Brokeback Mountain and other stories

by Annie Proulx | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0007205589 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Mistlerose of Frankston, Victoria Australia on 2/3/2006
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13 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Mistlerose from Frankston, Victoria Australia on Friday, February 3, 2006
Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar live hard and lonely lives as ranch hands in the wild, unforgiving landscape of Wyoming. They are country boys with no prospects, brought up to hard work and privation, both rough-mannered and tough-spoken, glad to have found one another's company where none had been expected. But suddenly companionship becomes something else on Brokeback Mountain: something not looked for, something deadly.....

Journal Entry 2 by Mistlerose from Frankston, Victoria Australia on Friday, February 3, 2006
I read this last night, as it was a short story. I really enjoyed it but felt parts were to rushed. I think more should have been written about how the relationship developed (a bit too wham bam thank you mam for my liking), but on the whole a good story. I can't wait to see the movie now.

Journal Entry 3 by Mistlerose from Frankston, Victoria Australia on Friday, February 3, 2006
This book is going out on an Australian Only Bookring.

Rules:

1. Journal the book when you receive it

2. If you need longer than a month to read it,let me know.

3. Journal to share your thoughts on the book.

4. PM the next person and send the book on.

Participants:

1. -Bohdi-
2. Goodthinkingmax
3. piemunga
4. Mummafour
5. Theadi
6. xoddam
7. LizzieM
8. Binkatron16
9. Arrietty
10. Crimson-Tide
11. BellaMack

Back to me


Journal Entry 4 by Mistlerose at In The Mail in Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Saturday, February 11, 2006

Released 18 yrs ago (2/11/2006 UTC) at In The Mail in Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

posted

Journal Entry 5 by -Bodhi- from Jannali, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Thanks for sharing this! I havent seen the movie yet but I usually prefer to read the book first anyway. I wanted to read it as I really, really loved The Shipping News (I am such a sucker for barren wind blown towns and wild oceans). Annie Proulx just has a way with words that I adore. I also read a review somewhere that made me shiver, something like "she is a mystic seing the transfigured universe - recreating the beauty of ordinary things" To me her work is wabi-sabi incarnate.

Journal Entry 6 by -Bodhi- from Jannali, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, February 16, 2006
Dark, savage, brutally real, intimate and vast all at once and very, very beautiful - of course.

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole collection, in fact I couldnt put it down.

Passing it along to Goodthinkingmax. Thanks for my first bookring experience Mistlerose :)


Journal Entry 7 by goodthinkingmax from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Monday, February 20, 2006
Received this morning. Thanks! I will begin reading it immediately.

Journal Entry 8 by goodthinkingmax from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, February 26, 2006
My thoughts are similar to those of Mistlerose on Brokeback Mountain.

The shortness of the story did not allow me to become absorbed by the characters and the relationship. Although I have not seen the movie, I suspect my expectations were formed by all the publicity surrounding its release.

Nevertheless I did enjoy the interesting writing immensely and Annie Proux certainly took me to environments I did not know existed! What a strange brief tale "55 Miles to the Gas Pump" is. "When you live a long way out you make your own fun" is the final line of that story and very powerful and macabre.

I will post this off to Piemunga soon.

Journal Entry 9 by piemunga from Marrickville, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, March 7, 2006
received today. thanks for starting this ring mistlerose!

i'm halfway through another bookring book at the moment, but i'll be sure to get to this shortly!

Journal Entry 10 by piemunga from Marrickville, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, March 21, 2006
I hate to say it, but I really didn't enjoy this book of short stories. With the non-stop child abuse and rape that ran through almost every single story, it was just too much for me.
Obviously others haven't agreed with me, so I could well be on my own, but that's just fine! I can handle it!

...waiting to hear from Mummafour so I can post it on...

Journal Entry 11 by mummafour from Adelaide, South Australia Australia on Sunday, March 26, 2006
Thank you piemunga book arrived this morning. I will start reading it tonight!

Journal Entry 12 by mummafour from Adelaide, South Australia Australia on Thursday, April 6, 2006
I really enjoyed reading this book. I also enjoyed the other short stories.
I cant wait to see the movie.
Thanks for sharing Mistlerose!

Posted to Theadi this morning!!


Journal Entry 13 by theadi from Lynbrook, Victoria Australia on Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Arrived safely today - thanks!

Journal Entry 14 by theadi from Lynbrook, Victoria Australia on Sunday, May 14, 2006
I didn't feel particularly hooked at the time of reading this one, but it's been a couple of days since I finished it and I find myself wanting more stories. It's really stayed with me and I can't stop thinking about it. A raw and haunting collection of tales (but definitely not uplifting ones!).

Sending it on to xoddam today.

Journal Entry 15 by xoddam from Springwood, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Arrived in the post at work just now. Thanks Mistlerose, theadi, everyone.

Journal Entry 16 by xoddam from Springwood, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, May 30, 2006
This fit my expectations pretty closely, I've been a Proulx fan since Postcards. Hard people leading cruel lives told without a trace of sentimentality -- yet the most beautiful things are still worth savouring. Every step of the way was worth it.

I wish the story names were in the page margins -- often the title of a story only makes sense once you get to the sticky ending, and it would make it easier to remember which one it is, that you want to go back to.

My pick for most likeable story is The Bunchgrass End of the World, having at least a funny ending (if not exactly an upbeat one), but nothing can beat People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water for sheer narrative skill and pathos, not even the title story. Stunning.

I have a lunch date with LizzieM tomorrow to exchange some books, including this one. Some other BookCrossers are also invited.

