Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many readers and reviewers, "Brokeback Mountain" is her masterpiece.
Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.
Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.
The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of "Brokeback Mountain," and the story was included in Prize Stories 1998: The O. Henry Awards. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance.
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Review Summary: A+
Review: The raw emotion of this short story dares to punch you in the stomach; the tear ducts start to sting, but inevitably, do not yield, because the bitter bite of the narrative does not fall to melodrama. To feel the devastating triumph of a love ended too early is to experience the very essence of what literature exists for. Proulx's sweeping, sometimes complex images encompass an entire world into a few short words; the briefness of the story parallels how the characters feel there is never enough time. As always, Proulx betrays her extensive knowledge of the written word as a motif. The colloquially written dialogue is blunt and entirely convincing; not an ounce of it seems forced or unrealistic. To read Brokeback Mountain is to have your nerves catch on fire and belief restored in the power of the written word.
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Review Summary: It's a story of love that can never be... not sex.
Review: It doesn't matter if you're straight or gay... this is a story of love that can never be. If anyone has every been in a relationship that just can't happen, this story will hit a nerve.
**SPOILER ALERT**
The sex part of Brokeback Mountain is so minimal, it's not even really an issue. So get over that.
**END OF SPOILER ALERT**
The story tugs on the heartstrings on those who can understand what it's like to be in relationships that aren't working, but they're stuck... and when you meet someone or you're wanting to be with someone, yet it's just not possible. It truly shows how two people, over the course of twenty years, can honestly care and love each other. It reaffirms that love knows no distance, boundaries, number of years, or gender or sexual orientations. Love is just purely that... Love.
Brokeback Mountain is exactly what our world needed, at at time, where understanding and compassion for one another is often disregarded.
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Review Summary: As beautiful as it gets
Review: Brokeback Mountain is a poem hidden away under beautiful prose. It is a short story, about 55 pages, yet it is profoundly heartwarming, with a subtle flow of true emotions and comes across as a refreshing, cool, light rain showering on your heart but comes back to haunt you and touches your soul in the deepest way.
I had seen the movie last year. It was kind of slow, but the beauty of the story was uniquely brilliant. So when I saw the book at the library I instantly grabbed it and read it within a couple of hours. It is all about 2 guys, Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, coming to know each other while herding sheep on Brokeback mountain. It is the sad story of their difficult lives, separate yet entwined, and your heart reaches out to them. It is a remarkably enchanting story of forbidden love and longing.
The prose is astoundingly elegant and beautiful. Annie Proulx, critically acclaimed author and Pulitzer prize winner, writes as if painting a beautiful picture. The story flows like a serene river - quiet, beautiful, calm and exceedingly sure of itself. See a couple of excerpts to get a taste of her eloquent prose-
"They stood that way for a long time in front of the fire, its burning tossing ruddy chunks of light, the shadow of their bodies a single column against the rock. The minutes ticked by from the round watch in Ennis's pocket, from the sticks in the fire settling into coals. Stars bit through the wavy heat layers above the fire. Ennis's breath came slow and quiet, he hummed, rocked a little in the sparklight and Jack leaned against the steady heartbeat, the vibrations of the humming like faint electricity and, standing, he fell into sleep that was not sleep but something else drowsy and tranced until Ennis, dredging up a rusty but still usable phrase from the childhood time before his mother died, said, "Time to hit the hay, cowboy. I got a go"."
"Without getting up he threw deadwood on the fire, the sparks flying up with their truths and lies, a few hot points of fire landing on their hands and faces, not for the first time, and they rolled down into the dirt. One thing never changed: the brilliant charge of their infrequent couplings was darkened by the sense of time flying, never enough time, never enough."
... and I never get enough of stories as beautifully told as this. Never enough.
5 stars, if not more.
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Review Summary: Great reading!
Review: I really enjoyed Campbell Scott's reading of Brokeback Mountain, by Annie Proulx. I'd read the story several times before, and HEARING it was wonderful.
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Review Summary: You Won't Want it to End
Review: Although some say the book is not as good as the moving, this compelling story will leave you wishing it was longer.