A precise and poetic collection of short stories, full of vivid imagery, both beautiful and grotesque, about how hard and hopeless it is to be a Wyoming cowboy. I found it hard to put down. ( )

Close Range: Wyoming Stories sets a very harsh, violent, sad landscape for its characters. Poverty and a sense of futility is in every story. Every situation is a lesson in survival and dealing with the crappy hand you have been dealt. Words like stark and bleak and depressed come to mind. The characters are born into a way of life that has barely any opportunity for change. There is no easy means of escape. The brutality of the landscape is matched only by the grit of its inhabitants. ( )

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.

In the 2006 edition I read, 'Brokeback Mountain' was the final story. It made sense of several things: why the collection had been so strongly recommended to me; why that story was chosen for adaptation into a film; and why Proulx has (subsequently) been rated highly as a North American writer. The other stories are not in the same class, not in terms of craft, certainly not in terms of poignancy.

That said, there are images and sentences, passages and whole stories with undeniable power, normally thanks to their violence or otherworldliness on the one hand, or their feeling for the harshness of the Wyoming Proulx depicts on the other. 'The Half-Skinned Steer' and '55 Miles to the Gas Pump' are certainly memorable, in different ways and for different reasons.

Nonetheless, as a whole, this collection is not short of cliches, and Proulx is apt to resort to the grotesque. I would recommend reading 'Brokeback Mountain' alone, and I would recommend it to anyone - as for the rest, have the discipline (and faith in a stranger on the internet you've no reason to believe!) to resist, unless you're prepared to settle for lower quality in return for quantity. ( )

Well worth reading, but do it one story at a time, spaced out with lighter stuff. When "Brokeback Mountain" is not the most depressing story in a collection, you must treat said collection with caution.

These stories impressed and moved me. Such truly powerful writing. Bleak, windswept, violent, hard lives so foreign to my own, and yet it was impossible not to be drawn into their worlds. ( )

7.0

Annie Proulx has a gift for writing. I read this book and the "Brokeback Mountain" story long before it was made into a movie. If you've ever lived or spent time in the West (I grew up in Montana and my husband in Wyoming), you will know that Proulx captured its spirit. Genius. ( )

I greatly admire Proulx's ability to create spare, clear sentences that are nonetheless incredibly evocative: a landscape painter in prose, the parts of these stories that stay with me the most are her description of a countryside that I've never seen, but which I can still picture very clearly. None of these stories could be described as pick-me-ups, and the best in the collection, 'Brokeback Mountain' (which I do consider better than the film), is only a shade shy of devastating. Powerful, sharp writing; I really do have to seek out more of her work. ( )

Here's the thing: I would not recommend this book. HOWEVER, the one story which redeemed Proulx for me and also made me remember why I so loved Shipping News is the story that will make me keep this collection, and which I'll go back to: "Brokeback Mountain". I haven't seen the movie, so I can't speak to those similarities or differences, but this story, for me, was the only one that truly pulled together and gave real-feeling characters. The other stories often seemed to be more along the lines of character sketches, as long as some were, and I felt as if I was watching a short movie clip instead of being involved in a story. I rarely cared, and then only for moments, and I was often bored. I had heard that "Brokeback Mountain" was the best in the collection, but I didn't believe it would stand out quite so much. This story is quite literally on a different level entirely than the other work here, in character, writing, development, plot, structure, etc. I will admit that the structure of most of these stories was a disctraction. Some authors can move between scenes often and quickly, and it works. In most of these stories, it didn't work. Sometimes confusing and sometimes jarring, many of the text breaks here were more frustrating than anything--the moment I would begin to get interested, Proulx would jumpt to yet another character. Yet, "Brokeback Mountain" reminded me why I loved Shipping News so much, so this won't be my last look at Proulx' work--but I won't go back to most of these stories. You might read one to get the effect, but I feel like once you've read one, you've very nearly gotten the feeling of most of them, in spirit and theme at least. ( )

I was really hoping to enjoy this collection of short stories, but sadly, I was glad to finish it.

