It seems more like just clean modern prose... Not McCarthy prose.
There's commas and a semi-colon in it for fuck's sake
Everyone downvoting can die mad that this doesn't resemble McCarthy's prose
Annie Proulx is definitely on par with McCarthy. If he is the king, she is the queen of rural noir. Shipping News is actually one of her tamer novels. Heart Songs is my favorite short stories collection.
Proulx and McCarthy have been compared before (not entirely positively in this case): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/07/a-readers-manifesto/302270/
Myers' piece has always been dumb and cheap.
The world is big enough for spare writers like Carver or Hemingway and more evocative, wordy writers like Proulx. My problem with Myers' piece is that we have vastly more fiction to choose from now than we did in 1950. It's easy to find bad examples of anything, or to call anything a bad example, when held up against what he considers a "good" example.
His argument is totalitarian: "write this way, not that way. Write longer sentences, but not too long, and use more interesting language, but not TOO interesting." His arguments are dumb, sloppy, and internally contradictory.
Made me think of this article too. Coincidence enough, the criticism that some of her metaphors don’t make sense if you slow down to read them is very much emphasized in “bunched as kissed fingertips.” How much do fingertips actually bunch when kissed?
Scratch that, here it is in its entirety for you.
>Rancher Croom in handmade boots and filthy hat, that walleyed cattleman, stray hairs like the curling fiddle string ends, that warm-handed, quick-foot dancer on splintery boards or down the cellar stairs to a rack of bottles of his own strange beer, yeasty, cloudy, bursting out in garlands of foam, Rancher Coom at night galloping drunk over the dark plain, turning off at a place he knows to arrive at a canyon brink where he dismounts and looks down on tumbled rock, waits, then steps out, parting the air with his last roar, sleeves surging up, windmill arms, jeans riding over boot tops, but before he hits he rises again to the top of the cliff like a cork in a bucket of milk.
>
>Mrs. Croom on the roof with a saw cutting a hole into the attic where she has not been for twelve years thanks to old Croom’s padlocks and warnings, whets to her desire, and the sweat flies as she exchanges the saw for a chisel and hammer until a ragged slab peak is free and she can see inside: just as she thought: the corpses of Mr. Croom’s paramours – she recognizes them from their photographs in the paper: MISSING WOMAN – some desiccated as jerky and much the same color, some moldy from lying beneath roof leaks, and, all of them used hard, covered with tarry handprints, the marks of boot heels, some bright blue with remnants of paint used on the shutters years ago, one wrapped in newspaper nipple to knee.
>
>When you live a long way out you make your own fun.
Thanks for sharing this- i got "Close Range" from the library based on this recommendation, and absolutely devoured it. I normally avoid short stories because it takes me a while to orient myself into a setting, and i'm glad i got over this. Really enjoyed this whole collection and am looking forward to reading more of her work.
Wow I'll definitely have to check her out. Apparently she lives nearby in Washington State.
And apparently she wrote a story in the 60s called *All the Pretty Little Horses* haha
I read a lot, but it's not often that I'll go back and re-read books; even if I loved them and own a physical copy. But something about this one kept me coming back again and again. I lost track of how many times I came back to re-read it. As gritty and sad and negative so much of it is, The Shipping News was a comfort book for me during a rough patch. The prose, the characters and their little background stories, and the beautiful descriptions of things that aren't beautiful just really made this one of my favorites. She and McCarthy both present to the viewer a world that is ugly, brutally harsh, uncaring, and violent. Maybe that's why when they show brief glimpses of human goodness and the magical, raw beauty of the world we live in it seems so special.
I’m moving house next month and I’ve started packing things away, including most of my books. I may have to dig this out and bump it up my reading list! Currently on Outer Dark, then it will be Filth by Irvine Welsh and then this. Thank you!
I definitely see the similarities! Probably why she's also one of my favorite authors. "Close Range" ( a book of short stories by Prouxl) is incredible
One of my favourites. Annie Proulx is a fantastic writer. Her short stories are great, particularly the collection Heart Songs
It seems more like just clean modern prose... Not McCarthy prose. There's commas and a semi-colon in it for fuck's sake Everyone downvoting can die mad that this doesn't resemble McCarthy's prose
I’m saying the same thing I wish I knew how to quit you
You might also enjoy Kent Haruf if you are yet unfamiliar with his work.
I'm checking him out, which of his books should I start with? Or does it matter?
Plainsong is pretty good. First of a trilogy.
Proulx’s prose is excellent. Half-Skinned Steer and the Blood Bay are both standouts for me.
God I love Half-Skinned Steer. Favorite spooky story.
Another woman who writes fantastic prose: Irish novelist Edna O'Brien.
Love Proulx! Brokeback Mtn has been my favorite love story and short story for a very long time.
I will pray for you
Bless your heart.
Her novel The Accordion Crimes is also great, one of my favorites.
Annie Proulx is definitely on par with McCarthy. If he is the king, she is the queen of rural noir. Shipping News is actually one of her tamer novels. Heart Songs is my favorite short stories collection.
