Annie Proulx - Postcards

****
Not perfect, but imaginative and striking 28 Oct 2007

Some people really do not like this book. Some have given it one star in a review, and others have complained that it does not stand up next to Proulx's much more famous "The Shipping News", yet I feel moved to come to its defence. This is Proulx's first novel, and, for those who do now know the storyline, it begins with the collapse of a family unit on a small farm and goes on to chart the progress (in inverted commas) of the members of that family across the geography and time of the United States in the 20th century.

The fiercest accusation levelled at this book is that it lacks a plot, and I would be inclined to agree, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, I often find that otherwise good books are spoiled by their plots, and many of my favourites have no plot at all. This is an episodic, thematic approach to writing, but one could argue that this is perhaps closer to how we experience the world than a meticulously planned thriller which leads you by the nose to its ravishing conclusion.

Proulx does take a gloomy view of the world in this book, but again that is to be applauded, but that places it in a very fine tradition of American writing (think of how relentlessly depressing "The Grapes of Wrath" is, and that book is twice as long as this). It is not perfect, and it needs to be read quickly for it not to become slightly tiresome, but it is a fine, and adventurous piece of fiction.