Oddly enough, the book containing Annie Proulx's masterpiece, "Brokeback Mountain," was mostly a dud.

I did not finish the book. Most of the stories were uninvolving and often unconvincing. ( )

Stark and beautiful prose. ( )

This is about as near a perfect collectioibn of short stories as I have read with 'Brokeback Mountain' being the best - so good that I can't bring myself to watch the film as it will only disappoint. The collection feels like a series of prose poems where Annie Proulx has slaved over the placing of every word in order to convey rich emotion in a sparse environment. Loved it. ( )

http://spwebdesign.livejournal.com/29... ( )

Home On the Range: You have to hand it to Larry McMurtry for having seen the potential in this little story which did nothing for me when I read it. It goes to show that reading itself is a talent, not to mention writing. I found this a rather thin read, never anticipating its extraordinary visual or dramatic possibilities. It is a text book case of the art of adaptation. Proulx has expressed her satisfaction with the film version, saying that she felt that it had been translated unchanged to the screen with just a few minor changes. The film, of course, is gorgeous. Here I found the prose as thin as that mid-western air. Still, McMurtry saw it all, bought the rights, and the rest is history.