Brokeback Mountain

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Customer reviews

review by: Hayles date: 2008-03-24 rating:
A real bore - thank god for the film
The worst thing about this book was having to wade through all the over short stories before getting to the 'famous one'. If you are interested in cowboys then these stories may have some merit but I found pretty much all of them to be dull, characterless yarns. There were a couple of moments of light relief but it was a real struggle to get through this book (which isn't often a problem with short stories). The title story was the best but if I hadn't have seen the film I doubt I would have had much empathy for the two main characters - their love affair really does seem to come out of no-where with little preamble or idea why these two men fall in lust and then love. It has its touching moments but these were definitely hightened in my mind by my memory's of the film. I am an avid reader and very rarely do I find a film better than the book - this is one of those occasions.

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review by: Batch of turkey love biscuits date: 2007-01-22 rating:
un-romanticised yet touching
Although i found her style of writing rather difficult and in some ways irritating, i did enjoy the main story of the book. I liked the way their relationship wasn't melodramatic or in anyway a soppy love story, which made it more realistic. Also, the fact that Ennis and Jack weren't supposed to be atall feminine or very attractive broke away from the gay fiction stereotypes; it was quite refreshing to read. I thought that the ending was very emotive and sad, and the callousness of Jacks wife was quite chilling. The only thing i didn't really like was the way the novel, and for that matter the film, jumped years at a time. It seemed to kill the atmosphere a little.
Overall, worth a read.

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review by: date: 2006-12-21 rating:
A Masterpiece
I saw the film of Brokeback Mountain before I read this lovely book of short stories, and now read eveything by Annie Proulx that I can lay hands to.
All of the stories are good, bit in my opinion Brokeback Mountain which is the last story in the book is a masterpiece, probably the finest short story ever written in the English language.
It is so emotional and multi-layered that it will keep one speculating on it's true meaning for months.
The film is very faithful to the book and is completely heartrending, with wonderful acting and direction.
The soundtrack is terrific too!

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review by: date: 2006-08-30 rating:
Disappointing
I saw the film which I enjoyed and which prompted me to buy the book. I have to say that I found the language difficult to follow at times and actually gave up after I had read about 3 of the stories which is unlike me as I usually persevere. It did give you a better understanding of the main characters. Most books have more depth than the film - not this one.


review by: date: 2006-08-22 rating:
"If you can't fix it, you gotta stand it."
First published in the New Yorker magazine in 1997, this powerful short story won the National Magazine Award for Fiction and an O. Henry Award. Exploding the stereotype of the cowboy, author Annie Proulx creates a passionate love story between two young ranch hands who believe their love and relationship are unique. Both are nineteen, and neither will entertain the thought that he might be gay ("I'm not no queer...it's a one-shot thing.").

In vibrant prose filled with unusual images of nature, Proulx depicts the intensity of their love, which first begins in a high pasture on Brokeback Mountain, where they tend sheep and sleep in a tent to protect the sheep from predators. From the outset, nineteen-year-old Ennis del Mar is so elated with the company of the equally young Jack Twist that he "felt he could paw the white out of the moon." When their attraction suddenly bursts into passion, they feel themselves "flying in the euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the hawk's back." And when, at the end of the season, they bring the sheep down the mountain, "the mountain boiled with demonic energy," and Ennis "felt he was in a slow-motion, but headlong, irreversible fall."

At the end of the season, they separate, and over the next twenty years they both live as straight men, seeing each other rarely, and keeping their love a secret. Ennis has never forgotten the time when he was nine and his father took him to see the remains of a gay man who was tortured, then beaten to death with a tire iron. His father laughed about this atrocity, regarding it as appropriate punishment for the man's violation of the "western code."

Proulx concentrates on themes and on the intensity of the men's love story, subordinating everything else, including her imagery and character development, to it. The dramatic ending conjures up images from the beginning of the story on Brokeback Mountain and ties all the details together, while the thematic line "If you can't fix it, you gotta stand it," which is first spoken at the story's turning point, is repeated in the conclusion for emphasis. Inexorable forces act on Ennis and Jack throughout the story, some forces originating in nature and some coming from other men--and Ennis and Jack just "gotta stand it." Mary Whipple

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