Monday, September 27, 2004
Postcards by E. Annie Proulx
I have never read anything else by E. Annie Proulx; two
of her other books were recommended to me by the friend who passed on Postcards.
Postcards follows the Blood Family from their life as hardscrabble farm family to scattered individuals struggling to find out who or what they are. The book opens with Loyal, supportive son and apparent heir to the farm, raping and murdering his girlfriend. He hides her body and runs from home, family, and farm. Without Loyal's help Mink and his disabled son Dub cannot keep up with the work of the farm. Jewell and her daughter Mernelle have as much work as they can handle without taking on "barn chores". While Loyal wanders the country, working hard all the while, the family separates and the farm declines. Mink and Dub are caught in an insurance scam; Mink loses all but Dub goes from Vermont to Florida and discovers a whole new way of life. Jewell and Mernelle make better choices (though whether Mernelle is moving her dependency from her father to another man is debatable and debatedly better).
Loyal moves across the country sending postcards back to his family. He goes from despair and self-loathing to apathy and then to a sort of acceptance of himself where he can see the good. He helps people, he survives, and he makes friends.
In the end, the family members have come to be characters in themselves, individually important and complex in a way that they never could be as part of the Blood Family. Well, except for Mink, the family as a whole was who he was and he couldn't survive the breakup. Isn't that sadder than struggling and surviving?
I've already got an envelope addressed so that I can mail this book off to my next sister.
of her other books were recommended to me by the friend who passed on Postcards.
Postcards follows the Blood Family from their life as hardscrabble farm family to scattered individuals struggling to find out who or what they are. The book opens with Loyal, supportive son and apparent heir to the farm, raping and murdering his girlfriend. He hides her body and runs from home, family, and farm. Without Loyal's help Mink and his disabled son Dub cannot keep up with the work of the farm. Jewell and her daughter Mernelle have as much work as they can handle without taking on "barn chores". While Loyal wanders the country, working hard all the while, the family separates and the farm declines. Mink and Dub are caught in an insurance scam; Mink loses all but Dub goes from Vermont to Florida and discovers a whole new way of life. Jewell and Mernelle make better choices (though whether Mernelle is moving her dependency from her father to another man is debatable and debatedly better).
Loyal moves across the country sending postcards back to his family. He goes from despair and self-loathing to apathy and then to a sort of acceptance of himself where he can see the good. He helps people, he survives, and he makes friends.
In the end, the family members have come to be characters in themselves, individually important and complex in a way that they never could be as part of the Blood Family. Well, except for Mink, the family as a whole was who he was and he couldn't survive the breakup. Isn't that sadder than struggling and surviving?
I've already got an envelope addressed so that I can mail this book off to my next sister.
# posted by JJ @ 5:49 PM 
