Returning to the territory of "Brokeback Mountain" (in her first volume of Wyoming Stories) and Bad Dirt (her second), National Book Award and Puli...
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Sep 10, 2008
Gregory
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“That was the trouble with Wyoming; everything you ever did or said kept pace with you right to the end.”
When it comes to description, Annie Proulx is undoubtedly one of the best and most unique writers out there. With her blunt, unsparing prose, a fierce intellect and a coal black sense of humor, Proulx can paint a vivid and stark portrait of American life, and nowhere is this on better display than in her Wyoming Stories, where the hardscrabble existences of her characters go ha More...
When it comes to description, Annie Proulx is undoubtedly one of the best and most unique writers out there. With her blunt, unsparing prose, a fierce intellect and a coal black sense of humor, Proulx can paint a vivid and stark portrait of American life, and nowhere is this on better display than in her Wyoming Stories, where the hardscrabble existences of her characters go ha More...
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Feb 18, 2010
Kate
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Fine Just the Way It Is, is Annie Proulx’s second return to Wyoming, the setting of two previous collections of short stories. The cast are, at once, familiar and fantastic. The devil refurbishes hell, adding to the décor centuries of portraits by mortals; frisky female residents of a nursing home vie for “the favors of palsied men with beef jerky arms”; ranch hands and their families suffer hardship beyond endurance; and, bereft of children, a woman nurtures sagebrush.
Proulx’s writing is exhi More...
Proulx’s writing is exhi More...
Dec 26, 2011
James (JD)
rated it:
I've been to Wyoming. Once. It was late spring. I crossed the northern part of the state from the Black Hills to Yellowstone, then climbed down the spine of the Tetons to Colorado. It was the most beautiful place I've ever seen: lush and green, bursting with wildlife, hot springs, and geysers. The worst thing I can say about Wyoming is that I've never been back...
...save through the writing of Annie Proulx. She's been to Wyoming, too, and she's been there a long time. And her tim More...
...save through the writing of Annie Proulx. She's been to Wyoming, too, and she's been there a long time. And her tim More...
Jan 03, 2011
Jenny
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http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/ann...
Annie Proulx’s Wyoming Is “Fine Just the Way It Is”
Annie Proulx shines again in her third collection of Wyoming stories.
By Jenny Shank, 9-08-08
Fine Just the Way it Is: Wyoming Stories 3
by Annie Proulx
Scribner, 240 pages, $25
In an award-studded writing career now in its third decade, Annie Proulx has made the remarkable transition from east-coast-based Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist to much laude More...
Annie Proulx’s Wyoming Is “Fine Just the Way It Is”
Annie Proulx shines again in her third collection of Wyoming stories.
By Jenny Shank, 9-08-08
Fine Just the Way it Is: Wyoming Stories 3
by Annie Proulx
Scribner, 240 pages, $25
In an award-studded writing career now in its third decade, Annie Proulx has made the remarkable transition from east-coast-based Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist to much laude More...
May 14, 2010
Stephen
rated it:
Much of the time, while reading this, I couldn't avoid thinking that it might not be healthy for me to be reading Annie Proulx. There are two or three somewhat humorous pieces in this collection (two having to do with the Devil and one with a man-eating sage tree out on the prairie), but the overall tone is as bleak as Postcards, which I read about a year ago.
The author's prose is highly regarded, and that's what led me to her. Actually, I wouldn't say her words and sentences are rem More...
The author's prose is highly regarded, and that's what led me to her. Actually, I wouldn't say her words and sentences are rem More...
Jul 08, 2009
Charles
rated it:
I hate doing this, giving this book three stars, but I was disappointed. Proulx is one of the finest writers around, but this book didn't work for me, or, at least, not entirely. The stories that belong in the same genre as the earlier Wyoming collections began to feel like more of the same, as though compassion (or the lack of it) fatigue were setting in. None of the characters had the same life and vividness, for me, as those in the other collections. It's beginning to feel as though Proulx se
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Jan 27, 2012
Thom
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Annie Proulx's Fine Just the Way it Is took me a damn long time to finish. Maybe even an entire month. Considering that the book is only 200 or so pages, that certainly could say something about the quality. Fortunately, this isn't entirely the case. FJTWII is a fantastic collection of poignant stories, some that will stay with me forever. This is my first experience with Proulx, and it just took me a long time to settle into her chosen setting. I'd say all most nothing is more alien to me than
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Feb 05, 2009
Annie Proulx skillfully depicts lives of hardship and struggle against the seductive but unforgiving backdrop of Wyoming as she draws memorable, complex characters whose sufferings resonate deeply with readers. Her lovely prose is as spare, straightforward, and uncompromising as the landscape she describes so vividly. Proulx balances the harshness of her tales with dark humoreven indulging in a couple of mischievous stories featuring the Devil and his demonic private secretary, Duane Fork. But
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Jul 23, 2010
Steve
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It has been said that the selection committee for the winner of the Nobel prize for literature is biased against American writers. For the most part I think those critics do not really appreciate the breadth of writing talent that exists globally. However, each time I read one of Annie Proulx's works I move closer to the sentiment that those critics may be correct. Within six months after each years winner is announced, I read one of the recipient's books. Most times I am moved by the richness o
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Aug 10, 2009
Jamie
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In my slew of women writers courses in college (always my favorites), three shorts stuck with me: A Jury of Her Peers, A New England Nun and The Blue Heron. While there are tons (tons and tons) of others I love equally, those three stand out because I used them as examples of setting within the stories of women writers. For Flannery O'Connor and Katherine Anne Porter, "setting" turns into it's own character--"local color," and what I specifically loved about it so much, was
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Dec 08, 2008
Kirsten
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May 12, 2011
Bree
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I drove through Wyoming two summers ago to hike in the Grand Teton National Park. Despite the deserted roads that went on forever, I couldn't help but to find Wyoming fascinating. It's one of the least populated areas of the nation, and seems to be the only place to maintain that "Old West" vibe. I started reading the Shipping News by Annie Proulx after finding it hidden in a stack of John Grisham books in a back cupboard left by the previous owners of the apartment and fell in love
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May 06, 2011
Steve
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These bleak but haunting short stories span the period from the earliest homesteaders of the Wyoming Territory to the present day. Proulx creates vivid characters who will linger in your mind long after you finish their story. Each endeavors to survive in a harsh and unforgiving environment where a single mistake can (and in these stories generally does) prove fatal.
