Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
Series: N/A
Published by Scribner on December 2, 2005
Genres: Love, Romance, Western
Pages: 64 : Paperback edition
Source: Received through PaperBackSwap.com
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Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many readers and reviewers, “Brokeback Mountain” is her masterpiece.

Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they’re working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.

Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that’s what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.

The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of “Brokeback Mountain,” and the story was included in Prize Stories 1998: The O. Henry Awards. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world’s violent intolerance.

A short, yet extremely powerful read! I have to read this for a class in the upcoming quarter and figured I’d get a jump on it since it’s so short. I have never before read anything that was considered purely Western, or any sort of male/male romance story so this was a lot of firsts rolled into one.

But oh my goodness this was written so stunningly! Proulx’s writing style is very upfront and doesn’t mess around with unnecessary details (obviously, if the book is only about 60 pages). However, in that short amount of time she gets a lot of plot information across as well as deep emotional feelings felt by each character. Truly, a wonderful story and I can’t wait to see how the discussions will go in class.

I have not seen the movie yet either so it will be interesting to see how that compares as well.