This is the Annie Proulx's second collection of short stories set in Wyoming. I didn't particularly enjoy the first one (Close Range), but this one was a far better read, and I could understand all the acclaim which Annie Proulx has received.

There are eleven stories in this collection, and a number of them are set in Elk Tooth, Wyoming, a small town with a population of around 80 people, so almost inevitably, certain characters pop up in two or more of the stories.

Proulx masterfully conjures up an image of the tough but beautiful land and the hard life of it's inhabitants - mainly cowboys, ranchers and their families. From whimsical tales about beard growing contests and a craze for crudely fashioned hot tubs, to tales of rough justice being served, these are stories which though short, never fail to flesh out their characters. Many of the tales are almost like modern day fables, with a sting in the tale. My personal favourites were Dump Junk with it's supernatural twist, and The Contest (concerning the aforementioned beard growing contest). Plenty of moments of wry humour too. ( )

It’s a combination of realistic stories and tall tales set in and about Wyoming.

The characters live around Elk Tooth, and most of them are 'broke, proud, ingenious, and setting heels against civilized society's pull.”(p.179) They are very well drawn, and introduced in much detail and over many pages, as if in a novel. Some of them are the main characters of one story and then re-appear in for a mention in another. In many of the stories, the plot unfolds over a few paragraphs after a lengthy background, and then the climax follows. Usually, there is no conclusion.

The story Man Crawling Out of Trees is slightly different, and features a couple from New York City who have come to Wyoming, like many other comfortably well-off upper-middleclass people, to retire. They are the ones who pay most attention to the beauty of the landscape, and this short story abounds with beautiful descriptions of the prairies and the mountains. Their life there presents its own adaptation challenges though.

“The house stood on a sunny slope of wildflowers and silver sage with the view of the Bachelor range, which even in summer resembled a monstrous slab of halvah veined with mauve chocolate. In the distance the Wind Rivers lay against the horizon like crumpled envelopes.

At dusk a globe of light like an incandescent jellyfish formed above Swift Fox and stained the mountainy darkness like the weak orange of civilization. (p 108)

“..Mitchell was stunned by the beauty of the place, not the overphotographed jags of the Grand Tetons but the high prairie and the luminous yellow distance, which pleased his sense of spatial arrangement. He felt as though he had stumbled into the landscape never before seen on the earth and at the same time that he had been transported to the ur-landscape before human beginnings. The mountains crouched at every horizon like dark sleeping animals, their backs whitened by snow. He trod on wildflowers, glistening quartz crystals, on agate and jade, brilliant lichens. The unfamiliar grasses vibrated with light, their incandescent stalks lighting the huge ground. Distance reduced a herd of cattle to a handful of tossed cloves.” p.106

She's got an eye- no doubt. Those descriptions are the closest to what I experienced when being there.

I really enjoyed the collection, even though it took me some time to get into it, mainly because of the idiosyncrasies of the language. It’s the characters who linger. Annie Proulx seems to have a very keen eye observing them. It’s good that she is chronicling the life there, because the picture may disappear soon. ( )

Annie Proulx's stories are about people whose lives aren't quite under control through no fault of their own. The bittersweet in life, mixed with the all to human foibles of her characters can add up to some painfully amusing stories. Her turn of phrase and her choice of scenes is spot on. ( )

http://tinyurl.com/5pzfqe

I made the mistake of reading the first Wyoming Stories collection (Close Range) before seeing Brokeback Mountain, which somewhat ruined the movie for me. Here's hoping none of her other stories get made into film, because I did it again.

And I'm doubting these will-- the first collection was sweeping, lonely, grandiose, heartbreaking. Pretty much everything you think of when you think of Wyoming. The second collection has stories are spiteful (Man Crawling Out of Trees), ridiculous (The Hellhole), and wrong (Florida Rental). They all seem to center on the fact that now she's lived in Wyoming for a while, has gotten used to it, lost the rose-colored glasses, and is now a teeny bit bitter about her chosen state.

She's still an excellent writer even when she's off target. Descriptions of how particular rednecks live or what the wind feels like when it blows every day all day do work. But she needs to stay away from one-liners and meandering tales that end with entirely different conclusions.

I may read Fine Just the Way It Is (the third collection of Wyoming Stories), but only if someone tells me it's better than this one. ( )

Great writing, even if I can hardly stand to read collections of short stories. ( )