Brokeback Mountain / Annie Proulx

I’m back to working on Rat’s Reading, somewhat. I wrote this on my About Rat’s Reading page, but it’s important to restate it before continuing with this review:

I believe any review often reveals more about the reviewer than it does anything about the book or author.

That statement applies particularly to this review. On Tuesday evening last week, I received a call from the evening caregiver watching over my mom. Mom had aspirated her evening meal, and her breathing was quite distressed. I went over to help, throwing in my car a few necessities and this book. I expected few breaks while I was there and wanted something short to read should I need distraction during those periods. Mom finally slept around midnight, but mom’s possible imminent death weighed heavily on me as I crashed in the guest bedroom. There I read all 54 pages of this book before turning in shortly before 1 a.m. I was too wound up to sleep before then, despite being very tired. At 3 a.m. the caregiver woke me up and I watched mom decline over the next 11 hours until she died. For details of my experience, please read my personal blog.

I have not seen the movie version of Brokeback Mountain. My best friend did and described the big kiss scene as less an intimate moment and more a wrestling match. That put me off. Now that I’ve read the book I think I understand why, and perhaps I should revisit my decision on the movie.

The story: two cowboys hook up with each other while working as shepherd’s on a remote Wyoming mountain. Both proclaim their heterosexuality, but they continue to see each other on annual fishing trips and occasional other outings. Their relationship colors their marriages and leads to all sorts of cognitive dissonance.

I don’t see the greatness of the story. We readers aren’t really witness to these men wrestling with the conflict between being rednecks and their homosexuality. Witness to the struggle between them. To the clash between them and their wives. And witness to the odd reactions of the people who know what they do. But our two cowboys go almost magically from homophobia to acceptance. I really wanted to know how they came to terms, and Proulx didn’t tell me that. I lived in Idaho, a similar place to the Wyoming depicted. I want to know.

It’s a love story. A pretty damn good love story. But love stories are plentiful. Subtract the gay from the story and it doesn’t stand out.

And it’s missing what would interest me about a gay cowboy love story, the inner conflict.

Which brings me back to my opening statement. When reading reviews one often learns more about the reviewer than the book being reviewed. I found a decent enough story that helped me wind down enough to get a couple of hours sleep as my mom lay dying. I am not so interested in love stories. And what intrigued me about gay cowboys is how they retain all the redneck except the homophobia.

One thing I really liked was the simple release of a short story in book form. I didn’t know publishers did this! Obviously they don’t do it a lot, and they did this one particularly to take advantage of the movie. And the price! $9.95 is outrageous! Thankfully I got it from the Michael’s Books free pile. However, I would pay a few bucks for a good short story or two in a small book so I wouldn’t have to wade through the lesser stories that inevitably appear in an anthology. I hope this happens more often.

Well, that’s about all for now. Free book roundups will resume tomorrow night. I have a couple other books I finished reading over the last few days which will see reviews shortly too.

Title: Brokeback Mountain
Author: Annie Proulx
Imprint / publisher: Scribner
Format: Paperback
Length: 54 p.
Publication date: November 2005
ISBN-10: 0-7432-7132-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-7132-5
Subject: Cowboys — Fiction
Subject: Ranch life — Fiction
Subject: Gay men — Fiction
Subject: Wyoming — Fiction
LC classification: PS3566.R697 B76 2005