With the very first sentence of the first story in this remarkable collection, Annie Proulx demonstrates what makes her great: images sharp as pape...
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Nov 04, 2008
Colin
rated it: 
I’m more inclined to recommend individual stories out of E. Annie Proulx’s Close Range as opposed to the whole book. Every story is set in Wyoming (as is noted by the book’s subtitle). This makes for an interesting dynamic as the reader already has an idea of what Wyoming is like and a setting description given in one story can bleed over into the others. The most famous story is now “Brokeback Mountain” because nothing promotes a book like the movie. (For the record, “Brokeback Mountain” is one
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Dec 05, 2007
Jessica
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I love E. Annie Proulx. I honestly think that Myers guy must just have some problems he's got to sort out. I didn't read his book, but the examples he gave in that article of how awful her prose is only reminded me how much I enjoy her stuff, and made me want to go back and read some Proulx again. And I really don't think I'm especially pretentious, or cowed by snooty literary reviewers, whom I barely read. In fact I barely read at all these days, I have such a short attention span, and to me th
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Dec 17, 2009
Andrew
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Excellent. I usually react a bit badly to the faux-naif voice, which she slips in and out of. But eventually the overwrought language began to seem just exuberant. And the tragedies of the stories were more celebratory than painful: these characters push almost joyfully toward their doom. (Christ, I loved "The Blood Bay," the little yarn that stops long before the characters get whatever it is they have coming.) The leaping language that stops every once in a while to use their voi
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Jan 15, 2010
J
rated it: 
Tell you what, them queer cowboys like to broke my heart. Annie Proulx, I wish I knew how to quit you.
Your strange mix of roughed up realism and supernatural does something to my insides. It’s too much for ordinary sentence structure. Pours out all over the confines of punctuation, seeping into my subconscious until I’m drunk and reeling reading just a sentence then a few paragraphs and soon the whole story to anyone who’ll listen. And still I want more.
Your strange mix of roughed up realism and supernatural does something to my insides. It’s too much for ordinary sentence structure. Pours out all over the confines of punctuation, seeping into my subconscious until I’m drunk and reeling reading just a sentence then a few paragraphs and soon the whole story to anyone who’ll listen. And still I want more.
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Sep 15, 2010
Matt
rated it:
"Only earth and sky matter. Only the endlessly repeated flood of morning light. You begin to see that God does not owe us much beyond that." (99)
Annie Proulx creates some very convincing characters and stories. Her descriptions and sentences often make me reread and analyze them, how amazing her metaphors and deep her imagery. She is an extremely talented writer.
All of these stories are steeped in Wyoming culture, life and lore. The collection starts out very st More...
Annie Proulx creates some very convincing characters and stories. Her descriptions and sentences often make me reread and analyze them, how amazing her metaphors and deep her imagery. She is an extremely talented writer.
All of these stories are steeped in Wyoming culture, life and lore. The collection starts out very st More...
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Dec 15, 2007
Charissa
rated it:
I absolutely love E. Annie Proulx. She does that thing with words that makes me go all dissociated from the world around me and live inside the world she creates. I am almost always disturbed by her stories but I can't stop reading them. In fact, her writing is so good that when I saw "Brokeback Mountain" (which I saw *before* I read her short fic on which it was based), I didn't think it was a great story... until I read her actual story. There is ONE line in her piece that makes the
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Aug 16, 2007
Erin
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Before Brokeback Mountain gets taken entirely out of context, take a look at Annie Proulx's Close Range: Wyoming Stories, the collection in which the story is featured. If you've seen the movie but have yet to read the story, I suggest you begin here. If you've already read the story by itself, come back to this collection entire. While Diana Ossana (one of the movie's produces & screenwriters) came across it in the New Yorker and felt inspired to write a screenplay, the story itself does not si
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Jul 29, 2007
Bookshop
rated it:
When I discovered that the movie was based on an award winning short story which was first published in the New Yorker, I was intrigued. So I bought this edition which is published as a movie tie-in.
The written form sorts of explain of some aspects of the movie which I find confusing such as what happened to Jack Twist in the end. Brokeback Mountain is perhaps the only readable story in this collection. Brokeback Mountain the story is bare and gritty as the movie is lush and tender. More...
The written form sorts of explain of some aspects of the movie which I find confusing such as what happened to Jack Twist in the end. Brokeback Mountain is perhaps the only readable story in this collection. Brokeback Mountain the story is bare and gritty as the movie is lush and tender. More...
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Dec 05, 2007
Joe
rated it:
If you already know why Annie Proulx rox ur fuckin face off, then I don't know why you're reading a review instead of the book itself. It's Annie Fuckin Proulx. Read it, you bastard.
