Books: Annie Proulx's Close Range: Wyoming Stories
The collection of short stories called Close Range was published in 2000, and its O. Henry prize-winning piece "Brokeback Mountain" way back in 1997. Ancient history, except for the antipathy the film version seems to have permanently engendered among some TNG readers. In light of Ennis-portrayer Heath Ledger's death, and because I just read and loved the book, I'm here to encourage you to pick it up. Because:
1. If you liked Ben's Land Without Pride, you'll appreciate Proulx's stories of rural loneliness and desperation.
2. You'll get to spend a book's worth time in a thoroughly engrossing alien environment. Proulx etches indelible landscapes, their hard inhabitants with their gestures and dialects meticulously drawn against the lands that sustain and crush them.
3. Maybe we'd like to see gay relationships on film that don't end in tragedy, but you've got to admit: we have a special affinity for the hopeless and bittersweet romance. You might say gays are connoisseurs of heartache, and this collection's got it in spades.
4. The 70-year old Proulx on Ledger's performance:"Heath Ledger is just almost really beyond description as far as I'm concerned. He got inside the story more deeply than I did. All that thinking about the character of Ennis that was so hard for me to get, Ledger just was there. He did indeed move inside the skin of the character, not just in the shirt but inside the person. It was remarkable."
Guaranteed to give you horrifying nightmares of inevitable yet freak accidents, and to teach you more about cowboys, rodeo, and ranching than most gay city kids ever thought they'd care to know.
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2 comments:
For my money, I preferred The Shipping News. It's not as famous as Brokeback, but I think it's better, and I'm always a little disappointed when people only think of Proulx in terms of gay cowboys. It made me want to move to Newfoundland.
Also, there is a little lesbian action around the edges. For the ladies.
I've only ready two of Proix's stories (one of them being Brokeback), and, alien though it may be to most people, she hits Wyoming spot-on.
I think Prouix is a great author, and on a somewhat selfish level, it's cool to have something to show people here about Wyoming that doesn't hinge on Matthew Shepard.
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