I´m reading the first part of The del Mar Painting and oh my god, I swear it takes my breath away every time.
If Maggie isn´t a professional writer then I don´t who should be. She covers difficult topics and has a writing style entirely her own. When I read hear stories it is always with a sense of pleasure as well with a sense of loss and grief. For me she captures the essense of Brokeback perfectly.
There are some passages in The del Mar Paining that I find almost unbearable to read - these are chapters that deal our two main characters (modern day versions of Ennis and Jack living in California) traveling to Wyoming to meet Ennis´s uncle who is "our" Ennis, that is canon Ennis. It has been twenty years since Jack´s death and the 60 something old Ennis is exactly like we left him in the short storie - only greyer, older and dustier. This is modern day Ennis and Jack´s first meeting with canon-Ennis (Uncle) told from Jack´s perspective:
"I take a good look at mysterious uncle, and somethin’ ‘bout him scare the livin’ shit outta me–damn Ennis was right, I think.
Old. So old damn. And wore out like a bald tire: hair all thin, face all line like he been to hell and back ‘gain, lines fulla ash like from his trip to the devil. Jesus H. But he ain’t no Homer Simpson, no way–tall and skinny, and somethin’ bout him like haunted, just like Ennis say. ‘Cept he more like a ghost than haunted by one.
Uncle don’t say nothin’ for a second; then I hear his voice say, worn from a thousand years and ten thousand cigarettes, “Mm, hi.”
Ennis kick me under the table, and I stand up.
“Now this here’s Jack,” Ennis say to the man. “Friend a mine.”
“Howdy Sir,” I smile at him. “Good to meetcha at last; heard so much ‘bout you.”
He turn to me then, squint at me like I don’t know what; but when he look inta my eyes and I look inta his oh shit eyes just like Ennis’s just like–uncle face turn white, and his mouth fall open while his eyes as they stare inta mine darken inta a black so black feel like death.
“Uh,” he say, kinda swayin’ a little; then he grab hold of a chair, set down heavily inta it like he gonna faint or somethin’, his eyes on me the whole time like pleadin’ with me to–what?
“You all right Daddy?” Junior say, puttin’ a hand on his shoulder; she look up to me then, expression on her face like she know after all what wrong with him.
“Mm,” is the reply.
Ennis try to make conversation with the uncle ‘bout Ennis’s daddy KE and such, but uncle talk even less than my Ennis do."
