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The New Yorker has published ANOTHER new Annie Proulx story ***SPOILERS***

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Jeff Wrangler:
Spoilers:

Well, over lunch today I finally got round to reading "Tits-Up in a Ditch," and I really enjoyed it, even when the story turned tragic.

I had a really good laugh over the part where Bonita thought about poisoning Verl, but then gave up the idea because they had no insurance for her to collect.  :laugh:

I think I saw a faint echo of Jack in the description of the young Verl.  :-\

MaineWriter:
SPOILERS



I "sorta" read it yesterday. "Sorta" read it means I skipped around and then read the end carefully, which means I had to go back and read the beginning, but then I breezed through that because it wasn't that interesting which is why I was skimming it in the first place.

But once again, at the end we have a woman without an arm, a man without half his body, and the baby squished by the truck. I mean, come on. Can't anyone ever have a half-way happy ending in Annie Proulx's world?

I have come to realize that BBM is the only thing of Annie's that I ever read that I enjoyed. And I am also realizing that if I hadn't seen the movie, I might not have liked the story so much. I read the story (the first time) just a few weeks before I saw the movie--not back in 1997 when it first came out. Somehow I think that if I read it in 1997 I might not have liked it so much...but I might be wrong on that.

L

Front-Ranger:

--- Quote from: MaineWriter on June 17, 2008, 02:22:37 pm ---SPOILERS
Can't anyone ever have a half-way happy ending in Annie Proulx's world?

--- End quote ---

Well, you have to give her credit for truth-in-advertising. That's what I would expect from a story called "Tits-up in a Ditch"!

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: MaineWriter on June 17, 2008, 02:22:37 pm ---I mean, come on. Can't anyone ever have a half-way happy ending in Annie Proulx's world?

--- End quote ---

Probably not. Does anyone have even a half-way happy ending in her novels? I've never read them but I'd be surprised. She just doesn't seem like a happy-ending kind of a writer. More like a "Life is a bitch and then you die" kind of writer.

Clyde-B:

--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on June 17, 2008, 03:36:52 pm ---Probably not. Does anyone have even a half-way happy ending in her novels? I've never read them but I'd be surprised. She just doesn't seem like a happy-ending kind of a writer. More like a "Life is a bitch and then you die" kind of writer.

--- End quote ---

Yeah, she calls it getting pounded by the hammer of life.

In "The Wamsutter Wolf"  the protagonist survives intact and gets lucky, and I laughed out loud at the ending of "Trickle-Down Effect."

"55 Miles to the Gas Pump" is one of the most amazing stories I've ever read.   It's a Wyomingized retelling of the Bluebeard fairytale in only 273 words, but it feels so complete.

I'm not crazy about how she treats her characters, but I love to read her just to see how she does so much with so few words.  It fits my rather taciturn personality.   ;D  :laugh:

 

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