Although most of the stories here are excellent, two contemporary tales stood out as my favorites. "Tits-Up in a More...
Although most of the stories here are excellent, two contemporary tales stood out as my favorites. "Tits-Up in a More...
Feb 02, 2011
Reema
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Proulx's writing continues to be rich with place, a dead-ringer for dialogue, and surprisingly looping in its narrative walk. But I grew tired of engaging, as a reader, with racist characters, esp. since I'm asked to do this in the real world often enough. I understand that, as a writer, her duty is to document almost to an anthropological accuracy the socio-political landscape of her chosen community; and in aesthetic terms, the writing is often so technically impressive, so imaginative, that a
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Jan 10, 2010
Ann
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I enjoyed these short stories -- although almost all of them were hard to read about. They were mostly about poor Wyoming ranchers, scraping a living, only to be beaten down by the forces around them. Sad, sad, sad.
The characters are wonderfully drawn and you get a sense of the incredibel beauty of the landscape and the harshness of farm life.
Perhaps the saddest tale is the last one -- about unloved, unwanted Dakotah Hicks. Everything about her life is sad -- grandparents who More...
The characters are wonderfully drawn and you get a sense of the incredibel beauty of the landscape and the harshness of farm life.
Perhaps the saddest tale is the last one -- about unloved, unwanted Dakotah Hicks. Everything about her life is sad -- grandparents who More...
Dec 18, 2008
Carolyn
rated it:
can a person have nightmares from a book? i guess so or its just my dark imagination. annie proulx in these short stories has this dark look at the way people are in a losing game against the bleak environment of wyoming and the wild lands of the west. the nightmare was the description of a woman taking a backpacking trip alone, and the difficulties that she cannot excape on the trip. having taken backpacking trips alone, this one got me big time. they say you should never go along and they
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Apr 18, 2011
Cheryl
rated it:
No doubt Annie Proulx is a good writer. Some of the stories I would have skipped because I didn't like the story even though she wrote them well.
This book is very down to earth. It is written just as life comes along, no fairy tales here. Most of the protagonists die. It seems there has to be some joy in this hard country, yet she portrays mostly the gut wrenching truths of only the most extreme sadness.
She also seems to see a homosexual possibility behind every male's d More...
This book is very down to earth. It is written just as life comes along, no fairy tales here. Most of the protagonists die. It seems there has to be some joy in this hard country, yet she portrays mostly the gut wrenching truths of only the most extreme sadness.
She also seems to see a homosexual possibility behind every male's d More...
Dec 17, 2010
Bill
rated it:
Annie Proulx is a fine writer and I have enjoyed each of her Wyoming story collections. I may not remember the balance of the stories in the other books, I certainly don't recall them being as grim as this collection. Strongly written, engaging and peopled with characters that felt painfully real, I found myself wondering if this is the only side of Wyoming she has taken to heart, she should definitely move. Not a lot of happy campers in this bunch, unless you count the two whimsical stories th
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Dec 09, 2009
Sydney
rated it:
Annie Proulx is one of my favorite authors, and I absolutely loved her first two books of short stories about Wyoming. She lives in Wyoming now, and has managed in a short time to absorb the reality of the life there. Her characters are especially spot-on and reflect the hard-scrabble life so many people, especially young people, in Wyoming endure. However, in this book, she goes off on a strange tangent for some of her stories that does not vibe with me. She has a handful of stories set in
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Feb 18, 2011
Cindy
rated it:
Annie's words read by Will Patton . . . wonderful. I wish there had been some separation between the stories, or introduction to them. Even a title list on the box would have been nice.
As for the Wyoming stories themselves, there is everything the Big Sky can hold - cattle, heartbreak, the devil, understanding, family, descriptive passages that take you off to the bright blue sky and unrelenting wind of the country.
Here's one of my favorite passages:
"Every ranch. More...
