Lyrical Writing, Notes on E Annie Proulx's The Shipping News
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx is a great example of lyrical writing. While her writing might seem to violate conventional writing, her style always aims at getting to a deeper truth. Many years ago I attended a reading of published romance authors and unpublished authors. The published authors use lyrical writing judiciously. The unpublished authors seemed to have bought adjectives on sale in 50 gallon barrels. Every pair of lips were some degree of throbbing, turgid, and swollen. It communicated nothing, unlike the published authors and Proulx. In The Shipping News , the lyrical writing in the opening has the purpose of conveying the deeper truth of Quoyle. It is entirely organic, yet also part of a clearly defined structure. Hitching that lyrical writing to a purposeful structure is part of what makes Proulx's writing so dynamic and potent and insightful. First line. HERE is an account of a few years in the life of Quoyle, born in Brooklyn and raised in a shuffle o...