by ANNIE PROULX
The perfect introduction to Annie�s highly acclaimed writing, this is � in essence � a very short story. A short short story, if you will � having been serialized in �The New Yorker.� Still, she covers much ground and time with so few words that it�s impossible to deny Proulx�s writing talent.
The first time I heard of Annie was via a TV documentary which followed her painstakingly researching for a book, going to great lengths to ultimately ensure that any type of people and places she subsequently wrote about - and wove a story around - would sound utterly authentic.
�Brokeback Mountain,� while not the book in question, is set in Wyoming and focuses on two cowboys - Ennis & Jack - who work (and play) off the state�s hard land. While time is spent observing the cowboys� work ethics and best practices, the crux of this story essentially pivots around the two cowboys� lust for each other.
Ah yes, up there high on Brokeback Mountain it isn�t all hard work if you know what I mean�
After a season of riding together in more ways then one (graphically relayed as though Proulx, in one sense, aspires to have similar impact in the �sex-stakes� as Jackie Collins), Ennis and Jack go their separate ways, thinking they�ll probably never see the other again. But, some years down the line, after they�ve both been married and had families, they meet up again and realise there is still a spark between them that can�t be ignored.
But tragedy ensues, end of story. And, before you know it, you�ll be down your local library or bookstore gagging for more Proux-written writing in the form of her novels �The Shipping News� (that subsequently became yet more famous on account of the Kevin Spacey-starring movie adaptation) or �Postcards.�
Her writing does get under your skin, and in this instance in particular rekindles the toiling blood, sweat and tears of Kent Haruf�s �The Tie That Binds,� �Arthur Miller�s �The Misfits,� and �The Bridges of Madison County�� to stunning effect.
(Steve Rudd)
ISBN 1-85702-940-2 (FOURTH ESTATE BOOKS; 1997)