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Fine Just The Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3 (Unabridged) | 
 enlarge | Author: Annie Proulx
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $15.73
You Save: $14.22 (47%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B001G6SR2A
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Product Description
Returning to the territory of "Brokeback Mountain," National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx delivers a stunning and visceral collection of new stories. In Fine Just the Way It Is, she has expanded the limits of the form. Her stories about multiple generations of Americans struggling through life in the West are a ferocious, dazzling panorama of American folly and fate.Proulx's characters try to climb out of poverty and desperation but get cut down as if the land itself wanted their blood. Deeply sympathetic to the men and women fighting to survive in this harsh place, Proulx turns their lives into fiction with the power of myth -- and leaves the listener in awe. The winner of two O. Henry Prizes, Annie Proulx has been anthologized in every major collection of great American stories. Her bold, inimitable language, her exhilarating eye for detail and her dark sense of humor make this a profoundly compelling collection.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 disappointed December 21, 2008
I have loved her past books, but was disappointed in these short
stories. They just left me hanging.
 Grim just the way it is December 14, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Unfortunately this was the first book I have read by Annie Proulx, and it will definitely be my last. From the reviews of others who seem to love her writings, perhaps I may be missing something, but I am content to leave it that way. While her writing is undoubtedly masterful, and her eye for detail astounding, I still really hated it. I found her unrelentingly painful and grim tales way too much to handle, and I choose not to put myself through such an experience again. Filled with discomfort, I read it to the end to see if there was some lesson I could take away, but the sadness this book evoked was paralyzing to my spirit, an outpouring of emotion that left me feeling only defeat. I am no Pollyanna, but I found none of the Wyoming I have always loved, none of the redemption of the human spirit, no relief from overwhelming sorrow and suffering in her stories. Her writings may beautifully done, but I can't stomach her subject matter, can't abide the misery. Thank you, Ms Proulx, for your skill, talent and craftmanship. I wish you applied it in a way that doesn't resemble a fatal car accident. I for one can turn my head away from this.
 Every Bit As Exquisitely Written And Enjoyable As Past Works - But Different November 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Annie Proulx continues her mastery of the short story.
In Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3, Proulx once again gives us stories primarily taking place in or associated with Wyoming. Her characters are terribly human--warts and all--and her stories are typically blunt, to the point, and full of (sometimes brief) life.
But, as straightforward as her stories are with their plainspoken characters, Proulx also delivers stunningly beautiful narrative language when detailing landscapes, flora, and animal life. Some of her imagery literally astounded me it was so well crafted and provocative.
However, unlike previous Wyoming volumes, this addition to the series is far more brutal to its characters. Now Proulx has never occurred to me as a woman who gets overly sentimental about her creations, but I was surprised at the tragedies she forced her men and women to endure. That being said, she certainly did not cross the line into sensationalism; everything she threw at her characters was well within reality's parameters.
Well, for the most part.
I was especially happy that in three stories in particular, Proulx exits her normally grounded repertoire and gives us something bordering fantasy. Now, because it's Proulx, we're not talking Tolkien here, but two of her stories hilariously focus on the devil and the other, well, I don't want to spoil anything, but it features a sagebrush where mysterious disappearances persist. I think that with her particular style and sensibilities, calling them tall tales may be more appropriate than fantasy.
Consequently, I sensed a real sense of dark humor in these stories, and I loved it! While most of the stories were very serious in terms of subject matter, they all utilized a morose fun that--unless happening to us--demanded a chuckle or two.
All in all, this collection was a bit of a break from Proulx in terms of style, especially when read between the lines, but every bit as exquisitely written and enjoyable as past works.
Proulx's talent is unrelenting with each new work she releases.
~Scott William Foley, author of The Imagination's Provocation: Volume II
 Too Harsh For Me November 18, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dear Folks,
I have read all of Annie Proulx's books and it seems that this set of stories was just to grim for my taste. I love her writing, compostion of prose and word use. Usually I read with a dictionary close at hand. Perhaps I am just a whimp, but once in a while it would be nice to read one her stories and find what I would term a "happy" ending. I must be getting old and grumpy. I realize that she is writing about the old West and that is the way things happened, but my stomach just wasn't in it this time around.
proofreading November 18, 2008
I really love reading books by Annie Proulx. The words she uses and the structure of her sentences are so wonderful that, unlike most books, I actually read every word, apparently, unlike her editor. In the first paragraph, page 8 of Family Man we find RAY Forkenbrock "squinting against the slanting ice" - nice sentence. However, in the last paragraph of the same page I guess either Annie has decided to use the nickname ROY for RAY or someone didn't bother proofreading the segment. Nitpicking for sure, but when a book costs $25.00 you'd think some kind of care might be taken in getting the words right.
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