Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: I had a hard time finishing this collection. I picked it up because a friend just moved to Wyoming, and I thought I might share it, and because I was intrigued by the excellent watercolors. Although I did finish, it took some work. I did not like the characters I met in these stories, and it does not make me want to visit this state. The desperation, brutality, and sexual violence was disturbing. It is not something I plan to recommend. That said, I felt that the writing itself was good, so perhaps the subject matter was the problem. I don't like to denigrate a book for its content, thereby sounding easy-to-offend, but I was disappointed with and frustrated by the choice of content and the energy that the content, not the writing, gave out. Considering the writing and the paintings, I've tried to find a way to feel comfortable sharing this book but I just can't.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wyoming Cowboy's Opinion
Review: I grew up a cowboy, working on my granddaddy's ranch in Western Wyoming, and reading "Close Range" reminded me of all the reasons I chose to leave Wyoming, and all the reasons I wish I were back there.Life back home was a big stew of frostbite and mud, blood, snot, booze, and just a pinch of hope that tomorrow might be better. This book has the recipe down pat. Just one cowboy's opinion- read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I think the phrase "love-hate" relationship is applicable
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I first read 4 of the stories in this collection in the "New Yorker" magazine: "The Mud Below"," Brokeback Mountain" (a very powerful tale,) "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World," and the short, grisly, but hilarious, "The Blood Bay." I've never been to Wyoming, so I don't know how accurate her portrayal of it is (I guess at least one reader feels it's not a good reflection of Wyoming.) Ms. Proulx, however, is one of those writers whose prose is so well done and tells stories so well that her voice is extremely authoritative and the stories are very diverting. The watercolor plates throughout the book are beautifully done. I wish there had been more of them. I suppose I would agree with the god-like Roger Eder in "The New York Times Book Review," when he argues that Ms. Proulx's uneasiness with the short fiction form makes some of the endings seem a bit abrupt, but I personally thought this a very entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: This is Wyoming? Nooooo!
Review: There is not one likable character in this collection of short stories. Proulx has a great talent for fresh language and graphic descriptions, but these stories are certainly not an HONEST depiction of life in Wyoming. The stories gradually become boring and almost unreadable because they are so skewed: the endless parade of ignorant and brutal ranchers, loveless marriages, abusive parents, scarred and hateful children, tractors that talk and kill, etc. etc. etc. If Proulx's stories were really Wyoming, then God help the state! And if this author can win a Pulitzer prize, then God help American literature!
Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: This collection of stories, by one of my favourite American authors, describes a world that most European readers, this one included, know nothing about. Yet, despite the sheer alien nature of this world for me, the stories touched and moved me with their beauty, imagery and finely-tuned writing. Proulx makes no concessions and the collection is all the stronger for it. "The Half-Skinned Steer" still haunts me now, months after I finished reading it. And the implacable fatalism of "Job History" is terrifying. I can't wait for the next book by this writer.
Rating:
Summary: A vital tonic for rope-em-up dreams
Review: Annie's book is a great portrait of the underside of Western life-- one that I'd guess the majority of her readers never have to see nor deal with-- whether they live in Wyoming or not. I'd suppose the majority of Wyoming-ites wouldn't be too happy with stories of sodomizing cowboys, but from my twelve years in Idaho, I'd have to say that this is the closest-to-reality written description of the real lives of folks that do the work in the West. Annie doesn't discuss the very literal high-flying jet-set life that those who own the 60,000 acre ranches live-- she talks about the folks who are employed in this landlord-serf culture. And it ain't pretty. Highly recommended for all those in love with iconographic cowboy imagery. Maybe you'll actually feel something real instead of rope-em-up dreams.
Rating:
Summary: Well-crafted, alternately intriguing
Review: For those who've read the author's other books, including "The Shipping News", her style will not seem unfamiliar; she writes hard, clipped sentences (sometimes just phrases) that individually slice like cleavers, but together - in the paragraph and on a page - deliver wonderful, biting descriptions of the feelings and experiences of her characters. It may take some a few pages to get used to this style, but the effort is well worth it; Proulx is one of the sharpest novelists around. Her short stories are somewhat less successful, but no less intriguing. She herself has admitted, in interviews, that she has felt that the short form was not her strong suit, and that she wrote many of these stories as a way of challenging herself. While she may not be classified as a master of the genre, she does a fine job of it. These stories are interesting, well-written in general, and intriguing. She can get to the core of a character's emotion and experience, making the familiar seem special, and the special seem normal. Sure, as some - especially a few from the great state in the West - have written previously, not all of the citizens of Wyoming are like her characters. But that's no reason not to read and enjoy this book. What work of FICTION is completely realistic? Ms. Proulx is writing her vision; we should read it that way and enjoy. HINT: The best way to read this book is on a cold, snowy, "thank-god-I'm-not-out-there" kind of day. Take a pause between stories; don't read it cover-to-cover. That will flatten out some of the unevenness, and make the pleasure last longer.
Rating:
Summary: As dense as a piece of cheddar cheese (low fat).
Review: The writing is so spare there's not an ounce of fat there. Ideas, characters, and stories are densly packed into what must be the minimum workable wordage. Like any rich food it's not to be rushed. As for roughneck stories - I still prefer Steinbeck.
Rating:
Summary: quit crying westernites
Review: A work of fiction is simply that: fiction. Proulx is a gifted writer and an exceptional stylist and this book is a salient example of her talent. Why is it that this book has to stand for all Wyomongites? These are the people Proulx chose to write about whether you like it or not; that is the artist's right, she shouldn't have to explain her characterizations to everyone. Get over your inferiority complexes and read the stories for what they are; excellent representations of the craft of fiction, not universal truths or accurate portrayals of the people who live in your state. I respect the fact that she portrays people with problems in an unsympathetic light and doesn't pander to the pc cry babies who say a book is worthless if it doesn't conform to a group of people's own imagined identity. Are all Dubliners represented in Joyce, is the South encompassed by Faulkner? No, fiction is not sociology so get off your high-horses and appreciate the stories even if the characters aren't cowboys in white hats and damsels in distress.
Rating: 
Summary: Cowboy Cartoons, Nicely Rendered.
Review: It's clear that Proulx is a skillful prose stylist, and some of the stories are surprising in their plots, but her "cowboys" seem like paper doll versions of real people--viewed from outside and ultimately stereotypical. I don't care if it's bleak or if it shows Wyoming in a bad light; I just wanted to believe in these folks. But despite her fine sense of detail, the characters make me think that the author's view is mainly that of a tourist--an ethnographer who has the details right, but draws the spirit of the characters from careful study of "Gunsmoke" or some such.
|
