Had I read this book when my mum suggested it to me a dozen years ago, I
would have probably understood my classmates from Newfoundland a lot better… I
always thought this was going to be a nice read but little more. Man was I
wrong…
There are new layers to Quoyle’s personality and new hidden aspects of
his family history in every chapter (and I do realize that this sounds like a
trite comment given by a mediocre reader to an average book, but I swear it isn’t
the case – at least for the latter part of the statement). The blatant
disrespect for the English grammar of most of the novel’s characters (even the
journalists) makes their dialogues realistic and, for want of a better term,
absolutely sea-worthy (although the “yarrs” made me think of The Simpsons a bit too much…). And the
anecdotes disseminated throughout the book are of the kind that can only be
told in the wildest parts of Canada.
However, knowing that Julianne Moore portrayed Wavey in the movie taken
from the book (which I haven’t seen yet, and probably will not in all honesty) I
had her incredible freckled face in my mind all the time, and I just couldn’t
understand why Quoyle wouldn’t fall in love with her sooner…
