Rating: 
Summary: happy ending
Review: proulx writes of believable people, events, and quandries. after reading "open range" with some sad stories of life hitting hard i was happy to pick up the beautiful prose in a happy story. the ending leaves me wishing it was non-fiction and that i could pick up something that would enable me to move to the texas panhandle (and i don't like texas). although this novel does remain true to showing that people aren't perfect, it definately leaves me with a positive feeling about people rather than some of her previous more sorrowful works.
Rating:
Summary: happy ending
Review: proulx writes of believable people, events, and quandries. after reading "open range" with some sad stories of life hitting hard i was happy to pick up the beautiful prose in a happy story. the ending leaves me wishing it was non-fiction and that i could pick up something that would enable me to move to the texas panhandle (and i don't like texas). although this novel does remain true to showing that people aren't perfect, it definately leaves me with a positive feeling about people rather than some of her previous more sorrowful works.
Rating: 
Summary: "To live here it sure helps if you are half cow..."
Review: Stating that "nothing of the original prairie remain[s]," Proulx presents the Texas Panhandle through the eyes of 25-year-old Bob Dollar, a newcomer, who sees railroad tracks, grain elevators, drive-in restaurants, "welcome to" signs with mottoes, a plywood Jesus, irrigation rigs, condensation tanks, fences, "the raw material of human use," and not incidentally, long, gray hog farms, with their effluent lagoons in the rear, the stench overpowering the grasslands for miles around.Hired by Global Pork Rind to find the acreage needed for additional hog farms, Bob ingratiates himself with the townsfolk of the Panhandle town of Woolybucket, posing as a buyer of land for luxury housing. His meetings with cutely named townsfolk--Francis Scott Keister, Tater and Ace Crouch, Jerky Baum, Pecan Flagg, Blowy Cluck, Coolbroth Fronk, and Waldo Beautyrooms--and his discovery of their stories constitute the loose primary plot of this novel, which more closely resembles a quirky collection of short stories than a fully developed novel. "Eccentricities were valued and cultivated" here, but none of these earthy folk are eccentric enough to want more hog farms. Proulx raises some big issues here, such as the alarming depletion of the water table in the Panhandle, the pollution from oil fields and chemical plants, and the illnesses associated with proximity to hog farms, but she keeps her narrative from becoming polemical by weaving these into other threads about windmill-building, quilting, cock-fighting, social life in the local diner, and plans for the upcoming Barbwire Festival. She keeps things light and amusing, using the eccentricities of her characters and the setting to spice up her narrative about their not-very-exciting lives. Proulx is a real pro in controlling the pace of the novel. Whenever it starts to bog down or threaten to become dull, she gives us a new, outrageous name or an amusing digression (like the one about a lightbulb cemetery), or references to Bob's uncle's collection of "art plastic," or the visit of Bob's ex-con friend who, with some friends, made a recording of flatulent "Rock Hits From Prison." All these save the novel from being prairie-flat, as Bob tries to save his job without hurting the people he meets. The book is entertaining, and its feel-good ending, which explains the title, will please many readers, but ultimately, I found myself wanting more substance and story and less artifice. Mary Whipple
Rating:
Summary: Indescribable!
Review: Take the tallest of tall Texas tales. Mix them with a variety of characters with names that will send you into convulsions (eg, Freida Beautyroom, very aptly named). Tie the tales together with a naive male protagonist who has traveled from Colorado to the Texas Panhandle in hopes of making his fortune in coporate hog farming..and you have a simply brilliant, wonderful book. Young Bob Dollar has had an unorthodox life. His parents deserted him, and supposedly decamped to Alaska, never to be seen again. His Uncle Tam, who runs a down-in-the-heels junk shop, raises him along with his male "business partner." Bob's only friend is Orlando, a teenager who can only be called an alternate human. When Bob reaches maturity and seeks to make his way in the world, he is hired by Global Pork Rinds to scout out land for possible hog farms. Bob throws himself into the business--only to be thwarted at every turn by the very independent, and very unique, Panhandlers. His adventures are by turns side-splitting, sad, universal and warm. This is a truly one-of-a-kind book that is so unusual, so different, and so brilliant, it is truly hard to describe. My advice: Order it now and be treated to another of Ms. Proulx's incredibly original works. I simply loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, hollow effort for a writer capable of better
