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Summary: An Outstanding Book!
Review: For all you lovers of good writing and the West, here's a new one that's a good one. CLOSE RANGE: WYOMING STORIES by Annie Proulx. I'm only about halfway through it and I can't wait to start over. Her narrative gallops along, seasoned with dialogue you'll swear you've overheard somewhere. The people and events range from unbelievably bizarre to painfully familiar.
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Summary: A desolate, barren yet beautiful world
Review: As Wyoming has more open space than any imagination can conceive, Proulx's collection of short stories paint a volatile and weather-beaten world where human psyche runs wild in this vast state most people try to avoid. Her cadence rolls between local dialect and poetic language like the foothills outside of Ten Sleep. "Brokeback Mountain" finishes this collection with a wake up call to the west. Excellent storytelling . . . put it on your summer reading list.
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Summary: Chris Offutt in another state?
Review: Hate to make Annie share my praise for her new stories with another author, but I swear, "Out of the Woods" and "Close Range" are two of the coolest books I've read in a long time. Perhaps ever? Different places, different writing, same people. I've been to Kentucky before, but never Wisconsin. Now I can say I have.
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Summary: Save yourself time; rent "The Twilight Zone" video instead
Review: Bad writing is bad writing; you read 100 pages, shrug it off, and move on. Writing such as Ms. Proulx', which combines such wonderful feel and imagery, giving one a sense of presence, can be insidious when combined with plots that are too gritty, too macabre, too out of synch with reality. You wind up reading the whole thing, hoping that just one of the stories will make it all worthwhile. In this book, it never happens.
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Summary: annie takes a little time off
Review: Don't expect anything like previous Annie Proulx works here. This collection of grim/goofy tales has all the staying power of a candy bar. Nowhere is the depth and complexity of her earlier works. "Close Range" left me with the feeling that it was written over a couple of weekends (spread far apart), and did not receive the writer's full effort. Her readers deserve better.
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Summary: Great and small stories -- the harsh and gentle West
Review: Ms. Proulx takes a wonderful turn on some old folk stories and some new explorations of love in the West. The Wyoming and western settings make the stories all the more romantic, real, and unflinching in their unforgiveness.I read my first reviews of this book in England in the Fall of 1998 and am glad to have found it here.
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Summary: Proulx's writing is superb, but most characters are losers.
Review: If you like stories about deteriorating human lives that leave nothing in their wakes then you'll like "Close Range". I'm an avid Proulx fan, but I got a little tired of the "no hope" situations played out over and over in these stories. I can't seem to stay away from her vivid images though. Pictures are painted that call up the exact smells and sounds of all the characters' pathetic adventures throughout. You'll think you are there--disgusted and morbidly curious at the same time.
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Summary: Annie Proulx is the real deal. 'Nuff said.
Review: Buy this book for yourself. Then buy a dozen more to give as Christmas presents... Close Range is my new coffee table book and I'm going to make it mandatory that all guests sit and read it
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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: Family ties and ranching make it very Close
Review: After reading a couple of stories of Annie Proulx's collection "Close Range: Wyoming Stories" I started feeling the line that kept the narrative together was the familiar feeling. But near the end, when I reached a tale called "The Governors of Wyoming", I realized that they are also about ranching. At a point in this very same story, a character states that "the main thing about ranching (...), last as long as you can, make things come out so's it's still your ranch when it is time to get buried. That's my take on it". This statement is clear what keeps all the stories together in this collection. In a way, or another, the main characters --and the main plot of narrative-- are dealing with forces --be them another person, destiny etc-- that are trying to steal their ranch. However, the family ties are another acting force --that may help to keep the ranch or lose it. There are always conflicts between siblings, husband and wives, mothers and sons. And another major theme is the intolerance that is all around us most of the time. This theme is the main object in the last --and probably the best --story, called "Brokeback Mountain" that narrates the relationship between to male cowboys that fall in love with each other. Due to their inhospitable environment their affair is fated to surrender. But if this is not a surprise, the dignity and beauty with Proulx deals with the characters that is an amazing thing. The stories have different objectives and paces. Take "Job History" for instance. It is so fast that sometimes looks like a newsreel. And so it could be, because it is the story of members of a family that are so busy with their own lives that they end up missing the history that is happening in their times. And it --history -- is interfering in their lives more than they realize or wanted to. Contrary to "Mountain" this is a very fast narrative. Each story has its own appeal and is dealt in a different way. "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World" stars like a regular one, but when its touches of surrealism begins, it becomes something very unusual, and one of the best of the collection. Much more accessible than Proulx's Pulitzer and National Book Prize winner "The Shipping News", "Close Range: Wyoming Stories" is a real treat to readers who like a sophisticated prose, written with heart, soul and smartness. It reads like Cormac McCarthy's best. Like most anthologies it is not easy to keep a high level all the time --but the writer succeeds most of the time. Of course, there are stories that I like better than other ones, but, as whole, I think the book is so good that it is impossible not to give it my highest recommendations.
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