I have just found out that early next year Annie Proulx's memoir is to be published. It will be called "Bird Cloud: A Memoir" and deals with Brokeback Mountain amongst other things. It is scheduled to be released on January 4, 2011. Something to look forward to in the New Year.
I have just found out that early next year Annie Proulx's memoir is to be published. It will be called "Bird Cloud: A Memoir" and deals with Brokeback Mountain amongst other things. It is scheduled to be released on January 4, 2011. Something to look forward to in the New Year.
I have just found out that early next year Annie Proulx's memoir is to be published. It will be called "Bird Cloud: A Memoir" and deals with Brokeback Mountain amongst other things. It is scheduled to be released on January 4, 2011. Something to look forward to in the New Year.my curiosity is peaked!
I have just found out that early next year Annie Proulx's memoir is to be published. It will be called "Bird Cloud: A Memoir" and deals with Brokeback Mountain amongst other things. It is scheduled to be released on January 4, 2011. Something to look forward to in the New Year.
What Meryl said : cool 8).
But I can't help but wonder a little bit: this shy woman, who puts so much emphasis on her privacy, living at far out places, rarely giving interviews, suddenly wants to share her life?
I have just found out that early next year Annie Proulx's memoir is to be published. It will be called "Bird Cloud: A Memoir" and deals with Brokeback Mountain amongst other things. It is scheduled to be released on January 4, 2011. Something to look forward to in the New Year.
Tell you what, it might be a good thing that Brokeback wasn't the first thing she wrote. I recently read an article about Harper Lee that suggested her not writing another book was due to To Kill a Mockingbird being such an impossible act to follow.
Very good point, Jeff. It seems like her recent work is rather pale next to Close Range and its magnificent final story.
It is scheduled to be released on January 4, 2011.
For some reason, the software won't let me link this to the calendar as an event. It won't let me enter anything past 2010. I am not going to become alarmed (yet).
:)
But it's on October 1, 2010 is it not? ???
Chowhound'S original post says
Did the date change? That is a Tuesday, and new book releases are almost always Tuesdays.
“Books are very important to me. I wish I could think of them as some publishers do — as ‘product’ — but I can’t.”
“Years later I still wonder if I should have cut my losses.”
Reading Ms. Proulx’s prose is like bouncing along rutted country roads in a pickup truck with no shock absorbers.
I’m partial to her early work, including the story collection “Heart Songs and Other Stories” (1988) and the novel “Postcards” (1992), written before her signature style had begun to calcify and cloy.
I guess she finally did. Hasn't she left Wyoming for Arizona? Or is it New Mexico?
While I admit I never gave it a thought until I read the above review, I can well imagine that working as a contractor for Annie Proulx would be a thankless, even "Sisyphean," task. I can well imagine that someone as particular about her writing as Annie is would drive a contractor crazy.
Don't know about contractors, but....
As a person whose work history includes waitressing, I can about guess what it would be like to wait on a person who's regularly described as "cantankerous." Or even "feisty." ;)
Admirers of her fiction will find much of this memoir to be not uninteresting.
Few writers can talk about the perks of their success without sounding either defensive or deplorable. Ms. Proulx is not among those few. “Bird Cloud” has too many precious lines like, “I wanted interesting pieces of light,” and: “Books are very important to me. I wish I could think of them as some publishers do — as ‘product’ — but I can’t.”
The angel on my right shoulder tells me I’m being hard on “Bird Cloud.”
Her cluttered style is, in a kind of reverse way, as jewel-encrusted as Gustav Klimt’s.:o :)
:o :)
(http://www.sightswithin.com/Gustav.Klimt/Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I.jpg)
We saw this Gustav Klimt piece in person at the German-Type Art Museum in NYC in September. That was right before we saw the German-Type American People's parade as we walked out onto Fifth Avenue.
As always Truman, you were there with us in spirit :) (btw be sure to take my spirit along next trip I can't make)
Miz Lynne has the Japanese translation of this painting as her userpic on fb now.
