CLOSE RANGE, by Annie Proulx

Well, that's it. CLOSE RANGE firmly establishes Annie Proulx as one of my favorite authors. Why did this take three books to confirm? Because I mostly liked The Shipping News and I really liked Accordian Crimes, and I wasn't sure how all that averaged out, even when one figured in how much I liked "Brokeback Mountain" (a lot--"Brokeback Mountain" is one of the short stories included in CLOSE RANGE. I read "Brokeback" last summer, and only just now sat down to the rest of the stories). CLOSE RANGE brings it all together, and yes, ranks Proulx high on my scale of favorites.

The short stories in CLOSE RANGE all focus on the state of Wyoming, and are told with a sense of eerie, dark humor that is fascinating--without being perverse or excessive. Her writing is beautiful, seemingly effortless, and some of her simplest sentences stunned me into reading them aloud, including this one, from "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World":

Old Red in his pantry wished for deafness when the bedsprings sang above.

It's a beautiful sentence, even out of context. Some of my favorite stories include both "Brokeback" and "Bunchgrass," but also "The Blood Bay" (which made me laugh, and read the whole thing aloud to Mitch) and "Pair a Spurs."

There's something of Flannery O'Connor in the way Proulx tells a story--though the West is to Proulx what the South is to O'Connor--as well as something fluid and seemless in the way she writes. Proulx is brilliant, quite brilliant, and I can't wait to read another of her novels.

RATING: 5

Book Review: LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER, by Roald Dahl

Halfway through LAMB, I lost the book! I really, really hate that. I headed straight for the bookstores as soon as I noticed that my copy was gone, but none of my favorite used bookstores had LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER in, so I suppose I'll give you a mini-review of what I'd read so far while I renew my efforts at recovering the book.

Everybody's been telling me how great Dahl is, and, having read several of his children's books (I just reread The BFG last year), it didn't take much convincing for me to pick up a collection of his stories and get reading...

The first story in LAMB (the title has the word "parson" in there somewhere, that's all I remember) is incredible--Dahl had me nervous, chewing my fingernails as the plot thickened...and thickened... Even though the main character was kind of a scumbag, I was hooked, and I never honestly thought I'd get so caught up in antique furniture, but there you go. I also loved the title story, "Lamb to the Slaughter"--brilliant. People keep telling me that he started the whole "twist ending" movement, and I could see it--if it didn't originate with him, well, he probably does a better job with it than whoever wrote the first one.

Sadly, I was right smack dab in the middle of "The Bookseller" when LAMB and I parted ways, and I was just about to figure out what was going on. So unfair. So very unfair. I will find another copy. I'm on a mission, now.

RATING: 3

Book Review: LIKE LIFE, by Lorrie Moore

What, you've never heard of Lorrie Moore? Damn shame, really. She's so clever, her writing is so pretty and her books so skinny that I think everybody should know who she is and read her regularly.

LIKE LIFE is a collection of her short stories, published long ago (like, 1990, or something), and full of fun, perky descriptions. The stories are almost fairy tales, they feel so lively and radiant, but the majority of them are underscored with a certain sorrow, a pervasive feeling of something missing.

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?, her novel, is also very good. You could read either of these (or both, if you're extra-speedy) in a weekend, and they're excellent for bribing yourself through a long, difficult book that you're determined to read (haven't you figured it out? That's how I got through Sophie's World--"if you finish this chapter, you can read a Tobias Wolff story, and if you finish the one after that, you can read a Lorrie Moore! Good girl!").

RATING: 3

Book Review: THE NIGHT IN QUESTION, by Tobias Wolff

The journal where I volunteer has this "Tobias Wolff Fiction Award" that they give out every year, and I've always felt a bit awkward checking in entries for awards when I've never read anything by the authors they're named after--but only I would feel weird about that.

So I set out to read Tobias Wolff. I mean, he's not just an award-winning author, is he? He must be a master at the short story to get short fiction awards named after him.

And that's pretty much right. I never quite got into Raymond Carver (the American master of the short story, or whatever titles have been ascribed to him). Never cared much for his selfish, whiny, "true-to-life" characters, though there was something lively and direct to his writing style that I appreciated. Tobias Wolff takes that liveliness and runs, creating stories around characters that I don't have to like in order to enjoy (make sense?), putting them in situations where I can't help but feel oddly unified with them, whatever decision they make, for ten or fifteen pages.

The man's pretty much a short story genius. He creates these little scenes where something significant happens, though you're not always sure what--not even after you finish the story. Wolff drops you right in the midst of things, giving you only what's necessary to help you find your bearings--he never states a character's age or race or location outright, but feeds it to you hint by hint. I think this is brilliant.

I really hate it when an author sits a character in front of a mirror, to put her make-up on, say, and then describes in boring detail what she looks like and how she feels about her looks, blah blah blah. It just feels so gimicky--"here, let's take a break from the story and make sure you can picture the main character, right down to the gap between her teeth." I much prefer when an author sneaks something crucial in by making mention of a certain gesture, or a favorite drink. Doesn't matter much then what she looks like, physically--how a favorite dress fits can give a much clearer indication of what sort of person she is. Example:

She had on a sleeveless dress, yellow with black flowers, that she knew to be ugly and wore anyway, because it made people conscious of her.

--"Sanity", p. 75

I like this directness in short fiction. When authors mess around forever making sure that I have the feel of the story just right, I get annoyed. Wolff is very kind about not doing that.

My favorite story in the collection? "The Other Miller". Oh yeah, and "Bullet in the Brain." Whew.

RATING: 3