There are eleven short stories in this collection, all set in Wyoming, and all centred around cowboys, ranch hands and their wives and families and the tough lives they lead in unforgiving conditions.

The stand out story in this collection is definitely Brokeback Mountain (although the film is better, and there's not many book/film adaptations I say that about)! Brokeback Mountain and another story - The Bushgrass Edge of the World - were the two I did enjoy - and which saved the collection as far as I am concerned - but the others were so-so.

I have heard lots of wonderful things about Annie Proulx, but based on this book, I would not read anything more by her. ( )

I made a point, when buying my own copy of this collection of short stories, not to buy the edition advertising the film of Brokeback Mountain. This particular story had always been my least favourite of the whole, and the film just intensified these feelings - after all, a story written by a straight woman made into a film directed by a straight man with the leading roles played by two very straight actors? Now if some prominent or undiscovered members have the LGBTQ society had been commissioned for this instead...

Nevertheless, Brokeback aside, this is a fantastic collection. The rough spirit of Wyoming is powerfully evoked through Ms Proulx's beautifully scattered/clipped style of writing, her little observations and the way she delves into her characters' lives, teasing out their personalities and their (all too numerous) miseries. With gems like The Half-Skinned Steer this is a must-have for every library. Just tactfully remove the last thirty or so pages and replace them with some nice Timothy Conigrave. ( )

Great writing ( )

This book contains the story "Brokeback Mountain". It also contains, as the first story, "The half skinned steer" that was the best short story of 1998 (Garrison Keillor) and the best short story of the century (John Updike).

I haven't seen the film "Brokeback Mountain", but I doubt it's as good as the story. The story, I like. ( )

Another collection by the author of The Shipping News and Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories II (See below). I just noticed, while reshelving this book, that Proulx has dropped the initial “E.” before “Annie.” All her early books have it, but even the reissues of older works show the name change. I would love to know what that is all about.
Anyway, these stories are good, but I noticed something in this early collection that I did not noticed in her other works. She has the attention to detail and the vivid descriptions, and the ear for colloquialisms, but here, her narrator also uses the local color of the language. Somehow, it seems forced and artificial.
This collection contains “Brokeback Mountain,” and I now see what a fine film it was – by that I mean true to the author’s story. It was almost exact. I read the story before seeing the film, and I liked it. Now, reading it after two viewings of the film, I have a deeper appreciation for both. I could not help hearing Heath Ledger and Jake Gylenhaal as I followed their lives up and down Brokeback Mountain. All in all, I would have to say Proulx fans would only be slightly disappointed. Four stars.
--Jim, 6/6/07 ( )

I read this before the movie. I like to say that about a book that nobody has heard of which then becomes big. Call me a book snob, I don't care. But I'm also always glad that a movie made it big because if I read it and loved it I want the world to share that too.

The Brokeback Mountain story is just a tiny part of the book though and the other stories deserve their chance. I bought this after I read The Shipping News (after the movie, which I have still not seen) and I wasn't disappointed. ( )

An interesting look into a world previously unknown to me. Although I could only be bothered to read about half the stories (there's a limit to how long I can stay interested in bullriding etc.), I liked it a lot. I skipped ahead to Brokeback Mountain, and that was my favorite part! (I haven't seen the movie.) ( )

I actually only have the original novella, which I don't think is this version, I'll try to update it with the isbn later.
This novella is beautifully understated and amazingly restrained. Rather than spelling everything out and covering decades of a relationship in the way the film does, Annie Proulx just focusses on 3 or 4 meetings between the characters. This brings you straight to the heart of the story and doesn't give the time to wallow that the film possibly over did. ( )

Some time in 1993 or 1994, I think (after the new editors took over "The New Yorker"), I sat down and started to read. After the casuals and humor piece, there appeared a story about cowboys. I stayed with it for a while based on the author's reputation, yet was ready to bail. And then it hit: the cowboys were Doing It. I was hooked. Anyway, I've read other work by Proulx since and have found her to capture the feeling and color of the American West, or at least what I know of it. ( )