Personal Response

I have continued reading The Shipping News and I am almost to the half-way mark. So far in the story, nothing too exciting has really happened. I am really surprised because when reading about it, I envisioned there to be a lot more emphasis on the "kidnapping" that took place and the selling of the kids. But, the whole event was covered in about two pages.
I wouldn't say I'm disappointed with the story, but it's not at all what I expected. Proulx's diction is very detailed and it is easy to imagine what is going on. But sometimes, for me, it becomes a little too much detail and I feel like it is a never-ending description. Towards the beginning of the book, Proulx used the most imagery and details, I think mostly so that the readers can picture the story develop in their heads. After a chapter or two, a little more action begins to happen, and I was able to get an idea of where she is going with the story. Proulx's sentence structure is also different from books that I have read before. She uses many short, choppy sentences, which makes it a little harder to read than long sentences because they don't flow very well. One thing I do like, though, about her writing is that sometimes there are sentences that seem really random they create humor. She will say something that isn't expected at all which helps to break up the normal arrangement of the sentences.

Although my initial expectation of the book was that it was going to be very interesting and involve a fair amount of drama, I have realized that the story is about Quoyle's journey to becoming a different man and obtaining a better life for himself and his two girls. At the point in the story that I am at, some issues concerning Bunny have surfaced. She has claimed to see different things that have scared her, but Quoyle doubts that there was actually anything there. Does it have something to do with Petal's death or has something else happened to her that have prompted the visions? I am excited to see what is revealed in the next chapters because this was an unexpected twist in the plot.