The book is better than the movie, but the actors are super than the words.

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.

i don't understand why authors back then had a hard time writing love stories that ends happily. who hurt you?!?!?!?

n  n    I wish I knew how to quit you.n  n

This is the worst kind of love story, I hate the fact that people were actually kept in the closet because of bigoted assholes. Our generation is still fucked up but boy am I glad it's not as close minded as it used to.

I decided I wanted to make my depressed ass cry even more so I picked this up, then watched the movie for the first time afterwards.

See, Jake Gyllenhaal is an ass, but the movie was great. The movie was good and I've got to applaud the ability of such a short book to make me cry...

n  n    sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand itn  n

[The movie is famous and I’ll soon leave a review for the book. All I’ll say at this point is the movie was filmed where I live, I accidentally walked on set during shooting, and we all loved Heath, everyone loved Heath. It broke our hearts to lose him

"Brokeback Mountain" is about Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two cowboys that come together one summer while they're completing their seperate jobs as a sheepherder and a camp mantainer. They have to share a small tent together, so of course they start to fall in love. At first it's just a lusty attraction, but then their feelings for each other deepen by the time the summer is over. However, by fall they have gone back to their seperate lives under the pretense that they never met each other. Basically, they get married and have kids and stuff. Throughout the next many years they try to communicate but end up seperating every single time, but eventually their relationship together overtakes their lives even though neither of them can overcome the physical and emotional barriers that come with it.

I really wanted to love this book. Sadly, I did not feel the same way that a lot of other people did. It was a good book, although most of the feelings I got were from what was not said, and not from what was. I wish that the story was prolonged just a bit longer so that the depth of Ennis and Jack's relationship could've been described in more detail. Maybe that was a part of the solitude theme that practically radiated from this book. The prose was concise and just a little too concise for me, but I still found it readable. It was a good short story, good for a nap in the backyard, or something like that.

Sure, I'd seen the movie, and until recently owned a copy of the book with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal on the cover, which was published to coincide with the release of the movie. I gave the book away without ever having read it—I'd scanned the pages for the sexy bits and was unimpresssed—and secretly considered myself immune to the power of Annie Proulx's words. I was wrong. She packs a fuckin' punch really is the most appropriate way to express it—and some of her turns of phrase are surprisingly hilarious simply because she minces no words. The death with which the story concludes isn't even the devastating part. I mean it is, but it's the what comes after—the regret and the might-have-beens, the longing for what was and can never be again—that really tightens the throat. Consider me even gayer than I was before, and all thanks to a straight woman.

n  "Ennis pulled Jack's hand to his mouth, took a hit from the cigarette, exhaled. "Sure as hell seem in one piece to me. You know, I was sittin up here all that time tryin to figure out if I was—? I know I ain't. I mean, here we both got wives and kids, right? I like doin it with women, yeah, but Jesus H., ain't nothin like this. I never had no thoughts a doin it with another guy except I sure wrang it out a hunderd times thinkin about you. You do it with other guys, Jack?"

"Shit no," said Jack, who had been riding more than bulls, not rolling his own. "You know that. Old Brokeback got us good and it sure ain't over. We got to work out what the fuck we're goin a do now?""n

Okay, so I haven't seen the movie but I've heard a lot about it, and I think that I would like the movie better.

The book felt kind of rushed to me, I couldn't invest any emotions towards the characters or the plot but I liked the storyline the meaning is so great.

This is another book that tells a story of two men who fell in love in the worst of conditions. I'm going to watch the movie and see if I'd really like it better than the book or not but in the meantime I recommend this fast read.

3 stars (:
Its really impressive how some authors could write a whole story in just a few pages..
Unfortunately, I have seen some spoilers before reading the book and knew the ending, but it still affected me :( ..
Eventhough I had some serious problems with this book, I liked it :D..
I havent seen the movie, but I have a feeling that if I do, I will like it more than the book :)..
Sorry..

This novel is surprisingly short . . . which makes it difficult to rate the book unbiasedly :-/ I found myself replaying the (exceptional) movie in my mind the entire time.

. . .

. . .

. . . . Now please excuse my while I imagine this scene over and over again ..


#neednewovaries

What a quick read! So frustrating that their love is really still not accepted or understood by society.

Why did I think this would be a good choice for my morning commute?

Sweet baby Jesus! This was everything I remembered the movie to be and somehow more of a punch to the gut. I'm perpetually amazed at how a good writer can limn a whole lifetime of deeds and emotions in a few choice words. Annie Proulx is that kind of writer. As a bonus Campbell Scott suffuses life into the characters of Ennis & Jack to point of making your heart bleed, reminding us he's a great actor. When Ennis says n  little darlin'n I about bawled my eyes out on the train. It overshadows sheafs of 'I love yous' in other stories.

Is this a romance? Not in the genre sense. It is however a love story. A sad/tragic one given the state of who we are/have been as a species/society, but also touched by small moments of grace and companionship, which is all we ever wish for in the end.

I'll definitely be doing this again and getting a print copy, just as soon as I recover.

May 2020

I reread this short story for my English literature course and my feelings and opinions are pretty much the same as last year. I'm very looking forward to discuss this in class.

March 2019

Let me just say that I've never seen the movie and that's why I decided to fix this by reading the book first and then watching the adaptation.
This story is basically sadness provoked by the fact that two people, Jack and Ennis, who obviously care for each other, cannot be together. All they have are some moments of solace once or twice a year.
It was a good story but I'm giving it three stars because it was really short and I did not have the time to get to know the characters well.
Now I'm really eager to watch the movie adaptation.