Well I got done reading the book yesterday and can say it was an over all pleasant experience, but somewhat of a chore.
I can certainly relate to what Janice says, the only way this story ever made it into the world is because of Proulx's celebrity. In a strange way this very private person opens up and talks a lot about her family and about herself and about some of the places she has lived and then we are treated to her conspicious consumption. And for the record, the plat she drew for the book is orented toward the east. You can find the place easy enough on Google Earth on the North Platt, NW of Saratoga, Wyoming.
As a Realtor, one of the things that gets under my skin is the pickiness of people who have to have things "just so", it grates upon my status of being the first generation of my family to have indoor plumbing. I want to shake these people and tell them that just a few miles from here there are people living in cardboard boxes who would be grateful to live in that ugly took shed. The more I read my heart went out to the James Gang, they sound like the are on permanent retainer to come and rescue her when she is trapped.
And then she diverges into great Annie Dillard-esque prose about the natives who have lived there, the bird chapter at the end I got caught up in to my surprise. She truly enjoys the place she created, where none was before and for apparently a good reason.
I found myself looking for things I recognized. She never once mentioned Brokeback, I doubt she does much. She did mention
That Old Act In The Hole and
Accordion Crimes and maybe
The Shipping News. What I did find is the time line, laid out against the expierence we have had that she created. When I saw her at Davidson College in 2006, she was having the insulation installed. When we had just returned from Alberta in 2007, the day that Mouk reported the first snowfall in August, she and a friend were watching the mice pop out of the sprinkler system.
And as with all things Proulx, the more you scratch, the more you will find. Like these photos from the website of the architect, Harry Teague:
More photos are available here:
http://www.harryteaguearchitects.com/birdcloud.htm#I was looking at those when I was part of the way through and was like "There is the deck and the chinking and the table from Newfoundland!"
So in a way, Bird Cloud answers some very defiantly sexless hunger to get a peek inside of the mind and world of the woman who created Jack and Ennis. She is as complex as any of the rest of us, just loaded up with money and ready to leave her footprint on as much of the world as possible.
People with bad teeth can still dance.