Awww….Hell.

The quiet crush of depression creeps up on you with this one. At first, I was wondering about all the fuss as the the first third of the story laid out. By the midsection, the road ahead was pretty obvious, but didn't take any of the wallop out of the end. Bloody, Motherfuckin', God-Damned Sonnabitch!

Two men with no clue how to get what they really want and wasting time until there ain't no more.

Wow, this was beautiful, really beautiful. This is not counted as "gay parade" story. This is a heartbreaking love story. And the writing was impressive. I was getting goosebumps while reading.

n  He pressed his face into the fabric and breathed in slowly through his mouth and nose, hoping for the faintest smoke and mountain sage and salty sweet stink of Jack, but there was no real scent, only the memory of it, the imagined power of Brokeback Mountain of which nothing was left but what he held in his hands.
...
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it.n

"Jack, I swear--"

this line gets me every time.
add The Wings by Gustavo Santaolalla to the mix and i'm crying my heart out.

A beautiful and tragic tale. Now I get to become an, "Actually, the story was better than the movie because..." guy.


Apologies to the memory of Heath Ledger

A lot of people think this book is about how society is to blame for destroying the homosexual love of two men. I disagree on who is to blame. Society is always telling us what to do, how to think, and how to feel.

WARNING: my review contains spoilers.
What struck me were the lies that Ennis and Jack forced themselves to believe, in suppressing the feelings they had for each other their whole lives. They used other people as an excuse. This was not a gay version of external conflict as in Romeo & Juliet but more like the inner private turmoil of stories like The Thorn Birds; Jack with his ambition and Ennis in his own (possibly made-up) fears of what harm people would do to them both.

There were no mighty armies that held them back. There were no powerful feuding families to appease. They did have people who depended on them and other commitments, but as you read further towards the ending, they realize they were ultimately free to make their own choices and therein lay their downfall. The passing of time brought chances to leave their responsibilities and live the life they had always wanted. As it was in the beginning, escape was possible in the symbolic refuge of the mountain -- a long-term escape too if only they were honest with themselves and with others. They instead sucked in their pain, chose to be as responsible as they could to their families, chose to compromise themselves for ‘civilization’ and thought they were doing the right thing, but as they say, if you don’t take care of yourself first, how can you take care of others?

The ending is perfect. It captures the inevitable failure of living a false life. Even at death, the problem didn’t go away. For the relationship didn’t end at Jack’s death. It was self-sabotaged and self-destructed long before that (with his trips to Mexico and Ennis with his escalating temper and further withdrawal from his family). His death just made Ennis more aware of it than ever. The ending’s return of Ennis daughter showed a chance at redemption and love that may have always been present, despite his stubbornness to hide in his own beliefs. If only he had told them the truth from the start, they may have understood. The real tragedy is he will never know.

TW: Cheating, homophobia, domestic abuse, child abandon, murder

n  *****SPOILERS*****n
About the book:Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.

Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.
Release Date: October 13th,1997
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 55
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
t• It's a short book
t• I remember liking the movie like 15 years ago

What I Didn't Like:
t• Dudes are terrible humans
t• The abuse (physical and mental)

Overall Thoughts: This book is short. So short that you really have no idea who these people even are. They meet and decide to share a roll up mat and now they are having sex. These two guys are shit. I find it funny that when it's a same sex couple that's cheating then it's inspirational and sweet, but if it were a straight couple - they are horrible and we shouldn't cheer them on.

There is a moment where Jack comes to visit Ennis and they are barely out of the house before they are making out. Alma catches them and Ennis pretty much tells her to shut up and he'll be home later. He can't even be bothered to buy her cigarettes despite how she would feel catching her husband cheating on her. Yes, cheating. It's still cheating even if they are the same sex.

Years go by (20 years) and Alma gets smart and has moved on - which gives the dudes plenty of time to have sex.

Alma makes a comment about how she knew they weren't really fishing and Ennis being the asshole he is grabs her while she is pregnant and hurts her. He then decides to not see his kids again because it's her fault?

Review to come.

This is the first time I like the movie more than the book...

