The story follows Quoyle, a hulk of a man, who’s life begins with dysfunction and tragedy. He is a man adrift in upstate New York, deadened from abuse and ill treatment. The only positive thing he receives from his early life and broken marriage to an unfaithful and dreadful wife, is two daughters. An Aunt, Angis Hamm, convinces Quoyle to return to his ancestral home in Newfoundland where he finds work on the local newspaper. This is where the story really finds solid ground with Proulx deftly describing the local culture, language, and harsh climate of Newfoundland. a few torn pieces of early morning cloud the shape and color of salmon fillets" (I think I'd prefer that one without the fish)

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. Quoyle Promontory is the birthplace of Quoyle's father, a diffuse character - where he retires with his two little girl. It is the kind of novel that wins prizes, because it is healing book, the past here is full of horror but in the present all those horrors are firmly confronted, resolved, stitched up, frayed ends knotted, no loose ends left and the future the author assures us can be happy irrespective of sexuality, personal needs or even the economy. Is it possibly that a man abused and humiliated throughout his entirely life - can stay away from any cruelty ?In such a harsh environment, "The wood, hardened by time and corroding weather, clenched the nails fast" 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. 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. 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.” Some anomalous gene had fired up at the moment of his begetting as a single spark sometimes leaps from banked coals, had given him a giant's chin. As a child he invented stratagems to deflect stares; a smile, downcast gaze, the right hand darting up to cover the chin.

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. Discuss Quoyle's relationship with Petal Bear. Can you justify his feelings for her? Even after her death, she continues to have a strong hold on him, and her memory threatens to squelch the potential of his feeling for Wavey Prowse. Is this because Quoyle doesn't understand love without pain? Both Quoyle and Wavey have experienced abusive relationships previously. How do they treat each other? Punch sighed, feigned a weighty decision. "Put you on the municipal beat to help out Al Catalog. He'll break you in. Get your assignments from him." When winter arrives, the aunt and Quoyle and the children move out of the family house. The aunt after receiving money in the mail from Silver Melville, finds a job upholstering in St. John's and moves there just for the winter. Meanwhile, Nutbeem decides he will head out of Newfoundland. At a good-bye party, the men get so rowdy that they destroy Nutbeem's boat. Nutbeem decides he will go to Brazil instead. 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.”

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Nothing was clear to lonesome Quoyle. His thoughts churned like the amorphous thing that ancient sailors, drifting into arctic half-light, called the Sea Lung; a heaving sludge of ice under fog where air blurred into water, where liquid was solid, where solids dissolved, where the sky froze and light and dark muddled. 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.

As Quoyle arrives in Newfoundland, he hears much of his family's past. In fact, there is an old relative, "some kind of fork kin," still alive in Newfoundland. Why does Quoyle avoid Nolan -- seem angry at the old man from the start? Is the reason as simple as Quoyle denying where he came from, especially after learning the details of his father's relationship with the aunt? Quoyle tried to say congratulations, ended up shaking and shaking Partridge's hand, couldn't let go. This book is revolutionary in it's use of language. She punctuates inventively and her punctuation "style" gives her sentences a strange movement. The book moves, it actually moves, as you read it.The ghost of his wife, "Petal's essence riding under his skin like an injected vaccine against the plague of love" Look, come out and visit us," said Partridge. "Stay in touch." And still they clasped hands, pumping the air as if drawing deep water from a well. No, this one is not without its problems--this is not Graham Greene, it is not Toni Morrison, it is not Geoffrey Eugenides, after all. Alas, it suffers from similar ailments shared by other Pulitzer winners: it is, at times, a tad too superficial ("A Visit from the Goon Squad"); somewhat dull-ish, small, insignificantish ("Breathing Lessons"); dense ("American Pastoral") or even a little too long, overdone (sorry--"Loneseome Dove"). & it is thoroughly enjoyable, too. (Which is NEVER a detractor from the overall experience.)