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Title: POSTCARDS by Annie Proulx ISBN: 068480087X Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 01 August, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89
Rating: 5
Summary: You'll never forget the Blood family.
Comment: If the price of a book depended on the richness of the writing, and the complexity of the characters and plot, no library in the world would have been able to afford this book. I have also read _The Shipping News_ by E. Annie Proulx, which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize. This book won the Pen/Faulkner Award. And no wonder. Both books are extraordinary, but I think I liked this one better.
Here Proulx introduces us to the Blood family, a group of people who are so oddly timeless that they could just as well have lived prehistorically as during the latter part of this century. Their lives are grueling, nearly devoid of love and affection, and they doggedly accept this fate as if nothing else existed in the world. They move through their worlds, leaving no mark, and yet there is a fascination with them, as if they were the movers and shakers of the country. This is entirely due to some of the best writing that has ever been committed to paper. What is even more extraordinary is that this is Proulx's first novel.
All I can say is, read this book--it'll knock your socks off.
Rating: 4
Summary: Crime and punishment?
Comment: I highly recommend this novel as an engaging read. This ranks just below "Shipping News" among the E. Annie Proulx novels I have read. Loyal Blood is a young farmer in Vermont who accidently murders his lover Billy during an act of passion. He spends the rest of his life on a restless tour of the western United States engaged in a variety of occupations which Proulx makes interesting. All the while we wonder whether Billy's body will be uncovered and Blood will be brought to justice. In the meantime, justice seems to meted out to Loyal's family farm, which falls prey to modern economic pressures. Is justice done? This seems to be the ironic question which the author asks us.
In "Postcards," despite the gimmick of the hand printed or typewritten postcards which precede many chapters, it is the vitality of Loyal Blood, the main character, which compels us onward and maintains our interest. Although there is not the uplifting message of finally finding true love such as in "Shipping News," I still gave this novel 4 stars since it is well worth the time spent buried between its covers.
Rating: 3
Summary: A litany of sorrows
Comment: While "Postcards" is as beautifully written and original as "The Shipping News," it's a depressing read. Instead of the passionate, moving sadness of tragedy, the story is a slow, steady grinding of one catastrophe after another.
"Postcards" presents the reader with an endless string of murder, sickness, injury, theft, suicide...By the end of the book I was hardly moved by any of it. A few moments of hope and human kindness would have made the losses seem more profound. Without it, the violence and pain ended up seeming merely pointless.
The book has its redeeming qualities from a technical standpoint. Proulx manages to carry off the postcards concept (each chapter starts with a reproduction of a postcard message that adds some information to the story) without it becoming gimmicky. The story is interesting in the way that watching a car crash might be interesting - you wonder what else could possibly happen to these people. And her writing style and subjects are as quirky and finely drawn as ever.
But ultimately I found I couldn't care about the characters' lows when there were no highs to measure them against, and instead of a plot the book was simply a litany of sorrows.
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Title: HEART SONGS AND OTHER STORIES by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0020360754 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 17 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: ACCORDION CRIMES by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0684831546 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 17 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: That Old Ace in the Hole : A Novel by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0684813076 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 10 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: SHIPPING NEWS by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0671510053 Publisher: Scribner Paperback Fiction Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Close Range : Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0684852225 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 10 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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