Cheap Brokeback Mountain (Book) (Annie Proulx) Price

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Customer Reviews of Brokeback Mountain

To:Cheri- the only one completely interested
I'm glad you enjoyed the book so much, and am happy to report, since you didn't know that the book is in the works of becoming a movie. Heath Ledger(A Knight's Tale, The Patriot) is to play Ennis, while Jack is portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal( The Good Girl, The Day After Tomorrow). Anne Hathaway (Ella Enchanted, The Princess Diaries), Michelle Williams(Dawson's Creek), and others are also being cast. I believe that Ang Lee is the director as well, he really seems to enjoy weird stories!! I can't wait to go see the movie personally, which won't be released until 2005!

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Overrated - Where's the drama?
After reading all of the other raving reviews on this book, I decided to buy my own copy. I am disappointed in the book overall. Aside from the language issues that are often difficult to follow, the text is choppy and the plot itself tends to jump around without any smooth transitions. There is also far more detail on scenery, more akin to a novel that a short story, with little attention paid to the details of the intimacy of these two cowboys.

In general, I am just not impressed and wonder how this woman could have gotten so much acclaim for this short story. Then again, it was published originally in the NY Times, and that may explain it. I wouldn't recommend buying this book. Instead, I would wait until the movie comes out as it will probably be much better, and hopefully have a better script that's clearly understandable.

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Review of Brokeback Mountain by Cheri
Annie Proulx, a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, packs a tremendous amount of information and incredible prose in 58 short pages. "Brokeback Mountain" is a heart-wrenching, gritty novella about two tough ranch hands who meet on a job, and, inexplicably, fall in love. These stoic, impecunious, high-school dropouts, who live rough lives, are desperately in need of a job. Both Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist sign up with "Farm and Ranch Employment" and end up herding for the same sheep operation on Brokeback Mountain.

Ennis is engaged to be married when he meets Jack and doesn't consider himself "queer." Neither does Jack. The two men embark on an intimacy that they feel is their own business, as long as it isn't hurting anybody else. It's just sex between two, lonely, horny, guys and it means nothing. When the summer is over and they part, Ennis feels horrible about leaving Jack. If, what they had together meant nothing, then why can't Ennis shake the bad feeling separation brings?

Ennis and Jack lose track of each other for four years and are reunited as married men with children. The love affair picks up where it left off during that summer on Brokeback Mountain. They share a forbidden love, sweeter than each man has with his wife, but, actions against conventional relationships could prove to be deadly. Cowboys, even tough ones, who admitted to being gay, were often tortured and murdered. Jack wants to have a life with Ennis and start up a ranch with him. Ennis is neither ready nor willing to give up his heterosexual lifestyle, even if he does love Jack

The detail with which Proulx describes the setting puts the reader in the mountains of Wyoming, surrounded by meadows, sheep, coyotes, and the expansive sky. You can smell the horses, campfire, beer, and cigarettes as Ennis and Jack sit around at night trading stories and getting to know each other. You can feel the exhaustion of the back- breaking work of tending sheep. Proulx delights the reader with accounts of every feeling, scent, and action. The dialect is precise and text is never tedious or boring; it simply enriches the story as vitamins enrich food. With narration like this, the reader knows exactly what is going on and is transported into every nuance of the story.

Annie Proulx is in the same class as John Steinbeck and Mark Twain, in my humble opinion. I cannot stress enough how well written this book is, or what a gut wrenching story it is-but I can stress how highly I recommend reading this book. My only complaint is that it is too short. Don't miss reading Brokeback Mountain. Soon, it will be made into a major motion picture, which I hope will be true to the book.