Journal Entry 17 by xoddam from Springwood, New South Wales Australia on Monday, July 10, 2006
Well after a couple of missed appointments LizzieM decided she never wanted to see me again and has fled south of the border ;-) I'll post this to her new abode in Melbourne tonight. Thanks so much for sharing, Mistlerose! One of my best reads of the year.

Have I missed the film altogether now?

Journal Entry 18 by LizzieM from Bowral, New South Wales Australia on Monday, July 17, 2006
A good read, and definitely better than the movie, but i was a little disappointed that this wasn't as well written as Proulx other novels.

Journal Entry 19 by Binkatron16 from Rivett, Australian Capital Territory Australia on Monday, July 31, 2006
Received in the mail today.

Journal Entry 20 by Binkatron16 from Rivett, Australian Capital Territory Australia on Monday, August 14, 2006
I think I have to agree with piemunga, I also didn't enjoy the stories in this book. I think they were well written but just not my type of thing.

Thanks Mistlerose for starting this bookring and giving me a chance to read this book.

I have sent Arrietty a PM, and I will send the book on once I get an address.

Journal Entry 21 by Binkatron16 from Rivett, Australian Capital Territory Australia on Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Posted to Arrietty today.

Journal Entry 22 by Arrietty from Adelaide, South Australia Australia on Tuesday, August 22, 2006
thanks for sending me the book Binkatron16 and also the cute little keyring :) I loved Shipping News so am sure I will love these short stories as I'm a fan of short stories anyway.

Journal Entry 23 by Arrietty from Adelaide, South Australia Australia on Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wow, what a marvellous set of short stories. If I knew nothing of the harsh Wyoming ranching life before, I certainly have had my fill with these wonderfully hard-hitting and disturbing stories. I love the way Proulx weaves the Old West legends into the narrative and still manages to be original and insightful.

It's hard to know which story to start with, I loved them all from the short present-tense article style 'Job History' to the gritty and political 'The Governors of Wyoming". If the women seem as stoic and tough as the men, it is because Wyoming women were the first in the World to gain the vote in 1869!

When we think of Wyoming, we see images of Wagon trails, Buffolo Bill and Cowboys and Indian games, not these tough individuals, men and women seasoned with lusty and uncompromising realism. In Proulx landscape even the harsh enviroment becomes anthropomorphic.

Who could forget Ottaline built about the 'size of hundred-gallon propane tank'...'reddish-pink hair as thick as whip handles' and eyes 'crystal-crack blue'? Ottaline whose bizarre relationship with an cynical and haunted tractor leads to a vengeful conclusion. Or Brokeback Mountain where 'Dawn came glassy orange, stained from below by a gelatinous band of pale green'. As Jack and Ennis prepare to leave the mountain, it 'boiled with demonic energy, glazed with flickering broken-cloud light.'

Prouxl has used oral history to bring her character to life. Mrs Freeze, Shy Hamp, the Muddymans, Josanna Skiles....their stories are the Wyoming country and although some are set in an earlier era, they are as relevant today as ever. This quote at the end of 'People in hell just want a drink of water' sums it up.

"That was all sixty years ago and more. Those hard days are finished. The dunmires are gone from the country, their big ranch broken in those dry years. The Tinsleys are buried somewhere or othere, and cattle range now where the Moon and Stars grew. We are in a new millennium and such desperate things no longer happen.
If you believe that you'll believe anything."

Journal Entry 24 by Arrietty from Adelaide, South Australia Australia on Thursday, August 31, 2006
I will now contact Crimson-Tide so the book can continue on its journey.

Journal Entry 25 by Arrietty from Adelaide, South Australia Australia on Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Brokeback Mountain is on its way to Crimson-tide.

Journal Entry 26 by wingcrimson-tidewing from Balingup, Western Australia Australia on Sunday, September 10, 2006
Arrived safely today. Thanks for the postcard Arrietty.
Have two or three in the queue.

Journal Entry 27 by wingcrimson-tidewing from Balingup, Western Australia Australia on Saturday, October 7, 2006
This collection impressed and moved me. Such truly powerful writing. Bleak, windswept, violent, hard lives so foreign to my own, and yet it was impossible not to be drawn into their worlds.

Next back to Mistlerose unless I hear of any others wanting to join the list.

Journal Entry 28 by wingcrimson-tidewing from Balingup, Western Australia Australia on Sunday, October 8, 2006
BellaMack has joined the ring, so it's off to Tasmania.

Journal Entry 29 by BellaMack from St Helens, Tasmania Australia on Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Arrived today, will journal again when read , have a few other rings before it but hopefully wont be too long , thanks for sharing Mistlerose

Journal Entry 30 by BellaMack from St Helens, Tasmania Australia on Wednesday, November 1, 2006
I'm not a short story fan generally but love Annie Proulx. For the most part I enjoyed the stories, skimmed some of them and agree with Mistlerose about Brokeback Mountain. Thanks for sharing Mistlerose , will post back to you when I have an address :)

Journal Entry 31 by Mistlerose from Frankston, Victoria Australia on Wednesday, November 22, 2006
This book was waiting for me when I arrived home from Sydney today.

Thanks to all for taking part.

Journal Entry 32 by Mistlerose at Frankston, Victoria Australia on Saturday, April 25, 2015
Being released today

Journal Entry 33 by Mistlerose at Deli 1884 in Melbourne CBD, Victoria Australia on Saturday, April 25, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (4/26/2015 UTC) at Deli 1884 in Melbourne CBD, Victoria Australia

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

on table

Journal Entry 34 by Billbooks at Melbourne CBD, Victoria Australia on Sunday, April 26, 2015
I can't believe I haven't read this a real find from today

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