Great article. It sounds like Annie Proulx writing about her now jewel-encluttered self :laugh:
Don´t hold back now ;)
I will probably be ran out of this forum on a rail, and tarred and feathered. But
as for me, I think she is just too self important anymore. When she said that she
wished that the airplane she saw flying around her place, would crash..I gave up
all the respect for her. Other people are more important than she obviously thinks they are. She seems to think that she is the only person of value in this country. ....go ahead do your worst. I still think I can take it. That is my opinion.; Privacy is wonderful, but she is obviously a grizzled cranky old superior acting and feeling wench.
What I would love to read, and probably won't in her life time, is a biography about her. From what I understand she has not had an easy time of it, well who does I know.....
I remember the time I went to see her speak and someones cell phone rang and she stopped midsentance and said "Do you want to get that?"
At lunch today, I noticed that Bird Cloud was featured in the "Briefly Noted" section of capsule book reviews in the Feb. 7 issue of The New Yorker. Whoever wrote the capsule review concludes by speculating that at certain times, AP's Wyoming neighbors must be as contemptuous of her as she so clearly is of them. That led me to wonder--seriously--why on earth would you write a memoir that makes you look like such a bad-tempered, mean-spirited, snobbish old crank? ??? I mean, seriously, why would anyone do that? ???
At lunch today, I noticed that Bird Cloud was featured in the "Briefly Noted" section of capsule book reviews in the Feb. 7 issue of The New Yorker. Whoever wrote the capsule review concludes by speculating that at certain times, AP's Wyoming neighbors must be as contemptuous of her as she so clearly is of them. That led me to wonder--seriously--why on earth would you write a memoir that makes you look like such a bad-tempered, mean-spirited, snobbish old crank? ??? I mean, seriously, why would anyone do that? ???
Maybe she really is a bad-tempered, mean-spirited, snobbish old crank. Being brilliant at what you do and being a wonderful person aren't necessarily the same thing.
Don't shoot the messenger.
Why would I shoot the messenger? Likely she is exactly that. But that still begs the question, Why write a memoir to show yourself to the world in that way? ???I haven´t read it, so I don´t know that what extent this is the case, but Annie Proulx to me is someone who never make things more glamorous than they are - this goes for both her writing and her personal life. She says what she really thinks and writes what she really thinks. Might not always be pretty, but I admire her for it.
Why would I shoot the messenger? Likely she is exactly that. But that still begs the question, Why write a memoir to show yourself to the world in that way? ???
Well, that's where the "cantankerous" and "outspoken" schtick comes in. ::)
As far as shooting the messenger goes, anyone criticizing AP is justified in expecting a hostile reception. Doesn't happen consistently but the "OMG how can you say that!" reaction isn't unknown. I assume that's why an earlier poster in this thread expected brickbats.
I can think of several reasons why AP might want to portray herself in a poor light in her new book Bird Cloud. For one, it makes for a better book. Think of Frances Mayes' book about the house she renovated in Tuscany: Under the Tuscan Sun. The eccentricities, culture clashes and ineptness made for a better book. Another reason is that it is awkward writing one's memoirs and AP might feel more comfortable with a self-deprecating approach. She is often like that in her interviews referring to herself as "elderly", "set in her ways", and a person who has botched the marriage and/or mothering roles. But the reason I think is most likely is that AP thinks of herself somewhat as a character in her story, and we know her characters typically have more than their share of flaws!!
I can think of several reasons why AP might want to portray herself in a poor light in her new book Bird Cloud. For one, it makes for a better book. Think of Frances Mayes' book about the house she renovated in Tuscany: Under the Tuscan Sun. The eccentricities, culture clashes and ineptness made for a better book. Another reason is that it is awkward writing one's memoirs and AP might feel more comfortable with a self-deprecating approach. She is often like that in her interviews referring to herself as "elderly", "set in her ways", and a person who has botched the marriage and/or mothering roles. But the reason I think is most likely is that AP thinks of herself somewhat as a character in her story, and we know her characters typically have more than their share of flaws!!
