'Brokeback Mountain' author rides high again
'Brokeback Mountain' author rides high again

By Dennie Hall Comments 0
Published: September 7, 2008

Wyoming — hot as blazes in summer, cold as a freezer in winter — is a harsh land, and yet one with breathtaking mountains on its upper side.

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It is the home of a powerful writer, Annie Proulx of "Brokeback Mountain” fame, who now gives us a book of short stories, "Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3” (Scribner, $25).

Proulx can build character better than almost anyone. She can describe a scene that convinces the reader he is there, and she can stir emotions we've forgotten about. All that is accomplished — and a bit more — in this final story collection in the Wyoming Stories Trilogy.

The first of the book's nine stories, "Family Man,” has its setting in the Mellowhorn Home, where old people live for their television shows, for happy hour and for the cheap meals.

And there's something else: The few men among the numerous women are considered prizes. An employee of Mellowhorn said she had believed that the sex drive faded in the elderly, "but those crones vied for the favors of palsied men with beef jerky arms. The men could take their pick of shapeless housecoats and flowery skeletons.”

One of the retirement home residents, Ray Forkenbrock, is persuaded to write about his life, and the story takes some fascinating turns.

"Them Old Cowboy Songs” is a piercing story of teenage love. Archie and Rose wed in 1885, and love sustains them for a while. Heaven knows, they had little else. Archie, 16, lied about his age, claiming he was 21. Rose was even younger.

The couple lived in a tent while working on a tiny log cabin. Archie finally was able to buy two small windows by spending a month rounding up stray cows for a neighbor. Archie's singing cheered them when life was otherwise dreadfully bleak. When Archie was 17, he decided he had to leave his pregnant bride behind while he sought work a long distance away. A peripheral story unfolds about a former hooker who has sought respectability in a new locale but is finally unveiled.

The fate of Archie and Rose is sad beyond description, but we won't give away the plot here.

Another story features the devil and his mischief. That story, though brief, displays the Proulx sense of humor, which she has aplenty as well as pathos.

Proulx has written eight books and won the Pulitzer Prize for one, "The Shipping News.” She lives in what her publicists call "the stark and dangerous territory of Wyoming.” No wonder she knows that land so well.

I know, I know! At one time I did show disdain for the short story format, but I repent. Proulx can craft a short story with flair, causing me to take a whole new look at that genre. Mea culpa.