Fine Just the Way It Is is Annie Proulx's third collection of Wyoming stories. There are nine stories in this collection, and as usual, most of them concentrate on depicting the hard life of ranchers, politicians and cowboys, and the arguably even harder life of their wives.

As always, Proulx gives a subtle build up in each story, and then hits the reader with a punch right where it hurts. Drama and a large dose of irony collide, sometimes peppered with a little humour. Occasionally she depicts real flashes of happiness in her characters' lives - such as when Archie and his young wife set up home in 'Them Old Cowboy Songs' or when young Dakotah feels a rush of love which she never could have imagined when she has a baby in 'Tits Up in a Ditch'. But although these moments of happiness are not generally expected to last long (at least not to any reader familiar with Proulx's writing), events still manage to surprise with the way that they seemingly come out of the blue, although on reflection they were probably always inevitable.

Two of the stories are comedic, and are actually set in hell, where we meet the devil - a mischievous but charismatic character, who travels around in a golf buggy and devises a plan to make life more interesting in certain areas on earth. In another story, a woman wants her grandfather to tell his life story for posterity, but he fails to convey what he actually feels.

Annie Proulx's writing is always very 'clean' - she never uses spare words, and indeed they are not necessary, because she has the ability to transport her reader to the landscape in which the story is set, in just a few words.

I preferred this book to the first collection of Wyoming Stories (Close Range, which featured the love story Brokeback Mountain), but didn't enjoy it quite as much as the second collection (Bad Dirt). Overall though, I would certainly recommend this book to other readers, and would actively seek out more of Annie Proulx's writing. ( )

This is the first work I've read by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Shipping News. I suppose now I'll have to go ahead and read everything she's written. Not all at once, though.

Fine Just The Way It Is is a collection of short stories, mostly set in Wyoming, although there are two set in Hell, with the Devil as the central character. Maybe that's Proulx's real opinion of Wyoming? She visits 19th century homesteaders, an old cowboy in a nursing home, 21st century ranchers, back country hikers. Each has a story to tell and in each story the place is an important element.

Most of the characters seem to end up in a condition best described by the title of one of the stories Tits Up In A Ditch. They die in childbirth, catch pneumonia, get trapped by a falling rock high on a mountainside. Or old and tired in a nursing home, like Mr. Forkenbrock in the opening story, who would rather die of exposure, sitting with his back aginst a fence post, like an old man he remembers from his youth. Sitting comfortable on my sofa I can enjoy sympathizing with all these characters, knowing that they are fictional and I won't suffer brain damage from a roadside bomb in Iraq and be sent home to my unprepared parents on a ranch in the middle of nowhere.



I have the same objection to this book as I do with any well written collection of short stories. About the time that I really start to get involved with a group of characters, that story is over and I have to start over with a whole new set.

The title of the book comes from something said repeatedly by one of the characters, "Wyoming is fine just the way it is." Every story, although each reveals something beautiful about the state, show how very difficult it is to live there. It should be depressing, but it isn't.

I'll Never Forget The Day I Read A Book!

Annie Proulx's stories are a such a metaphor for life all over the world. Life is cruel and harsh for many people and this microcosm that she writes about with such insight reflects this universal reality. I loved her new fantastic stories of the metaphysical. They took me by surprise to begin with but on reflection I find them as amazing as her stories of "real "life and I love that she didn't leave us hanging with just such one story in the book but came back with some more. As always her stories are haunting and keep creeping back into your mind long after you have finished reading them. ( )

I have to say this was probably my least favorite in this series of books. The story Swamp Mischief about the devil was difficult for me to even force myself to read. On the other hand Tits-Up in a Ditch was by far my favorite; it was much more like the stories I am used to reading from Proulx's Wyoming Stories. I'm currently having some temporary amnesia problems which only added to my difficultly in reading the stories as they were very complex, something I would normally enjoy. ( )

The settings are vividly described -- Wyoming, where the snows blows until it just get worn away. The characters are also well realized with believable, but peculiar names. I enjoyed the stories of ranch life and death and failure to thrive in the wilderness. There are stories about the Devil which I didn't enjoy, except for the "fact" that the Devil has assistant named Duane Fork. ( )