As for the Wyoming stories themselves, there is everything the Big Sky can hold - cattle, heartbreak, the devil, understanding, family, descriptive passages that take you off to the bright blue sky and unrelenting wind of the country.
Here's one of my favorite passages:
"Every ranch. More...
Nov 05, 2009
Nick
rated it:
Proulx is a master. Her sentences are pure pleasure and her sense of place and character unerring. Especially the last, and longest of the stories, from which the title is taken, really moved me---the story of a broken and dirt-poor Wyoming family, a girl raised by her hard-assed grandparents after her "bad-girl" mom disappears. Dakota is her name, and she winds up in Iraq. There is an intense present-sense, mixed with a panoramic telescoping of the past that explains how our character
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Dec 16, 2008
Neil
rated it:
Let me preface this by saying that on my list of contemporary writers, Annie Proulx definitely ranks in the top ten. The Shipping News, Accordion Crimes, Close Range, That Old Ace in the Hole, I thought they were all wonderful.
Fine Just the Way It Is has some good stories: "Tits-Up in a Ditch," "Family Man," and "The Great Divide" were vintage Proulx. But this collection isn't nearly as strong on the whole as Close Range. Is it just me, or would other re More...
Fine Just the Way It Is has some good stories: "Tits-Up in a Ditch," "Family Man," and "The Great Divide" were vintage Proulx. But this collection isn't nearly as strong on the whole as Close Range. Is it just me, or would other re More...
Jul 10, 2011
Mae
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"Traveler, there is no path. Paths are made by walking" Antonio Machado (1875-1939) With this quote, Proulx starts one of her stories, and I feel it defines the core of this collection of short stories. Framed by the Wyoming wild nature and tough way of life, she develops her characters and their tribulations. It is crisply well written, you can feel the dusty wind, the dry weed snapping under their feet. They are separate stories, including two set in Hell, with the devil redeco
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Mar 13, 2009
Terri
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Of course the writing is excellent--this is Annie Proulx, after all. And the characters are well-rounded and masterfully drawn. However, this is one of the most depressing books I've ever read. I'm not sure which of these short stories tells the most horrific tale, but no one lives happily ever after, that's for sure. Maybe it's just the impact of reading about so many ruined and/or desperate lives, (including two short stories about Satan and his antics in hell), but I was very happy to be
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Dec 27, 2009
Kasa
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Annie Proulx is a fearless writer. Her prose can be as uncompromising as the Wyoming landscape she inhabits, but, like it, laden with complexity; as well, it can paint poetic images (crones vied for the favors of palsied men with beef jerkey arms. The men could taken their pick of shapeless housecoats and flowery skeletons." "Herons flying upstream, their color matching the sky so closely they might have been eyes of wind." Each piece deals with yet another aspect of the histo
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Sep 13, 2009
Greg
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The stories collected here are hit or miss. I really enjoy her tales of the hardscrabble life on the prairie, but a couple of the stories had me rolling my eyes, as they seemed to belong in a Stephen King collection instead. Aside from that, her characters are vividly drawn, as if she were eavesdropping on her neighbors in Wyoming. And she has a keen skill for describing the flat land, the endless sky and the cruel weather on the plains. A couple of the stories seemed a little rushed, as though
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Jan 18, 2009
Kyle
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This book was nearly impossible for me to put down. Annie Proulx has a deft, wry way with words. She must also have a very good editor (or maybe it's the Pulitzer Prize Winner in her..), because her stories are just as good by what they do NOT say as compared to what they DO.
Meaning this: this woman knows the weight and value of words, and she does not slosh them around like many a popular writer.
This book was also full of surprising stories. there is one about Satan r More...
Meaning this: this woman knows the weight and value of words, and she does not slosh them around like many a popular writer.
This book was also full of surprising stories. there is one about Satan r More...
Jan 24, 2010
Yuwei
rated it:
I did not enjoy this book not because of the content but because it is not a genre that interests me. The setting is so different from the place i live, which makes it hard for me to connect and therefore i become alienated from the plot. Another part was that i could not grasp upon some of the ideas due to the fact that i have no prior experience with this type of environment.
I believe Annie Proulx did a good job, it was just not for me. The language is simple yet very thoughtfully put t More...
I believe Annie Proulx did a good job, it was just not for me. The language is simple yet very thoughtfully put t More...
Mar 09, 2009
Djrmel
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Once again, Proulx has put together an amazing set of stories about the the ongoing battle of man vs. situations of his own making. Her characters try to make a better place for themselves, a place they can raise of family or live in peace, but in Proulx's world, that rarely ends well. With the exception of her two stories about what the Devil does when he gets bored with Hell, there's not a lot of smiles in this book. Families are created and destroyed, lives come to abrupt ends. But through
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Nov 21, 2009
Amy C.
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Stories of the countryside seem so unfamiliar to me because the problems a rancher faces is different from one faced by a city person. For example, the story of Brokeback Mountain presents an issue that is currently debated in society: heterosexuals. In an urban society, this issue is better accepted compare to the more conservative part of America. In Fine Just the Way It Is, the problems faced by the different generations of Americans reveal how the American society is changing over time. Perh
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