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Horrible, near-grotesque people. People you would never want to know, or date. Food I would never touch, outside of starvation.

This is one of the very best novels I've had the chance to read. It's not just that the story is rich in and of itself - and it is - it's that the words themselves are so artfully assembed that they provide layers of undercurrents that add depth and emotion to the narrative. This book reads like a symphony, with many intertwined themes and narratives all woven together into a whole, unified picture. It happens in Newfoundland, a place of water, moisture, and rottenness, of words that travel long distances, a place for people who know everything about boats, cliffs and icebergs. Not very snappy, no style, and still too long," said Partridge, "but going in the right direction. Get the idea? Get the sense of what's news? What you want in the lead? Here, see what you can do. Put some spin on it." On the horizon icebergs like white prisons. The immense blue fabric of the sea, rumpled and creased." Is it possibly that a man abused and humiliated throughout his entirely life - can stay away from any cruelty ?

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When Quoyle finds knotted twine in the doorways of his girls' room, he goes to hunt down the cousin, Nolan. He finds Nolan lying beside his white dog, a dirty, mad hermit and Quoyle gives up the idea of a fight. At Christmastime, Dennis Buggit and Quoyle go to take Nolan some food. Eventually, the cousin is put in an insane asylum. When Quoyle visits, Nolan reveals that Quoyle's father raped the aunt when they were young. Newfoundland is a large island on the eastern coast of Canada, known for its variable maritime weather which can surprise its population on any given day, forcing much of it to grow hard and fight their way through pounding waves and breaking storms. Newfoundland was England's first possession in North America - it became a colony in the early 17th century and remained first a colony and later a dominion of the United Kingdom until 1949, on which year it entered the Canadian Confederation and became the nation's tenth province. Two referendums had to be organized - the first was proven inconclusive, and the second was won by only a slight majority of pro-Confederation voters (52.3% to 47.7%). Since joining the Confederation Newfoundlanders continue to see themselves as a unique group, and have maintained their own culture, cuisine and even a variety of English language. It's like reading cement. Too long. Way, way, way too long. Confused. No human interest. No quotes. Stale." His pencil roved among Quoyle's sentences, stirring and shifting. "Short words. Short sentences. Break it up. Look at this, look at this. Here's your angle down here. That's news. Move it up." There are a few innovative aspects to the text itself, the names and the grammar. Annie Proulx comes up with some of the most original names I have ever seen (Tert Card! Bunny! Partridge!) and this helps make the text more memorable and fun. The staccato sentence structure where she often drops the subject is a clever way of dropping us into a pseudo-interior dialog inside Quoyle's head. These two features give a unique dynamic to Proulx's writing.

These homes of love we build, house many rooms, sanded and painted in the shades and colours of our life, furnished with those moments that, however inconsequential they may seem to others, have in fact, defined us. Quoyle's own eyes roved to a water-stained engraving on the wall. He saw a grainy face, eyes like glass eggs, a fringe of hairs rising from under the collar and cascading over its starched rim. Was it Punch's grandfather in the chipped frame? He wondered about ancestors.The writing is very different and interesting. While they are in their small town in New York, the sentences are terse, choppy – very few articles and no conjunctions. Tight, compressed sentences that reflected their tight, compressed existence. At last the end of the world, a wild place that seemed poised on the lip of the abyss. No human sign, nothing, no ship, no plane, no animal, no bird, no bobbing trap marker nor buoy. As though he stood alone on the planet. The immensity of sky roared at him and instinctively he raised his hands to keep it off. Translucent thirty-foot combers the color of bottles crashed onto stone, coursed bubbles into a churning lake of milk shot with cream.”

Each chapter is preceded by a small quote from Ashley's " Book of Knots" , which aims at the meaning of the chapter. But the two things that i didn't like about it and which also made me remove two stars from my rating 1) the parts about fishing and boating lessons and how one could be perfect in them, 2) the end was not what i expected. While first put me to sleep, in second i was most disappointed. It fell a little too short of my expectations. Quoyle nodded, hand over chin, If Partridge suggested he leap from a bridge he would at least lean on the rail. The advice of a friend. He got in the habit of walking around the trailer and asking aloud, "Who knows?" He said, "Who knows?" For no one knew. He meant, anything could happen. I really appreciated, and understood, the protagonist’s difficulty in putting a poisonous person/relationship behind him. It is artfully rendered, not cheap; as such issues can often be presented in lesser hands. Ms. Proulx captures that irony of fondly remembering a demon accurately.He fell into newspapering by dawdling over greasy saucisson and a piece of bread. The bread was good, made without yeast, risen on its own fermenting flesh and baked in Partridge's outdoor oven. Partridge's yard smelled of burnt cornmeal, grass clippings, bread steam. Family is defined not only by blood but also by bond, by those who are there, in the dark and the light. October 28) A deeply uninteresting, unlikeable boy grows up to be a deeply uninteresting, unlikable man. He marries a nasty piece of work (who is also deeply unlikable) and spits out two children that are exactly the children one goes out of one’s way to avoid at shopping centres. Partridge knew why. Talked Quoyle into putting on a huge apron, gave him a spoon and a jar. "His kids home from college. They got your job. Nothing to cry over. That's right, spread that mustard on the meat, let it work in." From the movements of the characters - to the way the narrative thread flows, everything is cohesive and plausible.

Ultimately, it's at least as much about (re)birth and healing as death and doom. One character slowly realises it may be possible to recover from a broken relationship: "was love then like a bag of assorted sweets passed around from which one might choose more than once?" His friend did not smile. Was on the job. Read for a few seconds, lifted his face to the fluorescent light. "Edna was in she'd shred this. Al saw it he'd tell Punch to get rid of you. You got to rewrite this. Here, sit down. Show you what's wrong. They say reporters can be made out of anything. You'll be a test case."

Here is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle, born in Brooklyn and raised in a shuffle of dreary upstate towns.” In an important passage, Quoyle's colleague Billy gives him a metaphor for the schema for a man's life: "Ar, that? Let's see. Used to say there were four women in every man's heart. The Maid in the Meadow, the Demon Lover, the Stouthearted Woman, the Tall and Quiet Woman." (p. 182). While I have a hard time relating that to my own experience, it definitely correlates directly to Quoyle. The Tall and Quiet Woman is clearly the wonderful Wavey (!) and the story of she and Quoyle is another wonderful highlight to this charming book. During this time, Quoyle has noticed a tall, graceful woman in town, Wavey Prowse, whose child, Herry, has Down's Syndrome. Wavey initially draws Quoyle's attention because of the way she walks and carries herself; they have a mutual fondness for each other. One day, they seem to come close to physical intimacy, but Wavey, reminded of her dead husband, runs away. Quoyle has an epiphany, feeling renewed and sure of his place amidst the great vastness of sea, earth, and time. I think one weakness is that the mother of the girls is too horrible, and the manner of her departure from their lives stretched my credulity somewhat.