false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167908949m/27999.jpg 27999 19 With the very first sentence of the first story in this remarkable collection, Annie Proulx demonstrates what makes her great: images sharp as paper cuts conveyed in language so imaginative and compressed it's just this side of poetry; a sense of character so specific it takes only a sentence to establish a whole life; and the underlying promise of something utterly unexpected waiting just up ahead.<p> <blockquote> In the long unfurling of his life, from tight-wound kid hustler in a wool suit riding the train out of Cheyenne to geriatric limper in this spooled-out year, Mero had kicked down thoughts of the place where he began, a so-called ranch on strange ground at the south hinge of the Big Horns. </blockquote> "The Half-Skinned Steer" chronicles elderly Mero Corn's journey back to Wyoming for his brother's funeral. As he drives west, details of his eventful trip are interspersed with recollections of his youth on the ranch--most notably a tall tale he heard told long ago about a sad-sack rancher named Tin Head and a butchered steer. This is vintage Proulx, a combination of isolated landscapes, macabre events, and damaged people that adds up, in the end, to a near-perfect story. It's no surprise that "The Half-Skinned Steer" made it into John Updike's <i>Best American Short Stories of the Century</i>.<p> Proulx achieves similar results with many of the other stories in <I>Close Range</I>, including another prizewinner, "Brokeback Mountain," the bittersweet story of doomed love between two cowboys who "can't hardly be decent together," yet know "if we do that in the wrong place we'll be dead." But Proulx is careful to add some leavening to the mix. In "The Blood Bay" she indulges her taste for the gruesome with a morbidly amusing retelling of an Old West shaggy-dog story, while "Pair a Spurs" is the sad-funny rendering of divorce, Wyoming style. The author is a true original in every sense of the word, and her evocation of the West is as singular and surprising as that of Cormac McCarthy or Ivan Doig. <I>Close Range</I> is Proulx at her best. <I>--Alix Wilber</I> 2888523 book 1999 Close Range : Wyoming Stories total:2289|5:712|4:980|3:480|2:89|1:28| 2289 9126 3037 318 2 2 false false Sun Nov 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 14 12:16:49 -0700 2008 Tue Nov 04 14:14:58 -0800 2008 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...more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Dec 05 06:26:32 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 06:26:32 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Oct 22 21:34:43 -0700 2007 Sat Dec 15 20:24:38 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 04:35:07 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 07 08:06:33 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Aug 16 22:58:20 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 16 23:00:57 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Jul 29 08:08:25 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 29 08:36:17 -0700 2007
The written form sorts of explain of some aspects of the movie which I find confusing suc...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Dec 05 05:23:48 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 05:44:08 -0800 2007
Proulx gets away with all the shit that no one else could. A grab bag of voices, all unlikely, that switch...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Jun 14 18:12:19 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 14 18:13:04 -0700 2007 good, just that I'd kind of like to challenge Proulx to write a bit of light comedy or something.
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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 sp...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 22:08:02 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 22:10:09 -0700 2009
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...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 22:31:26 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 18:46:09 -0700 2009 1
I'll admit, I didn't read all of them. I tried, however, the overall tone of the stories is incredibly dismal. I don't mind sad/dismal/realistic endings, but I prefer to not r...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 15:16:24 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 15:28:04 -0700 2009
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 ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 01 08:20:13 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 01 08:21:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun May 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 10:42:28 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 18:32:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 06:36:54 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 20:04:07 -0700 2009
Having grown up in South Dakota, the Wyoming...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 23:49:05 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 00:05:25 -0700 2009
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 ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 05 09:53:21 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 10:01:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 18:44:05 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 18:59:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=27999