Proulx gets away with all the shit that no one else could. A grab bag of voices, all unlikely, that switch mid-sentence; stories that end long after the first narrative arc dead-ended and long before the second gets off the ground; nonsensical lines that don't mean squat no matter how you squint but sure More...
Proulx gets away with all the shit that no one else could. A grab bag of voices, all unlikely, that switch mid-sentence; stories that end long after the first narrative arc dead-ended and long before the second gets off the ground; nonsensical lines that don't mean squat no matter how you squint but sure More...
Jun 14, 2007
Trin
rated it:
Should actually be subtitled "Why Not to Live in Wyoming." Seriously, this is one of the most depressing collections of short stories I've ever encountered. Which is not to say they're not good, just that I'd kind of like to challenge Proulx to write a bit of light comedy or something.
"Brokeback Mountain" is the best, and I actually find the story much more evocative and powerful than the film. (Not that Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger making out is anything to s More...
"Brokeback Mountain" is the best, and I actually find the story much more evocative and powerful than the film. (Not that Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger making out is anything to s More...
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Nov 30, 2008
I am pretty sure that title is supposed to be ironic. Also, this book ran the gamut from urban legends [in the least urban part of the country. would that be prarie legends?] to horror stories to murder most foul! also Brokeback Mountain, which, if you've been living under a rock, is gay cowboy love. I had read BbM years ago, but reading it again a couple of weeks after the election [on the same day, notably, that I watched both "I Can't Marry You" and "The Laramie Project"
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Jan 27, 2012
Tony
rated it:
In 11 short stories the lives of Proulx's characters are shaped by the environment and political economy of Wyoming, mediated by personal relationships and especially by family life, with its deeps and shadows. The prose is spare yet often poetic.
The wonderful collection sometimes soars up within sight of William Faulker. The idea I took from Faulkner was that the intensity of people's passions can redeem their dignity and honour, even as they blunder through stunting and degrading More...
The wonderful collection sometimes soars up within sight of William Faulker. The idea I took from Faulkner was that the intensity of people's passions can redeem their dignity and honour, even as they blunder through stunting and degrading More...
Jul 30, 2010
Matthew
rated it:
This is a set of modern folktales. A lot of the tales are sort of frightening. Proulx has a bitter, tasty, dark humor. Most of the characters are lonely and miserable.
Proulx is a writer like McCarthy who manages to fit in a great deal of mechanical detail that somehow makes the story more gripping and immediate, instead of causing it to lag. The difference between Proulx and McCarthy (as fierce, modern writers of westerns) is that McCarthy can write convincingly about the punishi More...
Proulx is a writer like McCarthy who manages to fit in a great deal of mechanical detail that somehow makes the story more gripping and immediate, instead of causing it to lag. The difference between Proulx and McCarthy (as fierce, modern writers of westerns) is that McCarthy can write convincingly about the punishi More...
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Aug 29, 2009
Clinton
rated it:
Just reread this, after I kept looking up, seeing it on the shelf, and thinking, "Man, I need to reread that."
There isn't a wasted word in this book. The stories are lean, visceral, and operatic. Her characters and plots surprise in the way that Flannery O'Connor's do, by spontaneous manifestations of grace and evil.
The collection begins and ends with two masterpieces: "The Half-Skinned Steer"--a tale of fate that uses an Icelandic legend--and " More...
There isn't a wasted word in this book. The stories are lean, visceral, and operatic. Her characters and plots surprise in the way that Flannery O'Connor's do, by spontaneous manifestations of grace and evil.
The collection begins and ends with two masterpieces: "The Half-Skinned Steer"--a tale of fate that uses an Icelandic legend--and " More...
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Jan 28, 2011
Angie
rated it:
Don’t worry—I haven’t given much away here:
Wow—A whole new world (No! Not the theme to Aladin). This is a bunch of short stories about such things as escaping the hard life of Wyoming. Another where a mother belittles her son enough that he hates her but she also shows tries to show him what riding bulls in a rodeo can do to men…(the making of a serial rapist?). Another where a near-mute, disabled person is cut up for things he may or may not have done.
Poverty in a place More...
Wow—A whole new world (No! Not the theme to Aladin). This is a bunch of short stories about such things as escaping the hard life of Wyoming. Another where a mother belittles her son enough that he hates her but she also shows tries to show him what riding bulls in a rodeo can do to men…(the making of a serial rapist?). Another where a near-mute, disabled person is cut up for things he may or may not have done.
Poverty in a place More...
