SOURCE: Green, William. “Oh, to Be Less of an Oaf in Newfoundland.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (18 July 1993): 9.

In the following review, Green offers a generally positive assessment of The Shipping News, while noting flaws in the book's digressive subplots and superficial characterizations.

E. Annie Proulx was already 57 when her first novel, Postcards, was published in 1992. Before that, she had churned out freelance articles about cider, lions, canoeing and mice; she had written short stories for Esquire; she had founded a monthly newspaper called Behind the Times; she had raised three sons and divorced three husbands. Postcards was an unexpected sensation. Critics called it “beautiful,” “mesmerizing” and “astonishingly accomplished.” Fellow authors honored her with the PEN/Faulkner Award, a ＄15,000 prize that had never been won by a woman. For good measure, Proulx also landed a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Proulx's second novel, The Shipping News, is a black comedy about...