Brokeback Mountain (1997)

After watching the movie in theaters when I was 13, I came home, read the short-story, and was obsessed with discussing it on online forums for about 2 months. This story will leave you with a strong feeling in your gut, and a need to not let it slip your mind for a long time. ( )

"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it."

Can I just say, "Wow!" This short story packs a powerful punch. It's heartbreaking. It breaks it and then it rips it out and throws it on the ground and stomps on it a bit, and yet still you think, "Thank you Annie Proulx." Because she makes you think about life in a way that stops your heart for a beat. Or two. It feels like holding your breath for just one moment too long. So much revealed and yet left unsaid in such a short story. Life is like that. We are shaped by our choices and defined as much by what we don't say as what we do.

If you haven't already done so, I beg you to read this story which is short but not small.

"...Ennis was back on his feet and somehow, as a coat hanger is straightened to open a locked car and then bent again to its original shape, they torqued things almost to where they had been, for what they'd said was no news. Nothing ended, nothing begun, nothing resolved." ( )

Hadn't seen the movie.
Have read some Annie Proulx and have more of here books on my bookshelf.
Didn't know all the "brokeback" references in today-speak.
Now I do.
Quick read and well-portrayed.
Read in 2011.h ( )

I wasn't sure how I'd get on with this, I loved the film but I've never managed to finish an Annie Proulx book before. I'm impressed by how close the film adaptation was to the original text. Very pleased that I've read it. ( )

I wasn't sure how I'd get on with this, I loved the film but I've never managed to finish an Annie Proulx book before. I'm impressed by how close the film adaptation was to the original text. Very pleased that I've read it. ( )