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Title: Close Range: Wyoming Stories by E. Annie Proulx, William Matthews ISBN: 0-684-00895-5 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: May, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.77 (77 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Where the Living Ain't Easy
Comment: In Annie Proulx's Wyoming, "[n]obody sends you out to do chores [or] treats you like a fool." That independence is illusory, however. There is always work that need to be done and basic needs that must be satisfied if one is to survive. Dreams are rarely realized. For the most part, people leave for more forgiving environments or they stay and fail on their home turf. All eleven short stories in this compilation are compelling, and all exhibit the technical skill demonstrated in Proulx's previous works. Vivid details of ranch work and rural life bring the stories to life. There is little sentimentality here. Even the mundane is converted into a metaphor for the inevitable failure of man confronting the problems presented by Wyoming's tough nature. The "new" West is also reflected in some of the stories, which juxtapose its values with those of Wyoming's traditional--Proulx would probably say "true"--character and attitude. Proulx's characters stoically persist in the face of difficulty or prejudice. Their perspective is explicitly stated in "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World" (one of the few stories where a woman succeeds by a man's standards rather than being a sexual ornament or beast of burden): "The main thing in life was staying power. That was it: stand around long enough you'd get to sit down." The one story that does not work is the only love story in the collection, "Brokeback Mountain." The story, about an intense, long-term homosexual romance, is just not credible. The gay lovers even take three puppies on the pack trip that provides the occasion of their original meeting, "the runt inside Jack's coat, for he loved a little dog." Puppy-loving gay cowboys! C'mon, Ms. Proulx, you are better than that. My other criticism is that there are too few flights of fantasy and too little integration of Western folk tales into the stories. When those devices are employed, the effect is wonderful. I just wish there had been more. But that is more in the nature of a request than a criticism. "Close Range" will certainly help to cement Annie Proulx's reputation as an extraordinarily talented writer.
Rating: 3
Summary: Never plumbs the depths, but fabulous imagery
Comment: Unlike many of my fellow Wyomingites, I found much to be admired in this collection of short stories and riffs (some stories are too short to be called anything BUT riffs).
Ms. Proulx captured the soul-jarring openness of the Great High Lonesome in such a way that makes THIS transplanted Wyomingite long for the prairies and rocks of her native home. It was wonderful to read those vivid and wonderful descriptions. In the scenery, I was brought home.
She is equally adept at sketching the surfaces of the people in her tales. I know many of the characters in her books well from my life on a Wyoming ranch.
However, she skated over the surface of these lives, never understanding the wonderful mix of hardheaded pragmatism, loving sentimentality, bitter practicality and blinding optimism that makes up the Wyoming character. She views these people with great cynicism and no understanding. And, to be fair to Ms. Proulx, Wyomingites are people that aren't easy to understand, much like the state itself. They show their harsh side to the world, but protect an inner beauty from casual outsiders. Ms. Proulx didn't bother to try to penetrate that harsh exterior, and given her lack of interest in staying in the state (even her bio notes admit she "lives in Wyoming" but spends most of her time away from the state), I doubt she ever will. And that's a shame.
I hope she'll take another crack at writing about Wyoming... perhaps in a novel, which is more her forte.
Rating: 5
Summary: Family ties and ranching make it very Close
Comment: 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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Title: HEART SONGS AND OTHER STORIES by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0020360754 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 17 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Postcards by E. Annie Proulx, Annie Proulx ISBN: 068480087X Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 August, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: That Old Ace in the Hole : A Novel by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0743242483 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: SHIPPING NEWS by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0671510053 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: ACCORDION CRIMES by Annie Proulx ISBN: 0684831546 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 17 June, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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