girl in greenwood

Postcards
by E. Annie Proulx

When I first read Proulx's "The Shipping News" I was absolutely stunned by her writing. That book was so sad and so moving - I was just riveted. But then I read "Accordion Crimes" and was completely underwhelmed. Proulx has great skill as a writer, in the sense of having authoritative control over the language... but "Accordion Crimes" was pure drudgery to read. The plot skipped along from character to character and never gave the reader a chance to identify with any of them.

"Postcards" is more like "Accordion Crimes" than it is like "The Shipping News." Although "Postcards" does have a main character in Loyal Blood, the son who runs away from home after accidentally killing his girlfriend in the throes of passion (which, huh?! how does that happen?), we never really get inside him. We see from the outside how his life progresses, but it's hard to see what makes him tick. The novel also suffers from an overload of characters. The main characters are Loyal, his mother and father, and his sister and brother... but there are lots of ancilliary characters who just sort of flit by.

I've come to the conclusion that I just don't like this kind of writing. It reminded me ever so slightly of why I don't like Hemingway's writing - there's presumably a lot going on under the surface of the story, but I can't see it! And that makes me batty.

Labels: book reports