Author : Annie Proulx
What is it about : Wyoming in the nutshell of these eleven short stories. The lives of the ranchers, ranchers' families and wives, rodeo riders, farmers with sinister secrets, cowboys coming out of the closet and the ways they interacted with each other, with the unforgiving lands and climate and with the even more unforgiving LIFE itself.
Some thoughts after
having read the book : Darn ! Well, I would never have thought the State of Wyoming was so darn colorful and yet at the same time so brutal as the pavements, bars, and ranches were lined with so many crippled and dead folks. I was really taken for a ride by the author through this State where "Reality's never been of much use out here" said one anonymous retired Wyoming rancher. The author came up with (real life or story spinning) such charmers : Bad Girl Creek, Crazy Woman Creek, a ranch named Coffeepot, a Rodeo rider named Diamond Felts, a road called Drunk Road or even a neighbour called Coldpepper. But by far the most telling and touching story was of course the one which gave the modern definitive meaning when one had gone "Brokeback" - a story of intense emotions and immense sentiments. Having read these stories, I felt like I had lived in a Wyoming ranch over the past weeks.
Would I recommend this book to you : I could be seen with this book in the Metro, on a cross harbour ferry, on the plane or hey, even a research book for my visit to the State of Wyoming as I would imagine that the book would whet one's appetite to actually go and see a brutal rodeo show where cowboys break some noses and dislocate some shoulders, live in a ranch for a week where pretty much nothing happens for a month, have a beer with a Grandpa called Red, start a brawl in a bar called Gold Buckle and then fall into a creek named Pass Water. Yep, just let the author take you for a ride - you wouldn't want to leave this town.