Sep 29, 2009
Aerin
rated it:
Annie Proulx is an incredible writer. This is the first book of hers I've read, but I'll definitely be looking for more.
I picked this one up because of its subtitle. I've driven through Wyoming several times, always as part of a cross-country road trip, and though I've never stayed for long - not even for the night, that I recall - Wyoming epitomizes for me that feeling that I so miss when I'm not road tripping: The sense of being all alone in a vast emptiness of road and sky and More...
I picked this one up because of its subtitle. I've driven through Wyoming several times, always as part of a cross-country road trip, and though I've never stayed for long - not even for the night, that I recall - Wyoming epitomizes for me that feeling that I so miss when I'm not road tripping: The sense of being all alone in a vast emptiness of road and sky and More...
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Jan 25, 2011
Kurt
rated it:
Annie Proulx won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Shipping News, so I was interested in getting a taste of her writing. Of course, because of the notoriety of the movie Brokeback Mountain, I also knew that she wrote that short story among many others. Close Range is a collection of short stories that are all set in rural Wyoming (is there any other kind of Wyoming?).
For the most part I enjoyed the stories -- some more so than others, Brokeback Mountain being one of the best. One More...
For the most part I enjoyed the stories -- some more so than others, Brokeback Mountain being one of the best. One More...
Jan 19, 2012
Rita
rated it:
These are such amazing stories.
It is hard to believe that some people are living these terribly hard-scrabble kinds of lives, but I DO believe it.
Proulx needs so few words to make it all seem so very real, and the climate and the characters come to life.
I had read Brokeback Mtn after seeing the film several years ago and was impressed then, but rereading it now I'm even more impressed. In just 25 little pages you seem to get the whole lives of two persons. So much tensio More...
It is hard to believe that some people are living these terribly hard-scrabble kinds of lives, but I DO believe it.
Proulx needs so few words to make it all seem so very real, and the climate and the characters come to life.
I had read Brokeback Mtn after seeing the film several years ago and was impressed then, but rereading it now I'm even more impressed. In just 25 little pages you seem to get the whole lives of two persons. So much tensio More...
Oct 28, 2011
Ian
rated it:
A truly wonderful book, that I don't mind telling you made me cry like a baby.
"Nobody leaves Wyoming unless they have to," Annie Proulx. I'm pleased I waited until I had to leave Wyoming to read this book, despite it stirring powerful feelings of homesickness. I had encountered 1-2 Proulx stories in the New Yorker before now, I had loved the film version of Brokeback Mountain, and of course, I lived in Laramie for a decade where Proulx is something of a quiet celebrity.
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"Nobody leaves Wyoming unless they have to," Annie Proulx. I'm pleased I waited until I had to leave Wyoming to read this book, despite it stirring powerful feelings of homesickness. I had encountered 1-2 Proulx stories in the New Yorker before now, I had loved the film version of Brokeback Mountain, and of course, I lived in Laramie for a decade where Proulx is something of a quiet celebrity.
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Sep 16, 2011
Thalia
rated it:
I'm not a big fan of either short stories or nature stories, but this collection of sometimes disturbing, sometimes supernatural glimpses of the harsh life in Wyoming, is just wonderful. I admit I bought it because I wanted to read Brokeback Mountain before going to see the movie (which I haven't seen yet), so I read that story frist. Then I read the rest of the stories, in between I went back to Brokeback Mountain, read the rest and read BM again. And I know it wasn't the last time. The whole b
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Mar 02, 2011
Charlene
rated it:
Three chapters into Proulx's newest book, Bird Ranch, I decided that I should read some of her fiction, preferably something set in Wyoming. Didn't plan on reading all of these; short stories are not normally my thing. But Proulx is an excellent writer and perhaps because they all share the rural Wyoming setting, they hang together well as a collection. My favorite story, A Lonely Coast, was the only story with a female narrator. Probably the most memorable story to me was Pair of Spurs; cer
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Jun 16, 2010
Chloe
rated it:
Yes, THAT one. Brokeback Mountain is leaps and bounds ahead as the most famous story in this collection, but there is much more going on here.
First of all, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are not actually IN this book (sorry). This is a rare instance where I actually liked the movie better than its source material, partially because these are SHORT stories. Usually I'm all over that, but sometimes I would blink and go Where's the rest? Proulx is mistress of the plain, terse phrase...you More...
First of all, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are not actually IN this book (sorry). This is a rare instance where I actually liked the movie better than its source material, partially because these are SHORT stories. Usually I'm all over that, but sometimes I would blink and go Where's the rest? Proulx is mistress of the plain, terse phrase...you More...