As far as shooting the messenger goes, anyone criticizing AP is justified in expecting a hostile reception. Doesn't happen consistently but the "OMG how can you say that!" reaction isn't unknown. I assume that's why an earlier poster in this thread expected brickbats.
Thanks for an excellent review, Paul. You're a real thinker there. Might have a look at Bird Cloud. :)
Ditto.
Jeepers, it almost seems like you read an entirely different book than the original reviewer! ;D
I can see where it'd be a problem if that road wasn't plowed in winter.
Well, it isn't what I thought her house would look like either, and I have to say, it looks like an industrial sheet metal plant.
You got all that from looking at the exterior of her house?
I for one knowing that I had plenty of money, and time. Would never come up with
that monstrosity. It is the most boring, and uninteresting looking building to live in
I think I have ever seen. It must be a reflection of the person herself. Self obsorbed,
self involved and cold of heart.
so Truman, what's your aesthetic opinion of the Bird Cloud Industrial Sheet Metal Fabrication plant?
I think it is aesthetically pleasing in the short run but hard to maintain in the long run.
I think it looks like a hardware store.
It's quite possible that the house looks better from the inside looking out.
Considering that every other ranch on sale in Wyoming is actually picturesque, the only thing Bird Cloud Ranch has got going for it is the view, I wonder if it has any chance of selling?
Well that is a good question, considering she herself has publicly stated she cannot got out of the property during the winter, it is like shooting oneself in the foot.
Either someone out there might be looking for a little $3.7M Wyoming summer cottage, or she expects no one will read her book!
I think it looks like a hardware store.
I was thinking of an upscale feed store --- one that caters to people who buy $3.7 million houses.
Yup, that too! Hardware, hay, and feed. ... ;D
I saw a store yesterday with a banner on the side that said "Hardware for Women." I briefly thought I'd send my mother there for her hardware needs; then I saw the sign on the front that said "Jewelry Store."
Meanwhile, back to the topic. The sound recording of this book is ready for me to pick up at my local library!! And it looks like AP herself might be the narrator!! That in itself will help shed some light on this book and its motives, I think. There is another contributor mentioned...Joan Allen. I don't know anything about her. Stay tuned...
I don't think I could allow real estate to stand in for love.
However, if Annie is a "middle-aged woman", then I'm a spring chicken!
Well, remember, 50 is the new 40, or something like that. ;D
And you're just a young whippersnapper anyway. ... ;D :-*
"Land is the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts."
--Gerald O'Hara
Apparently 75 is the new 40!
Yeah, I'm just an adolescent.
Always ready with a relevant GWTW quote! :laugh:
I don't think I could allow real estate to stand in for love.
Chapter 2 talks about Annie's early life. It really IS like a memoir so far. It's very interesting to hear about early experiences and connect the dots to some of the things in her stories. Her recollections, even of things that happened fifty or more years ago are very vivid. I wish I had that talent.
Jesus H., it sounds like all those spiteful reviewers read an entirely different book. :-\
Spiteful? I wonder why several different reviewers would feel spite toward AP.
Professional jealousy, maybe.
Jesus H., it sounds like all those spiteful reviewers read an entirely different book. :-\
If reviewers gave bad reviews to writers they felt was better than them,
In fact, I'm a book reviewer, myself, and I give bad reviews to all writers whose subjects and verbs agree.Yes, subject/verb agreement are SO twentieth century!!
If reviewers gave bad reviews to writers they felt was better than them,
I noticed that yesterday. I just tactfully averted my eyes, as from another's nakedness. ...
Becoming a Brokie wreaks havoc on one's grammar, as well!!
Spiteful? I wonder why several different reviewers would feel spite toward AP.
I'm thinking it's probably just that different people hold different opinions. Though I would say that Lee, completely understandably, probably went into the book with the opposite of spite toward AP.
I thought of that, too.
"If reviewers gave bad reviews to writers they thought was better than theme" is simply Brokese, like "We was good friends."