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Close Range: Wyoming Stories (review)

Close Range: Wyoming Stories (review) by Annie Proulx Scribner, 1999, 283 pp., $25 Close Range: Wyoming Stories consult the personals. In "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World," the protagonist, OttaUne, is so desperate for human contact that she uses a Book Award and the PuUtzer Prize, what more is there for Proulx to do? Having established herself as a styUst and storyteUer in her three novels, having won both the National scanner to Usten in on cell-phone conversations. Later, she engages in conversation with a rusted-out tractor. In Close Range, she returns to the short story, adding to her repertoire a new breed of characters in an unfor- ex-husband shoots out his adul- Relationships that do evolve are tough, and tough to navigate. An terous former wife's tires; a love giving land. As in her previous work, landscape infuses Proulx's fiction. The eleven stories in Close Range depict Wyoming natives struggling against brutal conditions, not the least of "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World," seventy-one-year-old Old affair between two cowboys ends in the murder of one; a married man visits a young Indian prostitute. In Red attacks his son Aladdin with, "Not too swift, are you? Not too smart . . . How you got a woman a marry you I don't know. You must them the wild Wyoming plains. Fans will recognize the tight-knit sentences and perfectly placed ironic detaUs as Proulx trademarks: When a fire in "Job Description" causes an explosion inside an old house, Proulx the house and strikes the fire engine hood. It is a Nintendo player and not tells readers, "an object flies out of even charred." Her matter-of-fact a got a shotgun on her." The angry son retaUates by chasing down his father and pelting him with stones and other handy sharp objects. Old Red surrenders, but not before an voice is perfectly suited to her vision of the world as a place of ironies and startling hardships. Proulx's appreciation of Wyoming is obvious in her descriptions. It is a land whose winters are cold enough to freeze solid a "somewhat vain" indignant, "I made this ranch and I made you." For Old Red, this simple fact of blood relationship justifies his nastiness. Perhaps what makes the book so enjoyable is Proulx's abUity to craft and deliver a story. "The HalfSkinned Steer" foUows the life of a retired rancher who returns to his cowboy who splurges on fancy boots instead of coat and gloves. In "People in Hell Just Want a Glass of Water," series of ironic twists. Each event is childhood ranch only to die after a the country is "indigo jags of mountain, grassy plain everlasting, tumbled stones like fallen cities, the flaring roll of sky." timed perfectly; the story unfolds without a hitch. For Proulx's characters life is This vastness of the land inspires loneliness in its people. The aptly titled "The Lonely Coasf teUs of small-town women who riotously 220 · The Missouri Review invariably a struggle. For Proulx the author, telling their stories seems to come a Uttle more easUy. Close Range: Wyoming Stories is an admirable addition to her growing body of critically acclaimed work. (KD) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Missouri Review University of Missouri

Close Range: Wyoming Stories (review)

Delay, Katie.
The Missouri Review , Volume 22 (3) – Oct 5, 1999
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Publisher
University of Missouri
Copyright
Copyright © The Curators of the University of Missouri.
ISSN
1548-9930
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Abstract

by Annie Proulx Scribner, 1999, 283 pp., $25 Close Range: Wyoming Stories consult the personals. In "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World," the protagonist, OttaUne, is so desperate for human contact that she uses a Book Award and the PuUtzer Prize, what more is there for Proulx to do? Having established herself as a styUst and storyteUer in her three novels, having won both the National scanner to Usten in on cell-phone conversations. Later, she engages in conversation with a rusted-out tractor. In Close Range, she returns to the short story, adding to her repertoire a new breed of characters in an unfor- ex-husband shoots out his adul- Relationships that do evolve are tough, and tough to navigate. An terous former wife's tires; a love giving land. As in her previous work, landscape infuses Proulx's fiction. The eleven stories in Close Range depict Wyoming natives struggling against brutal conditions, not the least of "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World," seventy-one-year-old Old affair between two cowboys ends in the murder of one; a married man visits a young Indian prostitute. In Red attacks his son Aladdin with, "Not too swift, are you? Not too smart . . . How you got a woman a marry you I don't know. You must them the wild Wyoming plains. Fans will recognize the tight-knit sentences and perfectly placed ironic detaUs as Proulx trademarks: When a fire in "Job Description" causes an explosion inside an old house, Proulx the house and strikes the fire engine hood. It is a Nintendo player and not tells readers, "an object flies out of even charred." Her matter-of-fact a got a shotgun on her." The angry son retaUates by chasing down his father and pelting him with stones and other handy sharp objects. Old Red surrenders, but not before an voice is perfectly suited to her vision of the world as a place of ironies and startling hardships. Proulx's appreciation of Wyoming is obvious in her descriptions. It is a land whose winters are cold enough to freeze solid a "somewhat vain" indignant, "I made this ranch and I made you." For Old Red, this simple fact of blood relationship justifies his nastiness. Perhaps what makes the book so enjoyable is Proulx's abUity to craft and deliver a story. "The HalfSkinned Steer" foUows the life of a retired rancher who returns to his cowboy who splurges on fancy boots instead of coat and gloves. In "People in Hell Just Want a Glass of Water," series of ironic twists. Each event is childhood ranch only to die after a the country is "indigo jags of mountain, grassy plain everlasting, tumbled stones like fallen cities, the flaring roll of sky." timed perfectly; the story unfolds without a hitch. For Proulx's characters life is This vastness of the land inspires loneliness in its people. The aptly titled "The Lonely Coasf teUs of small-town women who riotously 220 · The Missouri Review invariably a struggle. For Proulx the author, telling their stories seems to come a Uttle more easUy. Close Range: Wyoming Stories is an admirable addition to her growing body of critically acclaimed work. (KD)

Journal

The Missouri Review – University of Missouri

Published: Oct 5, 1999

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