A Sad Tale of Family Estrangement and Disintegration

When Loyal Blood accidentally kills his lover, he abruptly leaves home, setting off a chain of events that leads to the end of his family. Over the years, he sends postcards to his family as he travels across the country. In his postcards, he gives only the vaguest of details about his life. Because he never includes a return address, his family cannot communicate with him. Therefore, they are always fixed in his mind as the people he left in 1944. Tragic and sad, I gave it 3.5 stars. Some plot points were overly tragic. I won't give spoilers! ( )

Ӕ

I do not think that Proulx's choice of a name for her lead character is one lightly arrived upon. His name is Loyal Blood and his first act at the opening of this novel is to draw blood from a girl who he rapes and murders. This is done almost off-stage and while the act itself shapes Loyal and the rest of his life, this is not the story of a murder or a murderer. With such an opening, it is almost impossible to believe that you could develop a feeling of empathy for Loyal, but you do. Proulx knows her characters and because of this, you know them as well.

The disintegration of the Blood family is a sad thing to watch. Each of them is tied so tenuously to the other that they seem to drift in life without ever touching. They are rough and coarse and sometimes mean and unfeeling, but the travails they endure (particularly Loyal) seem over-exacting, cruel and unusual punishments. Loyal never stops paying for his moment of anger that leaves Billy dead, and his punishment includes an inability to ever touch a woman again, separating him from all possibility of redemption. Somehow you know that unlike Job, God is never going to make all this suffering up to him in any way.

What strikes me most about Proulx is that she draws characters that few of us may have ever known in life, but that each of us knows and believes exist. Loyal is real. He is not over the top. He is someone who is sitting in a dive cafeteria right now being avoided by the other patrons because of disdain and just a bit of fear.

This is Annie Proulx's first novel and as such is a remarkable achievement. It is not the equal of [b:The Shipping News|7354|The Shipping News|Annie Proulx|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386924131s/7354.jpg|310090] but it does have that flavor and appeal. It is well worth the time spent. ( )

Initially very interesting......very dark...but interesting......I liked the initial postcard setting context for each chapter.....but for me, it strayed......the chapters (in bold?) without postcard context seemed disconnected. The very poor family we follow (sort of...) throughout was very vivid, creating an enormous amount of empathy that I had for them and their unfortunate situation. Time passed (unexpectedly sometimes), and there was always a wish to return to a given setting and situation to get some sense of resolution....yet so many times.....not so. As it progressed, the constant flogging of these poor souls continued.....and with the previously created empathy, I kept cheering them on in hopes of some sort of successful turn around....but again, not so. The longer it went, the less i liked it. Thought for sure in the beginning, this would be a 4+ for me......but a solid 3 is as far as i can go. Of course, the characters, and sad situations were striking......several of them haunting.....and i still think about some of it......and that is GOOD! Thus, my mixed feelings. Expectations created, then not lived up to. And i am completely willing to blame that on me, not Proulx. I loved "Shipping News" and "Close Range"......this just seemed too desolate for my liking. Interested to now read other reviews..... ( )

What a depressing book. Why are so many books about New England depressing (Cider House Rules, Beans of Egypt Maine...)?
Loyal rapes and kills a woman then leaves. His life is miserable. His family back home has a struggle. His brother gets involved in running scams. Greedy neighbors destroy the local environment.
Proulx writes with lots of description. If you can visualize what you read you may enjoy parts of this. I felt that she was just showing off her research on the brands and local usages for the time period, and that those details were irrelevant since they were not integral to the plot, such as it is.
Half way through I just started skimming. I'd read the postcards and skim the rest. ( )