Jun 02, 2009
Tom
rated it:
My biggest problem with this book, or any of the Annie Proulx stories that I've read, is that they are basically all the same story:
Simple cowboy/rancher/farmer with a hard life and mean family gets all mixed up with sex & desire that pretty much leaves him messed up for the rest of his life. We assume everybody dies unhappy but most of the time, there's not a cut and dried ending.
I think I only need to read that story one time, not over and over.
Yes the st More...
Simple cowboy/rancher/farmer with a hard life and mean family gets all mixed up with sex & desire that pretty much leaves him messed up for the rest of his life. We assume everybody dies unhappy but most of the time, there's not a cut and dried ending.
I think I only need to read that story one time, not over and over.
Yes the st More...
Apr 01, 2009
Talia
rated it:
One of the many short stories in this collection is the infamous "Brokeback Mountain", a story about 2 cowboys who find love while tending sheep in the Wyoming mountains. "Brokeback Mountain" is the strongest and best-written out of the bunch, and it's obvious through the writing why it was made into a movie. Also good is "The Mud Below", about an aspiring rodeo star, and "A Lonely Coast", about a single 40-something woman looking for love. As with most sh
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Jan 12, 2012
Becky
rated it:
So, Annie Proulx is a wizard of the English language who brings to vivid life a hauntingly beautiful, devastatingly lonely part of the country that once you're there you can't quit (yes, this collection includes "Brokeback Mountain"). The themes in this book are, at times, absolutely depressing--lots of premature deaths, most of the women (though usually just in passing mention) are sexually abused at some point or another, and there are a disproportionate number of people who are comp
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Feb 24, 2011
Reema
rated it:
a clear-eyed, grim-visioned, muscular collection. i loved proulx's focus on marginal characters in marginal places--Diamond the violent bull-rider, Ottaline the thick and overlooked farm girl, and of course cowboy lovers Ennis and Jack--and how she generously gives them complex, struggling shape. proulx's deep understanding of the land is all over these pages: in the flavored dialogue, the descriptions of landscape, and the insights about how this hard place makes for hard people. especially hea
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Jun 10, 2009
Michael
rated it:
I went into the a bit prejudiced by both the whole gay cowboys eating pudding thing, and the hype and hating that has accompanied Proulx's work. I don't really buy either side of that argument. Proulx is Cormac McCarthy-lite in this collection, with the same grit piss and blood, but with that odd ray of sunshine striking in through the clouds, the very slight possibility of escape that McCarthy never allows in his dark world of blood thirst and dry bones. I could imagine for the minimalist sh
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Apr 21, 2011
Hazel
rated it:
If I could choose any living writer to study with, it would be Annie Proulx. Beyond the odd short story, this was my first real exposure to the prose of Annie Proulx. Reading this collection was like easing into a swimming pool, at first I was uncomfortable, unsure of how to read Proulx, the way her sentences flow un-punctuated and runny, but, after I got used to the movement of the prose, I was in awe.
The collection itself slinks through the ranch-land of Wyoming. Each story pulls ou More...
The collection itself slinks through the ranch-land of Wyoming. Each story pulls ou More...
Jul 24, 2009
Brett
rated it:
A collection of mostly excellent, though depressing, short stories. I enjoyed the strangeness of Accordian Crimes more than the dour and repressed Close Range, but there is no getting around the power Proulx can exercise over the imagination.
Having grown up in South Dakota, the Wyoming environment that Proulx cultivates is not totally unknown to me, and moreover, feels pretty true to some of the sort of people I used to know back home. Like the plants on the landscape that Proulx More...
Having grown up in South Dakota, the Wyoming environment that Proulx cultivates is not totally unknown to me, and moreover, feels pretty true to some of the sort of people I used to know back home. Like the plants on the landscape that Proulx More...
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Jun 25, 2009
Janet
rated it:
Like many others, I picked up this book in order to read 'Brokeback Mountain' and also as I'd loved 'The Shipping News'.
I am in awe of Proulx's ability to tranpose one so thoroughly into an environment. The setting of Wyoming and it's people is certainly a world that is far removed from my general experience and I was unsure how I would fare with these 'cowboy' stories. I was not disappointed. Characters come alive in a few sparse sentences. Mood is expressed sublimely. You can feel More...
I am in awe of Proulx's ability to tranpose one so thoroughly into an environment. The setting of Wyoming and it's people is certainly a world that is far removed from my general experience and I was unsure how I would fare with these 'cowboy' stories. I was not disappointed. Characters come alive in a few sparse sentences. Mood is expressed sublimely. You can feel More...
