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The Shipping News
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx Published: 1993 The first 30 pages of this book are bloody depressing. The protagonist, Quoyle, has a miserable childhood, his parents kill themselves, he marries a horrible woman who openly cheats on him, and then his wife eventually leaves him and sells their two young daughters to sex traffickers (Happy Mother’s Day, by the way). This is the introduction to the book. The story then follows him as he leaves New York and returns to his father’s hometown in Newfoundland to begin a new life with his daughters and aunt. While the beginning is incredible important, since this is about a man trying to…
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The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare Published: ~1590 This play is a little fucked up. Lets just make that clear. I’m not sure how it might have been received at the end of the fourteenth century, but I imagine it would raise the eyebrow of any modern reader. It’s politically incorrect in such a hilariously unapologetic way that you almost have to laugh in mild horror. I’m going to spoil the plot now. I figure anything over five hundred years old is free game. The play begins with an induction. A drunk named Christopher Sly is found unconscious in the street, and a lord orders his servants to…