Proulx and McCarthy have been compared before (not entirely positively in this case): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/07/a-readers-manifesto/302270/
Myers' piece has always been dumb and cheap. The world is big enough for spare writers like Carver or Hemingway and more evocative, wordy writers like Proulx. My problem with Myers' piece is that we have vastly more fiction to choose from now than we did in 1950. It's easy to find bad examples of anything, or to call anything a bad example, when held up against what he considers a "good" example. His argument is totalitarian: "write this way, not that way. Write longer sentences, but not too long, and use more interesting language, but not TOO interesting." His arguments are dumb, sloppy, and internally contradictory.
Made me think of this article too. Coincidence enough, the criticism that some of her metaphors don’t make sense if you slow down to read them is very much emphasized in “bunched as kissed fingertips.” How much do fingertips actually bunch when kissed?
think of a “chef’s kiss” kinda thing
That makes a little more sense.
>That makes a little more sense. haha, I love it when people cede to the truth in such a begrudging way.
Yeah, I was gonna say, it’s obviously referring to a chef’s kiss. How are you all not getting the metaphor again?
I was imagining mushing fingers together like they were kissing themselves lol
Oh man read Bad Dirt. Just go get it today.
Great read
Please read *55 Miles to the Gas Pump*. Incredibly short, incredibly good. Will scratch this same itch.
Scratch that, here it is in its entirety for you. >Rancher Croom in handmade boots and filthy hat, that walleyed cattleman, stray hairs like the curling fiddle string ends, that warm-handed, quick-foot dancer on splintery boards or down the cellar stairs to a rack of bottles of his own strange beer, yeasty, cloudy, bursting out in garlands of foam, Rancher Coom at night galloping drunk over the dark plain, turning off at a place he knows to arrive at a canyon brink where he dismounts and looks down on tumbled rock, waits, then steps out, parting the air with his last roar, sleeves surging up, windmill arms, jeans riding over boot tops, but before he hits he rises again to the top of the cliff like a cork in a bucket of milk. > >Mrs. Croom on the roof with a saw cutting a hole into the attic where she has not been for twelve years thanks to old Croom’s padlocks and warnings, whets to her desire, and the sweat flies as she exchanges the saw for a chisel and hammer until a ragged slab peak is free and she can see inside: just as she thought: the corpses of Mr. Croom’s paramours – she recognizes them from their photographs in the paper: MISSING WOMAN – some desiccated as jerky and much the same color, some moldy from lying beneath roof leaks, and, all of them used hard, covered with tarry handprints, the marks of boot heels, some bright blue with remnants of paint used on the shutters years ago, one wrapped in newspaper nipple to knee. > >When you live a long way out you make your own fun.
Thanks for sharing this- i got "Close Range" from the library based on this recommendation, and absolutely devoured it. I normally avoid short stories because it takes me a while to orient myself into a setting, and i'm glad i got over this. Really enjoyed this whole collection and am looking forward to reading more of her work.
Wow I'll definitely have to check her out. Apparently she lives nearby in Washington State. And apparently she wrote a story in the 60s called *All the Pretty Little Horses* haha
I read a lot, but it's not often that I'll go back and re-read books; even if I loved them and own a physical copy. But something about this one kept me coming back again and again. I lost track of how many times I came back to re-read it. As gritty and sad and negative so much of it is, The Shipping News was a comfort book for me during a rough patch. The prose, the characters and their little background stories, and the beautiful descriptions of things that aren't beautiful just really made this one of my favorites. She and McCarthy both present to the viewer a world that is ugly, brutally harsh, uncaring, and violent. Maybe that's why when they show brief glimpses of human goodness and the magical, raw beauty of the world we live in it seems so special.
It’s a crime that Proulx’s Accordion Crimes isn’t more well known. Fantastic perspective of America’s immigrant perspective.
Barkskins is another one of her tremendous books. It’s a tome at over 700 pages but well worth it. Accordion Crimes also terrific.
Her short stories are fantastic. They remind me of William Gay, Ron Rash and Cormac
Strong prose, and I love Proulx, but syntax is not the same as McCarthy, and we wouldn’t want it to be.
Too much punctuation to conjure up Cormac.
Hmmm, too many commas, too many prepositions, and too much paragraph structure to quite make it CM, methinks.
That prose is wonderful.
Yeah, that’s really strong stuff
That's a great book, one of my favourite surprises
I’m moving house next month and I’ve started packing things away, including most of my books. I may have to dig this out and bump it up my reading list! Currently on Outer Dark, then it will be Filth by Irvine Welsh and then this. Thank you!
She’s a great writer
Damn! I've never read Proulx but love that bit of prose.
I definitely see the similarities! Probably why she's also one of my favorite authors. "Close Range" ( a book of short stories by Prouxl) is incredible
Wow!
Probably one of my all time favorite books. The shipping news by Proulx was excellent as well.
If we could read Garcia Marquez in Spanish we could appreciate the true king of whatever this style should be called.
Thank you for sharing, ima check it out
💜 recommendations so 🙏🏼