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Close Range : Wyoming Stories | 
 enlarge | Author: Annie Proulx
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $2.90
You Save: $12.10 (81%)
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Rating:  151 reviews
Sales Rank: 11773
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 4.8 x 0.7
ISBN: 0684852225
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780684852225
ASIN: 0684852225
Publication Date: February 10, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Good shape, medium wear.
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Amazon.com Review
Pulitzer Prize-winner E. Annie Proulx forays through the underside of America's beloved Wild West in Close Range, a collection of stories about hardship and more hardship in Wyoming territory. Understanding that the West's infinite spaces tended to inspire neither introspection nor contemplation, but a violent and insatiable restlessness, Proulx's eight stories are dark reflections on the lives of a handful of characters striving to define themselves against the unforgiving landscapes. The three professional actors chosen to read the text give strong, resounding interpretations of the macabre tales. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --Natasha Senjanovich
Product Description
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short-story collections of our time. Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in these breathtaking tales of loneliness, quick violence, and the wrong kinds of love. Each of the stunning portraits in Close Range reveals characters fiercely wrought with precision and grace. These are stories of desperation and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both stark and magnificent -- by an author writing at the peak of her craft.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 146 more reviews...
 Sylistic Prose November 29, 2008
With the flinty images produced by the sytlistic prose of Annie Proulx, the story plot just comes along as an extra added bonus. Here is an example: "...from tight-wound kid hustler in a wool suit riding the train out of Cheyenne to the geriatric limper in this spooled-out year, Mero had kicked down thoughts of the place where he began..." The collection contains the now-famous story, Brokeback Mountain; but there are many other stories in the collection that are just as gripping.
Lasting Impressions August 22, 2008
After reading anything written by Annie Proulx, whether a full-fledged novel or short story, it is no wonder that she is a prize winning author. Her ability to craft stories both strange and familiar that captivate the reader's soul is a remarkable gift. "Close Range: Wyoming Stories" is famous in that it is the collection that contains 'Brokeback Mountain', but there are other stories in the collection that are just as deserving of praise and recognition.
While the reader may not be familiar with Wyoming or the ranching way of life, Proulx manages to make the reader feel automatically at home. It is in her simple yet poetic way of showing the yearnings and loneliness that everyone feels that makes these stories and their characters come alive. A few of the stories, such as 'The Half-Skinned Steer' and 'The Blood Bay' are reworkings of common tales and myths, quickly told but long-lasting in terms of imagery. One of my favorite stories in the collection is 'People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water', a tale of two families and their tribulations and an ending that stings. Other favorites are 'The Bunchgrass Edge of the World' and 'A Lonely Coast', two stories about the women of Wyoming rather than the men, that depict a harsh loneliness underlying their hopes and dreams. And of course, the signature story, 'Brokeback Mountain', a thorough and unflinching portrait of a love that could not be, beautifully told and impossible to forget. For all its controversy, it truly is a universal tale.
Annie Proulx is an incredibly talented writer, able to bring to vivid life the starkest of realities. Her characters are not heroes, and neither are they all likeable, but even the minor ones are fully formed and live on after they have exited the story. It is hard to put this collection of stories down; each one, no matter how short or bizarre, leaves an indelible and haunting impression. These stories have life.
a sparse masterpiece January 17, 2008
While this is certainly not easy reading, I thought it was fantastic.
The writing is sparse and lives fly by and disintegrate in single
paragraphs. It really seems that not a single word is wasted.
I think that the comparisons with other books about
cowboys and life in the untamed West are off the mark. If anything,
these books are much closer to Chekhov's writing about people
"of the land" although that comparison is certainly imperfect.
I am somewhat surprised that some people took offense
at the way characters were depicted. I liked McMurtry's book,
but Captain Call and Gus are about as real as Hector and Achilles.
On the other hand I could well imagine meeting some people
from the pages of this book in a bar, not just in Wyoming.
Brokeback means broken heart October 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This author is clearly very, very good in painting a picture of mid-century life in Wyoming. Brokeback Mountain is a gem of a little story, but it and the others are real downers... life was tough then and Proux makes you understand just how tough it was through a group of short stories.
I really like Proulx's prose October 2, 2007
I took this book and Into the Wild by Krakauer with me on a 3 day backpacking trip in the mountains. Read Proulx.
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