Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
Price: £2.74
Fulfilled by Amazon

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
See 1 customer image
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Close Range: Wyoming Stories [Paperback]

E. Annie Proulx (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Paperback --   -- --
Paperback, 3 Jun 1999 --   -- --
Books Trade-In
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

Book Description

Publication Date: 3 Jun 1999

A new short-story collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes. Includes the acclaimed stories, Brokeback Mountain (winner of a National Magazine Award) and The Mud Below.

Annie Proulx’s previous short story collection Heart Songs was universally acclaimed: ‘A shining collection…a polished, unflinching work.’ (The Times).

The new collection includes Brokeback Mountain, the highly-acclaimed and award-winning tale set in the beautiful, wild landscape of Wyoming where cowboys live as they have done for generations. Also included is the story The Mud Below that reveals the world of the rodeo, buckle bunnies and the quiet ambition of the boy who gives up everything to ride bulls.

Remarkable and memorable, these new short stories will confirm Annie Proulx’s status as one of the great story-tellers of our times.

Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate; First Paperback edition (3 Jun 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1857029429
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857029420
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 260,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Annie Proulx Page
Annie Proulx
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Amazon Review

Annie Proulx published her first novel, Postcards in 1991; her second, The Shipping News, won the Pulitzer prize in 1993 and in 1997 her third novel, Accordion Crimes, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Close Range: Wyoming Stories is her second collection of short stories, including the acclaimed novella, "Brokeback Moutain". Described by one critic as a "profanely poetic and beautiful elegy on doomed manhood," this story of love and sex--"a shared and sexless hunger"--between two cowboys exemplifies the world of Close Range. "If you can't fix it you've got to stand it": that could be the motto of any one of these eleven tales of lives lived out in the relentless, sometimes sickening, brutality of ranch and range. From "The Half-Skinned Steer" (take the title literally) to "55 Miles to the Gas Pump" and "People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water", bodies (often male) are broken and mangled; a nervous woman throws her baby daughter away and a prodigal son rots with gangrene; women are confused with bulls, lovemaking with riding a rodeo. Grotesque, damaged: lost bodies, and dreams, are the themes of this relentless and skilfully crafted book. Far from revelling in the violence, and loss, they uncover, these stories think it through--take the reader towards the poetry and compassion which is the hallmark of Proulx's writing. --Vicky Lebeau

Review

‘A stunning collection of eleven tales about the hard lives of the ranchers, cowpokes and country wives who struggle to survive in an unforgiving environment. Written in a wonderfully flexible style that can be both spare and extravagant, her book has been hailed by American critics as a masterpiece.’ Daily Telegraph

‘Like a mystic seeing the transfigured universe, she recreates the beauty of ordinary things.’ Independent on Sunday

‘The detail is meticulous, the prose poetic and Proulx's fiction teems with life. Above all, her stories engage the heart. Magical.’ Tatler

‘Proulx's style, compressed, elastic, hard-hitting, is inimitable: close to poetry but never self-indulgent. This is writing to be savoured.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘These are tales we can almost feel in our bones.’ Sunday Times

‘Individually, these 11 tales have a tautness and an urgency that are never less than exhilarating. Collectively, they encapsulate an entire, unremittingly bleak world. To find the pulse of humanity in such desperate lives betokens a writer of genius.’ Saturday Telegraph

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
See all Product Description

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
15 reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Ever thought about moving to Wyoming?....................... 9 Aug 2000
By perchnail187@netscapeonline.co.uk
Format:Paperback
Bought this book as a holiday read on the back of The Shipping News, consumed(and loved)some years ago. Could barely wait to unpack before starting it on arrival, and had to force myself to stop after half a day for fear of knocking it off in one sitting and leaving me bereft for the remainder of the week. Eagerly picked it up one day later......no self control. One of those books you (I) can't put down; so evocative of unforgiving existences in the unforgiving territory of Wyoming past and present.I kept wondering how the author could have put so much expression and understanding into the varied lives of her protagonists, particularly when, in perhaps the best and most powerful of all the stories she relates the loving relationship between two cowboys. I suggest reading a story a day or you'll o.d. on the characters and the landscape - but, if you've read Proulx before, you don't need all this guff to convince you it's a buy.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Close Range 8 Feb 2005
By "groan"
Format:Paperback
This is a collection of short stories set in a harsh, unforgiving landscape. The reader is immediately drawn into the plots in which three dimensional characters eke out their existence beneath the mind - numbing effect of huge distances & isolation, where minor occurrances take on huge proportions.

Proulx's stories are utterly spellbinding. Her prose is hypnotic & her imagery breathtaking.

This is a book which affects your life whilst it holds you in its thrall. I have lost count of how many times I have re-read it but each time it is as fresh as the first. If you only ever read one more book, make it this one.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The most fantastic writer I have read in a long while. 10 Dec 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Close Range: Wyoming Stories is a rich collection of evocative, inspiring, challenging and uncompromising short stories. Proulx captures the culture and landscape of Wyoming - a place I have never been - through astounding descriptive techniques and breathtaking characterisation. Humour and pathos are equal ingredients in her studies of the human spirit, notably as it operates at the fringe of modern American civilisation. The last story in the collection - Brokeback Mountain - will stay in your heart and imagination for ever.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Annie Proulx fan
As an Annie Proulx fan I enjoyed this book, though I have to say slightly less than some of her others. Read more
Published 5 months ago by P. Cameron
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous service!
I ordered it for my daughter who dropped another subject to do English two weeks into the academic year. I asked the seller to send it asap, and that was exactly what they did. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Kobe
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding writing
Proulx has complete mastery of "voice". She is able to present character not only through action but through diction and accent in each of her individually created Westerners -... Read more
Published 13 months ago by J. Boyle
5.0 out of 5 stars American prose at its absolute best
The writing crackles and burns indelible images. Phrases live with you. "She was ridden hard and put away dirty" refers to a mother of four who leaves home one day - can't take it... Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2010 by Stephen Summers
4.0 out of 5 stars An unforgiving trek past Brokeback Mountain
Again I am putting the cart in front of the horses in terms of my reading habits; I was drawn to this book after viewing the amazing Brokeback Mountain. Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2009 by Matt Kennard
2.0 out of 5 stars Not that good really
I have not yet read any of Proulx's other work such as The Shipping News. This collection of eleven short stories contains a masterpiece, Brokeback Mountain. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2008 by Flibertigibbit
4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect partners:blood and sludge
Suddenly coming from Sheffield, England isn't that bad at all. In fact it's a ladies night out. Wyoming life is hard. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2001 by tim@funkyroom.demon.co.uk
4.0 out of 5 stars Likeable stories
Well I liked it. Perhaps less mannered style than her longer fiction (which isn't supposed to sound like an insult). Try also Jonathan Raban's Bad Land. Read more
Published on 16 May 2000 by Armchair adventurer
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning
Simply stunning. Searing stories from a master stylist.
Published on 8 May 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars short stories that tell of long hard lifetimes
Postcards and The Shipping News leave you addicted. Accordian Crimes gives you a hit, leaving you buzzing but sadly not satiated. Read more
Published on 31 Oct 1999
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

    Your Shopping Basket is empty.

    Give it purpose -- fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    There's a problem previewing your shopping basket at the moment.

    Check your Internet connection and go to your cart, or try again.

    View Shopping Basket (0 items)

      Customer Discussions

      This product's forum
      Discussion Replies Latest Post
      No discussions yet

      Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
      Start a new discussion
      Topic:
      First post:
      Prompts for sign-in
       


      Active discussions in related forums
      Search Customer Discussions
      Search all Amazon discussions
         
      Related forums

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback