•5:30 AM
Have you ever been embarrassed because you did not know something? Come on ... we're all friends here. You can admit it ... it's happened to all of us at one time or another. It happened to me this past week.
I had never heard of Annie Proulx. The woman wrote The Shipping News
and received The Pulitzer Prize for it ... and I've never heard of her? Of course, I know of The Shipping News and have picked it up several times, but never bought it. And, apparently, I didn't remember who the author was. She also wrote Brokeback Mountain ... you might have heard of it ... Oscar-winning movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger? And, I've never heard of Annie Proulx?
I am embarrassed that I did not know who Annie Proulx was. I feel like I should have.
I just finished Close Range, Wyoming Stories. It is a book of eleven short stories, one of which is Brokeback Mountain. It is well written. Obviously. However, I just couldn't get into it. Now, I am embarrassed to say it took me six days to read it. It is about cowboys and ranchers and bronco riders. I just didn't care to read about the cowboys and the ranchers and the bronco riders.
There is only story written from the perspective of a woman, The Lonely Coast; and it is written in the first person, which I love. The Bunchgrass Edge of the World is about a family of ranchers and centres on the story of Ottaline. She is an obese girl, who unlike her brother and sister, has been unable to escape the farm; so she lives there with her elderly grandfather and her parents. She is lonely and wishes she could find someone to love; but when she cannot, she hallucinates that a tractor is her friend. And when the tractor is not "talking" to her, she entertains herself by listening to a scanner that picks up cellphone calls.
The stories were mostly about hardship and struggle. They were not happy and uplifting. In fact, when I finished each one I felt a little down. There were no happy endings, no one seemed to overcome their struggles. There was no triumph.
I think my favourite story was The Mud Below which chronicles the journey of one young fellow, as he becomes a brono rider in the rodeo and learns about himself, too.
I am glad to be on to the next book. Although, I would still like to read The Shipping News. And, I am no longer embarrassed. Because I have read something by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Annie Proulx.
I had never heard of Annie Proulx. The woman wrote The Shipping News
and received The Pulitzer Prize for it ... and I've never heard of her? Of course, I know of The Shipping News and have picked it up several times, but never bought it. And, apparently, I didn't remember who the author was. She also wrote Brokeback Mountain ... you might have heard of it ... Oscar-winning movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger? And, I've never heard of Annie Proulx?I am embarrassed that I did not know who Annie Proulx was. I feel like I should have.
I just finished Close Range, Wyoming Stories. It is a book of eleven short stories, one of which is Brokeback Mountain. It is well written. Obviously. However, I just couldn't get into it. Now, I am embarrassed to say it took me six days to read it. It is about cowboys and ranchers and bronco riders. I just didn't care to read about the cowboys and the ranchers and the bronco riders.
There is only story written from the perspective of a woman, The Lonely Coast; and it is written in the first person, which I love. The Bunchgrass Edge of the World is about a family of ranchers and centres on the story of Ottaline. She is an obese girl, who unlike her brother and sister, has been unable to escape the farm; so she lives there with her elderly grandfather and her parents. She is lonely and wishes she could find someone to love; but when she cannot, she hallucinates that a tractor is her friend. And when the tractor is not "talking" to her, she entertains herself by listening to a scanner that picks up cellphone calls.
The stories were mostly about hardship and struggle. They were not happy and uplifting. In fact, when I finished each one I felt a little down. There were no happy endings, no one seemed to overcome their struggles. There was no triumph.
I think my favourite story was The Mud Below which chronicles the journey of one young fellow, as he becomes a brono rider in the rodeo and learns about himself, too.
I am glad to be on to the next book. Although, I would still like to read The Shipping News. And, I am no longer embarrassed. Because I have read something by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Annie Proulx.
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