I really enjoyed this book. Unusually I had seen the film with Kevin Spacey and Judi Dench before I read this book. I say unusually because normally I won't do both - watch the film and read the book, because I end up been disatisfied with one or the other - or both!
I think what I liked most is her style - the short sentences the constant similes and metaphors, staccato phrases pouring constantly and relentlessly. Ms Proux is a real expert in feelings and emotions, it is so rare to read a book where things come like revelations. Suddenly, out of blue comes the explanation of why the central character doesn't feel he can love anyone else - because he believes he is so unloveable that his only relationships can be abusive - with him as the victim.
This is a tale of a man who falls in love with a wrongun - she treats him bad. He moves from close to New York to his family's original home - Newfoundland, where life is truly on the edge - the climate, the conditions, the employment, everything is like a return to the nineteenth century. There is tragedy, but there is also redemption. He can't bring himself to tell his children that their mother (his wife the inappropriately named Petal) is dead. The result is that death (which is all around them in Newfoundland) no longer has realism. However, at the end of the book death as an issue is resolved in a blackly comic way - but in accordance with the book and the story.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough! My rating 9/10
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