I adore the movie, but I have never considered to read a book. I think I just was afraid to read it.



My first surprise was the length of the novel. 55 pages?! (And audio book of 1 hr and 4 mins?!)
My second surprise was...my naivety. I thought, because I KNEW the story, I COULD read it, without being emotionally a mess. I couldn't. I didn't. I cried a river. And I still have no idea if my emotional response could be explained by a beautiful and unique prose of Annie Proulx or an outstanding narration of Campbell Scott or the vivid images of one of my favorite movies that I won't be able to forget...or maybe ALL of these together...

That one always gets me, I just can't read it without crying at the end. Sooo good. And what a gorgeous adaptation - so beautifully done.

Me ha gustado muchísimo.

La primera vez que leí el nombre de Annie Proulx fue en el libro El poder del perro de Thomas Savage el año pasado en un posfacio sobre la misma novela que me pareció maravilloso. Luego investigué sobre ella y para sorpresa mía resulta que ella es en parte la autora de una de las película que solo vi una vez en mi vida y que tengo fresca en mi memoria a día de hoy.

Aún con tantos años del visionado de la adaptación Brokeback Mountain o "secreto en la montaña" sé que no es para nada diferente a este relato corto, pero que a mí me resulta igual de fantástico por lo bien que deja relucir la ambientación rural y los comportamientos rudos, hostiles y agresivos en ese mismo entorno, incluso aún más cuando sus personajes son homosexuales a puertas cerradas y que sólo encuentran un breve resguardo entre las montañas.

Creo que no sobra decir que encuentro muchas similitudes entre esta historia y la de Thomas Savage porque se nota que nace de allí la inspiración pero también son bastante diferentes porque Annie Proulx es más explícita con la relación que mantienen sus personajes y la manera en que la tensión sexual crece y la atracción romántica es obvia cuando están solo ellos dos y no se enfrentan a las miradas de los demás porque la abominación hacia ellos mismos es tan clara hasta el punto en el que no pueden ser felices y se da el tan conocida amargo final. Creo que el magnífico encuadre de la construcción psicológica de ellos afectada por lo sociológico y asegurada por momentos en una montaña lejos de los demás en un paisaje que solo trae gratos y amargos recuerdos me resulta increíble y dura, pero a la vez tan real todavía.

Para mí, en tan poco ha dejado relucir una crítica bien construida y agridulce en la que ha dilucidado un manejo de la ambientación y la psicología a un gran nivel que solo quiero leer algo más de esta autora.

Uno dei rari casi (ricordo solo il Benjamin Button di Fitzgerald, sinceramente) in cui il film batte ampiamente il racconto. Non che manchi nulla (tranne qualche aggiunta a livello cinematografico, probabilmente per rimpolpare una trama di per sé assai breve), ma la narrazione è fredda, asciutta, asettica. Tranne in brevi sprazzi manca della passione che una simile storia dovrebbe lasciar trasparire a ogni pagina. Manca di quella disperazione soffocata che dovrebbe far da sfondo a ogni vicenda narrata. Non male, quindi. Ma con un grande "ma"...

4.5 - Short review

A little book of about 30 pages that covers a lifetime - Annie Proulx has a way with words with her compact, precise, to the point sentences. This story of Ennis and Jack, two cowboys, who fall in love, is gut-wrenching and a sure punch in the face to all the homophobes and society in general. Annie has managed to give out the exact emotions, without going overboard with the scenes. The dilemma that these lovers face, hasn't changed a bit since the story was written in 1997. We still live in a world where anything contrary to the normal parameters of sexuality is looked down upon and mocked and incarcerated or beaten the shit out of.

Coming back to the story, I am still amazed at the fact that Proulx has managed such a depth, not once losing the flow of the characters. There are year jumps which have been handled with such clarity that never once did the transitioning feel odd. Most writers do such a thing by changing chapters or giving breaks, so that the reader knows it. Doing that in one flow, I think is a brilliant achievement.

I sure am going to look forward to know more works of the author. If you have suggestions of some other works of the author or some other similar stories, do feel free to recommend?