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Apr 10, 2011

Nancy rated it:

I picked this up at the library last night because it was a tiny book, perfect for today's lunch time read.

I'm ashamed to say that I attempted to watch the film, but fell asleep about 45 minutes in. Now that I've read this story, I'm going to revisit the film.

This is the first time I've read Annie Proulx. It is amazing how much story she covers in so few pages. Her spare prose, concise style and quiet intensity really worked for me.

An absolutely beautiful, More...

36 comments like (30 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2011

Gavin rated it:

Normally, I would never read something like this. No, I am not homophobic (my older brother is gay); but I do get uncomfortable when reading about two men kissing. So, needless to say, I wasn't expecting much from this very short novella.

Let me be the first to say how utterly wrong I was. This novella is not merely about two men who fall in love; it is about love itself. The love story these men share is intense, stormy, beautiful, and heart-wrenching, and I found myself thankf More...

2 comments like (14 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2008

Jenny rated it:

I enjoyed reading the short story two weeks ago and finally had the opportunity to see the movie. I was concerned about the film staying true to the short story in terms of characterization and atmosphere. The reading was enjoyable; I didn’t want to sour the memory of it by an unfulfilling movie. I was pleasantly surprised. Director Ang Lee and screen writers Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana did a brilliant job of interpreting and synchronizing the original text into a script. I honestly fee More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

w rated it:

fragment
Opowiadanie jest takie surowe, można by powiedzieć, że źle napisane, ale moim zdaniem ten styl (zwłaszcza w tym przypadku) ma swój urok i mi pasuje. To dobre opowiadanie. Takie inne.

"W tej jednak chwili przepełnia go radość, ponieważ Jack Twist pojawił mu się we śnie."

"Ennis obudził się o purpurowym świcie, ze spodniami wokół kolan, z solidnym kacem i z przytulonym do siebie Jackiem; chociaż nie rozmawiali na ten temat, obaj dobrze wiedzieli, More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2009

Adrienne rated it:

this book was an impulse buy for me::i haven't seen the film::and must of missed all the hype surrounding the story when the film was made::aslo i haven't (on purpose) read any other reviews for this::so i went into blind so to speak::the first thing that surprised me was it is a short story::the second::the fact that it is set in the twentyith century::altho after reading it i can fully understand why::

what struck me about this story is that it isn't romantic::it isn't sexual::its a More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2007

Skip rated it:

This story is probably the perfect length for laying out in the yard on a Sunday afternoon. I'm thinking of a hammock...

But anyway, I guess we're supposed to talk about the "writing."
A real economy of language. Very sparse. It's like Proulx kept carving away down to just what was essential. And yet, this beautiful landscape and beautiful (and sad) love story comes through so sharply.

You almost can't not mention the film.
And I have to say, I was pr More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2010

Petra X rated it:

This is the first audio book I've 'read'. It was much more akin to listening to a radio play than sitting reading a book. There was no effort involved and by the nuancing of the narrator the book was interpreted for me. It was fast-paced, no time to sit and ponder a paragraph, no natural break between chapters just a pause. I can't say I enjoyed it, it felt fake, it felt like cheating, it felt like the dumbed-down version - all the work done for me and no need to particularly concentrate either, More...

7 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 26, 2010

Maggie rated it:

I know this story got a lot of hype because of it's "controversial" subject matter, but it's not about homosexuality at all. That's just a vehicle Proulx uses. It's about the things love has the power to do, and the things it doesn't. It's absolutely breathtaking.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2009

Endah rated it:

Kapan sebenarnya sejarah homoseksual dimulai? Apakah sejak jaman Nabi Luth atau jauh sebelum itu, sama tuanya dengan dunia ini? Yang jelas, hingga kini fenomena cinta sesama jenis (biasanya di kalangan pria disebut homoseks; untuk wanita sebutannya lesbian) itu masih terus kita jumpai di sekitar kita, bahkan kian terang-terangan. Hal yang dahulu dianggap sebagai sesuatu yang tabu dan menyimpang (tidak normal), hari ini menuntut hak dan perlakuan yang sama dengan kaum heteroseksual, kelompok deng More...

21 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 22, 2010

Serena rated it:

This book was chosen for me in the 'pick it for me challenge' in the m/m romance group here on goodreads. It's a classic (or should be), I saw the movie years ago, and I was amazed how short the book is.

This is one of the most well written stories I have ever read. In places, it is more like a sketch than a painting. And yet it describes the main characters and their awful dilemma and, ultimately, suffering in such clear pictures that it broke my heart all over again.

