That Old Ace in the Hole (Hardcover)

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Review
'This eagerly awaited sucessor [to The Shipping News] has the same richly textured quality as all the author's finest work. The beleagured Bob is one of the author's finest creations, and the use of idiomatic dialogue here is perfectly judged.' Publishing News On THE SHIPPING NEWS: 'To read The Shipping News is to yearn to be sitting in The Flying Squid Lunchstop, eating Seal Fin Curry, watching the icebergs clink together in the bay.' The Times On CLOSE RANGE: 'Seismic ... A brilliant writer at the height of her powers ... Wickedly funny' Sunday Telegraph 'Proulx's command of the raw idiom of rodeo-riders and cowhands is astonishing; it gives her the power to summon up entire lives within a few paragraphs.' Esquire

One of the great delights of Annie Proulx is her talent for digging beneath the surface of an American landscape and its inhabitants and emerging - triumphantly - with a fistful of dirty gems. However unpromising or downright unappealing her choice of canvas might appear to be at first glance, she always has the knack of unearthing its social, cultural and moral riches. And never more so with this work, in which the wasted vistas of the Texas panhandle form the setting for a slow-building but deep-burning drama of a community's battle to maintain the integrity of its heritage in a swiftly globalising world. Bob Dollar, recruited as an undercover site scout for the multi-national conglomerate Gobal Pork Rind, has the task of targeting land-owners whose property might be suitable for conversion into hog-farms. He takes a room in the teetotal town of Woolbucket, where he soon finds himself more interested in hearing stories about the town's eccentric inhabitants, past and present, than in paving the way for money deals with its intransigent old-timers. Bob clearly isn't cut out for the job, and within weeks his cover is blown. But by then the dreary panhandle landscape and its people have taken a grip on him, making his role as champion of the globalised `pork unit' increasingly untenable. This is crowded, fact-strewn, celebratory fiction, rich with raucous, spot-on dialogue and unbridled humour. So peopled is it with characters, that for a while, one almost loses sight of the mild, well-meaning Bob Dollar. But with breath-taking craft, Proulx brings him back, and at the same time gives every minor character a role in the story's final blossoming, making its narrative conclusion one of the most richly satisfying, as well as the most optimistic, that she has ever orchestrated. Life-affirming stuff. Liz Jensen is the author of War Crimes for the Home. (Kirkus UK)

A kind of Rake's Progress set in the Texas panhandle, where a slick Denver hustler goes to fleece the rubes and ends up going over to their side. The aptly named Bob Dollar hasn't got much going for him except youth, innocence, and an uninformed ambition to make something of himself. It's not surprising he turned out this way, considering that his no-good parents walked out when he was seven, leaving him in the care of his crusty uncle while they went off to seek their fortune in Alaska. Now that he's all grown up and done with college, Bob takes a job with the Global Pork Rind Corporation as location scout. His mission is to scour the Texas panhandle looking for ranches that might be bought to use as hog farms for the GPR. It's a tough sell (who wants to live near a hog farm?), and the Texas outback is rough territory for salesmen under the best of circumstances. For a young man in a hurry, though, the job offers hope of quick advancement and good money down the line. But Bob, a Denver boy, has never been to Texas before, and he doesn't know the first thing about the ways of folks on the panhandle-where millionaires are likely to live in trailers and building steam locomotives in your garage might count as a normal hobby. In the little crossroads town of Woolybucket, with his landlady LaVon Fronk as his guide, he sets out to size up the locals and go in for the kill. He soon settles upon Ace and Tater Crouch as his best target: cash-poor and getting on in years, the Crouch brothers own a large spread that would be perfect for a hog farm. Unfortunately for Bob, the Crouches have more than dollars in mind. Even worse, they eventually make him see that there's more than dollars in life. Funny, deft, and sharply told, Proulx's latest (after Close Range, 1999) suffers from excessive local color in parts, but it's engaging and worthwhile-if not up to her usual level. (Kirkus Reviews)

New Statesman
'a contemporary Dickens ... an American League of Gentlemen'

