Annie Proulx
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Annie Proulx as a novelist "begins" at more than fifty years old, after decades of journalism and brief occasional publications, and this maturity, let's call it that, shines through masterfully in her writing style, that unmistakable combination of irony and empathy, the dry, sharp style but capable of "opening up" in moments of touching lyricism, when necessary. Not to mention the equally unmistakable ability to navigate between prosaicness and "American mythology," with occasional touches of magical realism, and to create vivid characters, almost more theatrical than literary, often rendered unforgettable precisely for the apparent, immediate simplicity with which they are sketched. I had already widely known and appreciated these qualities with "Close Range", her first and most famous volume of short stories set in Wyoming, from some years ago. Recently, by chance, I came across the novel that gave her success and notoriety. Blind purchase, of course, and a couple of regrets: not having read it earlier and having "forgotten" about its author for so long.

In "The Shipping News" I found all the aforementioned characteristics, and also the quirk of naming her characters with improbable names: Petal Bear, Tert Card, Billy Pretty, Wavey Prowse, and so on; moreover, the protagonist is mentioned exclusively by his surname: Quoyle. This is because he is presented to us as a clumsy, soft, passive individual, excessively good, out of place in a "normal" society. However, I did not yet know Annie Proulx as a novelist, and "The Shipping News", with its approximately four hundred and seventy pages, is a rather hefty read. Hefty, meaning especially solid, original, inspirational, and strongly evocative, I would say. Viewed from a certain angle, it is an unconventional coming-of-age novel with a middle-aged man as the protagonist, but it is also a strongly choral novel. This is perhaps the most defining aspect: it's not just a story that goes from point A to point B, "The Shipping News" is an intertwining of events where the whole, meaning the setting and the community, prevails and indelibly marks the individual characters.

Before reading this book, I knew little or nothing about Newfoundland, or as they say, this island on the Atlantic coast of Canada, land of fishermen, cold, inhospitable, and in a chronic state of economic depression. But Annie Proulx's pen made it familiar to me, the misty coasts, the rocks, the conifer forests that stretch almost to the sea, small communities struggling not to disappear, and in some cases already turned into ghosts. The harshness and isolation of this setting is an evident common thread with the Wyoming later described by Proulx, but here there is also a deep-rooted, profound spirit of solidarity among the inhabitants of the community where the events take place, something that is entirely lacking in the short stories of "Close Range", often with tragic consequences. And Quoyle will find himself relating to these inhabitants, relationships that will transform him from a sad and empty shell to a man in balance with himself and master of his own life.

On a couple of occasions, Annie Proulx seems to want to shift the plot in more "defined" directions: at one point it seems to want to start a psychological thriller, at another a detective novel, but they are "false trails," details intelligently inserted to add color and peculiarity to the story, destined to remain on the whole slow and unravelled, a set of "knotted" subplots; knots and ropes are the symbolic motif on which the entire novel is built, a perfectly themed leitmotif with the setting, constantly evoked even in the chapter titles. Overall, my favorite character is Agnis Hamm (probably an alter ego of the author herself, but this is just my supposition), who starts the redemption path of the protagonist: an iconic figure in her particular combination of concreteness and romantic idealism, with a past and psychological depth that remain partly just hinted at; unfortunately, from my point of view, but if Annie Proulx has decided so, with her, to me, indisputable mastery and authority, that's fine with me.