And so did Tess. And I'm certain Jess will, too. One of the nicest things about book-sharing is that once you've both read it you can rave about scenes and characters in a secret language that no one could understand unless they've read it. Even now, two weeks after both Tess and I finished reading it, we sometimes slip back into a 'Shipping News' conversation and after a grown-up, intelligent critical analysis of the book and its structure and themes etc. this conversation usually ends with us stupidly yelling at each other (quite loudly) with raised fists, "IT'S SO GREAT!"

I have boiled everything I like about this book into my two possible favourite things about this book. (That was nonsensical, awkward, adolescent sentence). Firstly, I love the fact that the main character is a middle-aged, overweight, unattractive man. It is entirely refreshing. Secondly, I love the fact that the book has weather.

This is a weather-filled book. It is mainly set in Newfoundland and the coast and tempestuous ocean seems to be another character who takes up quite a large portion of the book. I realised that when a book takes its own environment and surrounding into consideration it often slips into something more than a book and turns into a place that exists properly in your mind. And humans are greatly dependent on weather. I know that I am obsessed with weather. I'm not sure if this is just because I live at the Cape under a Mountain where clouds come and go with little warning, but weather brings out the human in one. This book did not shirk on the weather or the human. (Again, a completely nonsensical sentence?)

So here's the plan, put down whatever you are reading and read The Shipping News by Annie Proulx while I go find something else she has written.