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9 Reviews 5 star:  (3) 4 star:  (4) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.0 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   20 of 20 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars This book took me to Texas, 1 Sep 2004 By  Philip Beasley "airlie_tiger" (Newcastle, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: That Old Ace in the Hole (Paperback) Proulx's genius is her amazing ability to transport you into the landscapes of the places she writes about and the lives of those who live there. Having been sucked into the geography and people of Newfoundland I picked up That Old Ace In The Hole for obvious reasons. And it lived up to my expectations. Not that I expected another Shipping News because I do not believe that could ever be equalled. However, That Old Ace In The Hole is excellently written with rich characters and stunning attention to detail. The crux of the story is that of a young man - Bob Dollar - moving to the Texas panhandle with a new job. Through encounters with the locals and some morally questionable situations, Bob begins to look at himself and his own desires in life. That Old Ace In The Hole is a heart-warming story that will whisk you off to the Texas panhandle and engage you in its people and landscape. Don't expect The Shipping News, but do expect to want to move to a small backwater town in Texas. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   12 of 12 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars "To live here it sure helps if you are half cow...", 12 Jun 2003 By  Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    Stating that "nothing of the original prairie remain[s]," Proulx presents the Texas Panhandle through the eyes of 25-year-old Bob Dollar, a newcomer, who sees railroad tracks, grain elevators, drive-in restaurants, "welcome to" signs with mottoes, a plywood Jesus, irrigation rigs, condensation tanks, fences, and not incidentally, long, gray hog farms, with their effluent lagoons in the rear, the stench overpowering the grasslands for miles around. Hired by Global Pork Rind to find the acreage needed for additional hog farms, Bob ingratiates himself with the townsfolk of the Panhandle town of Woolybucket, posing as a buyer of land for luxury housing. His meetings with cutely named townsfolk-Francis Scott Keister, Tater and Ace Crouch, Jerky Baum, Pecan Flagg, Blowy Cluck, Coolbroth Fronk, and Waldo Beautyrooms--and his discovery of their stories constitute the loose primary plot of this novel, which more closely resembles a quirky collection of short stories than a fully developed novel. "Eccentricities were valued and cultivated" here, but none of these earthy folk are eccentric enought to want more hog farms. Proulx raises some big issues here, such as the alarming depletion of the water table in the Panhandle, the pollution from oil fields and chemical plants, and the illnesses associated with proximity to hog farms, but she keeps her narrative from becoming polemical by weaving these into other threads about windmill-building, quilting, cock-fighting, social life in the local diner, and plans for the upcoming Barbwire Festival. She keeps things light and amusing, using the eccentricities of her characters and the setting to spice up her narrative about their not-very-interesting lives. Proulx is a real pro in controlling the pace of the novel. Whenever it starts to bog down or threaten to become dull, she gives us a new, outrageous name or an amusing digression (like the one about a lightbulb cemetery), or references to Bob's uncle's collection of "art plastic," or the visit of Bob's ex-con friend who, with some friends, made a recording of flatulent "Rock Hits From Prison." All these save the novel from being prairie-flat, as Bob tries to save his job without hurting the people he meets. The book is entertaining, and its feel-good ending, which explains the title, will please many readers. Others may want more substance and less artifice. Mary Whipple Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   9 of 9 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars That Old Ace in the Hole, 26 April 2004 By  D. Boulton (Bristol) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This review is from: That Old Ace in the Hole (Paperback) Annie Proulx's latest novel offers a fascinating blend of stunningdescriptions of place and superb construction of characters as she offersa compelling insight into life for an outsider in rural Texas. Whether the Texas that Proulx describes is 'the' Texas or not isinconsequential: as the book's protagonist, Bob Dollar, sets about findingsuitable ranching land to be converted into a much-hated factory hog-farm,the rugged and unique characters merge with the rugged and unique imageryto create a superb read. For those who have read Proulx's earlier novel, The Shipping News, thisnovel lives up to expectation: she does to Texas in That Old Ace in theHole, through her wonderful observation of physical and human quirks, whatshe does to the wind-beaten North-East coast in The Shipping News. Some reviews have suggested that perhaps this novel is over-researched andindiscriminately edited, and certainly in terms of sheer length, this is along book. But if you are likely to be irked by lengthy characterizationand scene creation, then this is not a book that I would recommend youread anyway. Normally a book with a distinctly average, and often non-existent, plot isbest avoided. But when the characterization and descriptions are soincredibly vivid and so powerful, as they are here, the book should not bemissed. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 9 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars not her best I'm a huge fan of Annie Proulx - the style, the stories, the ability to put the weirdest things together and you just think, wow, I never knew that could happen - funny names and... Read more Published on 6 April 2006 4.0 out of 5 stars Making a silk purse from a sow's ear You can't describe why this book's enjoyable. A lonely hero in a forgotten part of America doing a job everyone hates him for...where's the fun in that? Read more Published on 23 Jul 2004 by doctor_vison 5.0 out of 5 stars Less a plot than a way of life. The plot, a man sent to do a dirty job but inclined to go native, is thin, in no way original but promising. Read more Published on 17 May 2004 by Cole Davis 2.0 out of 5 stars Probably her worst novel. I had been looking forward to reading Annie Proulx's latest novel for a while now, and picked it up in my local library recently. Read more Published on 19 Jan 2004 by hamishmcwilliams 5.0 out of 5 stars loved it I loved this book - its a vivid portrait of a small area and its characters, written with heart and joy without being cloyingly sentimental. Read more Published on 30 April 2003 4.0 out of 5 stars A rich portrait of life in the Texas Panhandle In this wonderful new novel Proulx's style is even more confident, sparkling, rich and detailed than ever. Read more Published on 16 Dec 2002 by c westwood Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 9 customer reviews...

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