This More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Nate rated it:

I read this in Israel of all places, years before the movie was made... If you haven't seen the movie, I would strongly recommend you read the short story first. It is excellent and gives me some new insight every time I read it. It is very short, but every phrase was purposely written. You have to read it very slowly, or an important detail is missed - this is an amazing feature of Proulx's writing that I greatly appreciate. Also, you will appreciate the movie more if you read the story fi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Anne added it

Disclaimer: I'd give the *movie* four enthusiastic stars, and I saw it on antidepressants. But the story is much less complex and compelling, and the moment of, erm, entry is one of the most clinical descriptions of coitus ever rendered. I should admit that I'm not really an Annie Proulx fan. When I read *The Shipping News,* I was not yet twenty and easily seduced by lush language and depressing characters. But a re-read several years later left me disappointed, annoyed, and worried about p More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2008

Tracy rated it:

The beautiful love story almost identical to the movie about Ennos and Jack. The two men fall into forbidden love one summer while working as sheep herders on a ranch. They both claim they aren't "queer" and both marry and have children. But they get away from their families once or twice every year to see each other. Jack wants them to abandon their charade and be together despite all the negativity and static they will get from other people. Ennos doesn't want to risk it because he c More...

0 comments like

Feb 03, 2012

Rachel rated it:

I read this recently for an LGBT book club. What can I say, I didn't like it. (I have seen the movie and didn't like that either.)

This is the story of two young men in the west in the sixties who have a love affair while tending sheep one summer. This affair continues for many years, until one of the characters is brutally killed.

According to one of the blurbs on the back of the book Brokeback Mountain "Abolishes the Old West cliches". Perhaps, but it does nothing More...

0 comments like

Nov 25, 2011

Carolyn F. rated it:

Audiobook. I did not realize this was a short story. This is an unabridged CD with Campbell Scott as the narrator. I should have known it was a short story because usually if its a celebrity narrating the book, it's the unabridged version.

I have never watched the movie, although I've wanted to. I wish the relationship between Ennis and Jack would have been expanded upon. They just sit by the fire, one touches the other's penis and then they're going at it. It doesn't talk about More...

0 comments like

Oct 27, 2011

Ismail rated it:

It's astounding how much story is packed into this 55-page epic of love found, squandered, salvaged and ultimately lost forever. From the vivid scenery of the West to the intimate relations between two lovers, this very quick read (took me an hour to read with interruptions) proves to be a force of nature and an exemplary lesson on succinct writing.

I think my imagination to fill in the details has been polluted by having seen the movie first. With that, though, I still very much enjoy More...

0 comments like

Aug 24, 2011

Dana rated it:

*I am a member of a family of ranchers and rodeo cowboys so I do honestly understand this lifestyle and its social norms.

I listened to the audio version of this and frankly, I was blown away.

I am traditionally not a fan of short stories. Epic fantasy is my favorite and is at the opposite end of the spectrum so to speak. I have always felt that short stories are the 'commercials' of writing. don't get me wrong, some commercials are better than the show you are watchi More...

0 comments like

Aug 02, 2011

Steph rated it:

I read this short story after seeing the movie and both are heartbreakingly beautiful in their own way. The book is straight to the point and grabs you with the dialog and prose. It was written in a way stories are sometimes told orally yet this creates a fast read. The movie has amazing open lonely cold landscape of Brokeback Mountain that parallels with the boys own loneliness and emptiness. Both capture the raw emotion that these boys fight with when trying to hold onto what they have in each More...

0 comments like

Feb 23, 2011

Christine rated it:

Gender advocacy has been a part of my system since I got inducted into the world of GABRIELA. We were partners with a group called Pro-Gay/LesboND so I was also pretty much exposed to homosexual stories of all types.

When the movie Brokeback Mountain came out, pun intended, I heard too many times the comments Yuck and Eeew regarding the love scenes, especially that first encounter between Jack and Ennis. Maybe people still weren't used to homosexual or gay intimate scenes in mainstrea More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2011

Travis rated it:

Although I found the dialect a bit hard to manage (there were a few places where I honestly didn't know what they meant), I thought it worked really well. In a full-length story I probably would have gotten sick of it, but it was okay for something this length.[return][return]I would have preferred a tighter third person POV. I don't really like omniscient. Sometimes there would have been no other way to get in some of the info she obviously wanted in, but then sometimes there was stuff that was More...

0 comments like

Oct 08, 2010

htanzil rated it:

ack Twist dan Ennis del Mar, dua pria yang bersahabat dan saling mencintai. Secara terpisah mereka tumbuh dewasa di peternakan-peternakan kecil yang miskin di kawasan Utara Amerika Serikat. Mereka berdua pemuda desa yang tidak lulus dalam sekolahnya , tanpa masa depan, serta dibesarkan dalam kerja keras dan kemiskinan. Kehidupan yang keras dan serba kekurangan membentuk karakter kedua pemuda ini menjadi pemuda yang sering bertingkah dan berbicara kasar

Mereka bertemu pertama kali pada d More...

1 comment like

Jun 04, 2010

Ruth rated it:

64 pages.

Gay love in the old west.

Winner of the US National Magazine Award following its publication in The New Yorker in 1997, Annie Proulx's novella Brokeback Mountain follows her international success with The Shipping News and Accordian Crimes, confirming her status as one of the most powerful and accomplished voices in contemporary American fiction. With remarkable economy of style, Proulx traces the story of a "pair of deuces going nowhere", Jack Twist and More...

0 comments like

Feb 19, 2010

Della rated it:

i usually read the novels first, but in this case i watched the movie long before i read the short story. having never read anything by Proulx, i expected the text to reveal the wistfulness and the beauty of the landscape that was conveyed in the movie. Proulx's prose is a little too scarce for my liking, and it probably didn't help that i was reading a bit too fast since i was already familiar with the plotline. that said, she does an incredible job putting tone into the narrative and feeling i More...

0 comments like

Jun 02, 2009

Julie rated it:

06/01/2009
I started reading Close Range, the first of three collections of Wyoming stories written by Annie Proulx. I have had this book for several years and am just now getting around to reading it.

Close Range consists of the following collection of short stories:

The Half-Skinned Steer
The Mud Below
Job History
The Blood Bay
People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water
The Bunchgrass Edge of the World
Pair a Spurs
A Lonely Coast More...

0 comments like

Sep 16, 2011

NoeandSuz rated it:

The story is tragic and heartbreaking, yet hauntingly beautiful. Annie delivers only what is needed.

"And I’ll say it just one more time. Tell you what we could a had a good life together, a fucking real good life. You wouldn’t do it, Ennis, so what we got now is Brokeback Mountain. Everything built on that. It’s all we got, boy, fuckin all, so I hope you know that if you don’t never knew the rest. Count the damn few times we been together in twenty years. Measure the fucking short More...

0 comments like

Nov 02, 2010

Michael rated it:

This is a lovely, touching, remarkable short story on a very taboo subject. It's a reminder to us all that many seek 'balance in LOVE'. It's about two rough & tough cowboys who find themselves alone one starry night. They move on with their lives but can never lose thought of the hold they have for one another. The story was originially written by Annie Proulx as a magazine article in THE NEW YORKER in Oct. 1997. I couldn't help but think of Matthew Shepard, the gay hate crime victim, knowing th More...

0 comments like

Feb 03, 2010

Evan rated it:

Everything in this "book" (really, at best, a novella or very long short story) is in the film, which I saw a few years back, and somehow managed to stretch this 45-minute read into a 134-minute overblown, self-important American pseudo classic. In any case, it would have to be the most faithful adaptation of a book to film, ever. Interestingly, the only character I really cared about in the film was Alma, because there her plight and her tears were explicit, and I felt for her as her More...

0 comments like

Jan 09, 2012

Utie rated it:

Sehebat apapun kisah Jack Twist dan Eenis del Mar yg mempertahankan cinta mereka selama 20 tahun, tetap saja sebagai bagian dari anggota masyarakat, mereka tidak bisa mengelak dari kenyataan norma yang berlaku^^

Mungkin ini pesan yg ingin disampaikan oleh Brokeback Mountain

Dari sekian banyak novel yang saya masukan di goodreads, kenapa yang ini bisa tertinggal ya? Hehehe..

Dipenuhi dengan rasa penasaran seperti apa sih novelnya setelah nonton filmnya, saya pun langsu More...

0 comments like

Dec 12, 2011

Reid rated it:

The author emphasizes this as an impossible love story between two men, a romantic, and an emotionally self-alienated realist, by comparing it to the hobo’s fantasy of Big Rock Candy Mountain, a place that could never exist, when Jack Twist’s wife says that Brokeback Mountain “might be some pretend place where the bluebirds sing and there’s a whiskey spring.” But, the real world dilemma is expressed by Ennis Del Mar - “This happen a other people? What the hell do they do?” Well, with these ch More...

0 comments like

Jul 21, 2011

Aleah rated it:

Brokeback Mountain recounts the love of Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar, a couple of "high school dropout country boys brought up with no prospects." Both are looking for work wherever it can be found. During the summer of 1963 the work brings them together on the summer range of Brokeback Mountain. What begins as a casual relationship evolves into the most important thing in both men's lives, but the strength of their feelings for one another isn't enough to protect against the dark shad More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)