Review: The prodiguous talent that Annie Proulx displayed in her superb "The Shipping News", "Postcards" and "Accordion Crimes" is not as apparent in "Ace", which reads like a hollow pastiche of her earlier triumphs, a by-the-numbers Proulx book, if such a thing were possible. The basic story is a venerable one: ordinary folks fighting back against a big corporation (here, Global Pork Rind). A lot of Proulx's charm as a writer is her ability to humanize and empathize with deeply flawed characters who have been dealt a poor hand. This time, the people of the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle are portrayed more like curiosities or zoological exhibits puzzled over by a clueless outsider, Bob Dollar (Proulx's unique nomenclature has not deserted her, and we will also meet men called Wilfred Beautyrooms and Ribeye Cluke). Odd names aside, these people just aren't very interesting. Nor are the barren, square flatlands of the Panhandle, baking in the sun and swept by storms. Worse, the people are mean, petty, defiantly backward, racist and downright unpleasant. While no-one would wish for Proulx to sanitize or gloss over the ugly racial politics, here she weirdly seems to come close to endorsing them: the protagonist's half-hearted questioning of whether a local hero's Klan affiliation is something to be proud of is shot down with an defence of the Klan, and nothing more is said on the subject. That the woman enthusing about the Klan is one of the book's more sympathetic characters is unsettling; that the city-boy protagonist gets drawn into this community and comes to love its non-existent charms is bewildering beyond belief. One could be forgiven for thinking that the place would be improved if pig lots replaced the people. A glimpse of vintage Proust is seen in the entertaining story of a Dutch windmill expert turned oilman; but even this is let down by a preposterous conceit that has a brilliant, sharp, business-savvy man fooled into thinking a twelfth is bigger than a tenth. Finally, the book is irretrievably ruined by leaving several dangling plot ends, introducing several pointless dead-ends of plotting, and a lazy deus ex machina ending that is telegraphed by the title. No comparison here to the magnificently gentle epiphany that concludes "The Shipping News", just a sloppy dispatch. So, why three stars? Because the woman writes sentences of iridescent beauty. She is a master of description, of getting scenes, situations, details, people and dialog on paper and always worth reading for that alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Environmentalist pamphlet in hardcover
Review: This is not a novel. It is a political tract, the platform of the Green Party/Sierra CLub fundraising letter, with no characterization and less plot. Unless you are already a diehard lefty, it will have nothing to say to you. Avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Onion pie :-)
Review: This is the only Annie Proulx book that I've read and, despite my reservations of this title, I would be keen to have a go with her previous title 'The Shipping News', to see how it compares. On the plus side the quality of the prose, humour, and research is all up there with the better class of writers. On the minus side, the overall structure lets the book down, with too scant an integration of the background material and the main character, Bob Dollar, to such an extent, that Bob is pretty much superfluous. The Dutch windmill mechanic was more interesting and had more charisma than Bob. Tying the background details and histrionics into Bob's point of view, would have been a much more satisfactory way to present the material, and would have made for a more satisfactory read, at least. And the ending was too passé. It's as if Annie Proulx is cashing in on her celebrity with something too slap-dash to be credible.
Rating: 
Summary: wished for more
Review: This story is clumsy and confusing. The main theme of the story about Bob Dollar and his job to find land for a hog farm in the panhandle should have been interesting, but it was not. There were far too many characters introduced in the book who really had no place in the story. The book failed to tell a coherent story about the geography and history of the panhandle. Some of the writing was quite beautiful, I wished I could have understoond it better.
Rating: 
Summary: Give it some time
Review: Unfortunately, this book really doesn't get interesting or have much of a plot until almost two thirds into it. But those characters...they are all so alive. I've laughed outloud and some of the uses of the english language and reasoning of these folks from Wollybucket! Puts a smile on your face even if the plot isn't super think. I say that without trying to sell it short, there's a message in there and it may be diffrent for different folks.
Rating:
Summary: A rich, engrossing novel
Review: With this novel, Annie Proulx solidifies herself as one of America's greatest living literary treasures. This, I assure you, is not hyperbole. Ms. Proulx has an uncanny gift for twisting and shaping language into poetic prose that's as sharp and pointed as the barbed-wire fences she pays homage to in this remarkably satisfying novel. Some reviewers have complained of Ms. Proulx creating unnecessary confusion by introducing too many characters with too many quirks. I disagree: Ms. Proulx's characters are well realized and instantly memorable. Their lives interconect in a plausible, natural progression; nothing here feels forced. In fact, I would compare Ms. Proulx's densely populated novels to those of William Faulkner, another gifted author who eschewed perpetrating stereotypes in favor of creating rich, absorbing characters devoid of affectation. Her style of writing, however, is pure Hemmingway - direct, masculine, and concise. There are a few miscues here - hence the 4-star rating - but overall "That Old Ace in the Hole" is an intoxicating read that rewards patient readers looking for an entertaining yet thought-provoking story. A true gem.
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