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Summary: Where the Living Ain't Easy
Review: In Annie Proulx's Wyoming, "[n]obody sends you out to do chores [or] treats you like a fool." That independence is illusory, however. There is always work that need to be done and basic needs that must be satisfied if one is to survive. Dreams are rarely realized. For the most part, people leave for more forgiving environments or they stay and fail on their home turf. All eleven short stories in this compilation are compelling, and all exhibit the technical skill demonstrated in Proulx's previous works. Vivid details of ranch work and rural life bring the stories to life. There is little sentimentality here. Even the mundane is converted into a metaphor for the inevitable failure of man confronting the problems presented by Wyoming's tough nature. The "new" West is also reflected in some of the stories, which juxtapose its values with those of Wyoming's traditional--Proulx would probably say "true"--character and attitude. Proulx's characters stoically persist in the face of difficulty or prejudice. Their perspective is explicitly stated in "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World" (one of the few stories where a woman succeeds by a man's standards rather than being a sexual ornament or beast of burden): "The main thing in life was staying power. That was it: stand around long enough you'd get to sit down." The one story that does not work is the only love story in the collection, "Brokeback Mountain." The story, about an intense, long-term homosexual romance, is just not credible. The gay lovers even take three puppies on the pack trip that provides the occasion of their original meeting, "the runt inside Jack's coat, for he loved a little dog." Puppy-loving gay cowboys! C'mon, Ms. Proulx, you are better than that. My other criticism is that there are too few flights of fantasy and too little integration of Western folk tales into the stories. When those devices are employed, the effect is wonderful. I just wish there had been more. But that is more in the nature of a request than a criticism. "Close Range" will certainly help to cement Annie Proulx's reputation as an extraordinarily talented writer.
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Summary: Brothers Grimm and Aesop come to Wyoming
Review: I guess I have a different take on this book than most. There's quite a bit of discussion about the realism of the stories, and whether they provide an adequate portrait of Wyoming and its people. To me, this is a bit like discussing whether Hansel and Gretel is an accurate portrayal of the Black Forest and its denizens.These stories, although cloaked in the garb of realism, are clearly fables and fairy tales (one is an overt, brief retelling of the story of Bluebeard). And they are marvelously conceived and written.
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Summary: one of our best and i don't know who the others are
Review: Boyle? Banks? Ford? Carver? O'Connor? Welty?. She's there. This woman can pack more information into a sentence than anyone I've ever known. It's too bad you missed out on the limited copies of the illustrated first edition, of which I bought ten copies of for my colleagues. They are magnificent. I recommend the entire lot, from Greenland to Wyoming, the sense of place is insurpassable. Buy the lot. Spend the year.
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Summary: Annie Rocks
Review: Glimpses of heaven and hell and what lies in between. Proulx's short stories touch all the notes of the human condition, exhaultant and beautiful, weak or ugly. Powerful imagery. Some of the endings seem a little abrupt and a few seem hindered by her wordsmithing rather than freed by it, but when she strikes the perfect balance between poetry and story, like "Brokeback Mountain", she really nails it.
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Summary: Tripping Over Words
Review: Proulx is the Fellini of novelists and short story writers. Her use of language (her starnge and sometimes invented vocabulary, her colloquial syntax), her curious characters and barren locales, all sugget something of the Italian master of surrealsim and desperation. Proulx's characters inhabit a nether world of lost hopes and fragmented dreams, of broken families and broken souls. At the end of a Proulx story, one never says 'aha!', but rather 'huh?' She tests her readers at every turn and assumes we are up for the game. While I found myself bumping against some of the rocky outcroppings of her prose, there were also times when I was subsumed by her magic and was taken for a ride to a planet resembling Earth. All that is missing is love. Perhaps that makes Proulx more a realist than anything else.
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Summary: Sad, depressing, dark, yet a true masterpiece
Review: Everything you ever wanted to know about a cowboy life and more. A book of short stories covering different periods in the twentieth century. I enjoyed this beautifully written book so much, yet I largely found it very sad and depressing. Some of the stories literally race in breathtaking fashion through miserable lives, it is dark sad, frightening, depressing and so very real. Some stories take their time building up lives that had rare moment of happiness, but ultimately were largely sad. There is so much suffering in this book, so much blood and so much agony. In many respects this book is so very similar to Accordion Crimes. As always, thoroughly researched, AP must have spent her time in Wyoming reading everything that was ever written on rodeo life, horses and horse farms. The very well researched background material coupled with Proulx's creative character building and gifted story telling along with her mastery of the words makes for a great book that causes so much reflection. I don't mean to put anybody off this great book, but be warned this is not a book about the "triumph of the human spirit."
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Summary: Wyoming boy reads Proulx and loves it.
Review: Rawlins, Wyoming, once famous for "Rawlins Red," the pigment first used to paint the Brooklyn Bridge, is my hometown. The mines for that pigment were a favorite, very dangerous place to play when I was a kid. Annie Proulx, who lives in Wyoming, has truly captured the spirit and feel of my home state. The experiences of an elderly man, drawn to his old home in Wyoming and driving through a blizzard, brought back many memories. I've had hard times in similar circumstances, lost in a blizzard. The people she describes brought to mind old friends and acquaintances. The last story, about two sheepherders who find themselves in love with each other, is a wonderful glimpse of a reality that many Wyomingites deny although it is very much there. I love Borges, but I love Proulx, too. If you want a very smart read that brings to life a part of this country that too many people know too little about, then read this book. It is excellent. Go get your copy now.
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Summary: Powerful Language and Landscape Merge in Wyoming...
Review: Annie Proulx has been my favorite author ever since I read The Shipping News for the first time back in '93. Close Range showcases her gift for language and love of landscape. "The Mud Below" and "the Bunchgrass Edge of the World" were two favorites. In Mud, the rodeo life is vividly captured, interweved with the struggle of a single mom to raise her son. In Bunchgrass, the main character, a large, big-hearted girl, is the "embarassment of the family". As the story unfolds, Proulx utilizes an interesting talking tractor (!) and that wide open Wyoming landscape to tell the story of the big girl's lonliness and struggle to find a place in the world. Other stories, such as the well-praised "The Half-Skinned Steer" and "BrokenBack Mountain" highlight diverse themes and vivid characters. Proulx's writing is funny, intense, surprising, fresh and sometimes carries underlying environmental conservation themes. I've read all of her books and short stories. The more I read of her writings, the more I appreciate her literary reach, language and content.
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Summary: Excellent craftmanship!
Review: Annie Proulx manages to weave exquisite beauty into these stories which feature the roughest of cowboys and the harshest of landscapes. I was turned on to Proulx through the story "Brokeback Mountain", which appeared in an anthology of the best contemporary short stories, and I rushed out to buy this collection. The rest of the stories are equally beautiful. Proulx is a fine writer, creating unbelievably vivid stories with the lightest of hands. She is truly a master of language. Not one word is wasted. I generally would never pick up a book of cowboy stories, but Proulx has won me over. Her writing is superb, like poetry in motion. I too, am surprised at the Wyoming native who feels that Proulx has not represented Wyoming correctly. These are stories about individual people, and they are fiction. They do not represent all people from Wyoming. Rather, they capture the beauty of Wyoming, while weaving breathtaking, sometimes heartbreaking, but always unique tales. Proulx is a superior writer, and I highly recommend this collection of short stories.
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Summary: Wow
Review: Hemingway's been reincarnated and he writes better now. Go, Annie!
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