Para além da melancolia e do sofrimento de uma paixão interrompida pela opressão e pelo preconceito da época, a escrita e as descrições do ambiente também se destacam nessa obra de arte. Annie Proulx faz um trabalho incrível ao mostrar o amor florescente entre dois cowboys enquanto retrata os costumes da vida rural, que embora difícil e rude, ainda pode possuir certa beleza.

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?

n  «Ojalá supiera cómo renunciar a tí.» n

Me sorprendió mucho la forma tan linda de escribir de Annie Proulx. Es poético y muy específico al mismo tiempo. Todo en esta historia corta ocurre rápido, como el paso de los años. Eso sin embargo no nos va a impedir sufrir. Están avisados.

Esta es la historia de Jack Twist y Ennis del Mar, dos cowboys pastores de ovejas (¿o sheepboys?) que se conocen por accidente gracias a un trabajo en Brokeback Mountain. Entre ellos surge una atracción que los toma por sorpresa, y supongo que también al lector si no sabe de qué trata el libro (o la película). Ambos son hombres recios, de pocas palabras y pocos sentimientos, y viven en un pueblo donde una relación homosexual podría costarles la vida.
A pesar de que entre ellos surge un vínculo absoluto, no van a exteriorizar jamás lo que sienten. Aunque al terminar el trabajo en Brokeback Mountain cada uno vuelve a su vida, con el paso de los años seguirán encontrando la forma de verse de forma esporádica (y clandestina) pero intensa.

Durante una gran parte de la historia no terminé de congeniar ni con Jack ni con Ennis, quizás en gran parte por lo huraños que son tanto entre ellos como con la vida en general, o por esa forma de expresarse tan peculiar que demuestra la ausencia de educación de ambos. El contraste entre la narración y los diálogos es marcadísimo (y por momentos dificil de entender... al menos en inglés).

Tiempo después ese abrazo adormilado se consolidó en su memoria como el único momento de ingenua, encantadora felicidad en sus duras vidas separadas.

Cerca del final, sin embargo, ocurre algo que me hizo cambiar de opinión de forma abrupta. Me quedé maravillada por el modo en que Annie Proulx manipuló mis sentimientos, haciéndome encariñar en tres segundos con dos personajes que me resultaban relativamente indiferentes.
Es una historia muy bella realmente, me alegro de haberla leído.


Reseña de Libros junto al mar

Normally, I would never read something like this. No, I am not homophobic (my older brother is gay); but I do get uncomfortable when reading about two men kissing. So, needless to say, I wasn't expecting much from this very short novella.

Let me be the first to say how utterly wrong I was. This novella is not merely about two men who fall in love; it is about love itself. The love story these men share is intense, stormy, beautiful, and heart-wrenching, and I found myself thankful that I have only ever loved one woman my entire life--I duped her into marrying me later--and, therefore, have never had my heart broken.

Put away your preconceived ideas and give this story a chance. If anything, it will only take you a few hours to read. But if you like it, I am sure you will leave this story with a greater insight to what it means to be in love with someone.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This is a short story, sixty four pages, but Annie Proulx crafted a heck of a story in sixty four pages. The characters, even the minor ones, are described so vividly that ever detail is burned into your mind. The same with the setting, the back ranges of rugged Wyoming and the small cowboy towns, place you right in the middle of Ennis and Jack's existence. The story, as most people know from the movie, is about the love these two young men find with one another. Even though they are both married with children, nothing is quite right in their lives, until that summer herding on Brokeback Mountain when everything changed.

I've now read The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, and I'm looking for the next thing to read from Annie Proulx.

I saw Brokeback Mountain when I was quite young (my mom changed channels when a sex scene came on like she always did) and I have to say, it sorta blew my mind. Gay was not a word I heard, unless someone in my class was teasing someone or something. I grew up in the Irish countryside so I was quite sheltered until I was at least 15/16 (hmm, same year we got Wi-Fi). But as a 12 year old, to be "gay" meant something bad and dirty and I never understood why. Nobody could give me an acceptable answer as to why it was wrong but I was afraid to question things so I just went with it. When I watched this, I remember that seed of doubt that was already there in my mind being watered a bit. The two cowboys really loved each other, in their own way and I could see nothing wrong with it. Looking back, this film was the first thing to really open my eyes to what it was like to be gay.

I've been meaning to read the book for a while now and it definitely lived up to my expectations. It is so short but it packs so many emotions into it; it really is incredible. I'm always impressed when an author can pack so much into a short story without hindering any other element. This story is beautiful, tragic, heart-breaking and heart-warming. It makes you wish that things were different for Ennis & Jack. I really enjoyed it and I would love to read more stories like this one.

I was unsure about the writing style at the start but when I got into it, I really liked it. I would definitely recommend this and I would read more by Annie Proulx.

"Tao đâu có thể chịu mỗi năm một, hai lần làm tình ở tuốt trên cao. Mày quá đáng đối với tao, Ennis, đồ chó đẻ điếm đàng. Ước gì tao biết cách bỏ mày."
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Mùa hè năm ấy, tít trên ngọn Brokeback giá lạnh, hai gã trai vừa chớm hai mươi hừng hực lao vào nhau bằng tất cả bất chợt và nhục dục. Hè qua, họ rời xa, chỉ để lại cho nhau những mảnh ký ức rạc rời.
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Bẵng đi hai mươi năm, khối tình đành đoạn ngày nào vẫn nhen hồng như lửa, đốt cháy tâm can hai kẻ nọ bằng tất cả nỗi nhớ nhung dạt dào tựa gió. Rồi cơm áo gạo tiền đẩy họ dần xa, rồi phận số đọa đày xé toạc họ ra, chỉ để lại một sự im lặng chói lói, bàng hoàng.
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Những ngày sau cuối, người này vẫn còn nhớ đêm hè năm đó, có một người vòng tay ôm lấy một người từ đằng sau, không chút gợn dục, chỉ khát khao sẻ chia. Những ngày sau cuối, người này tìm thấy hai chiếc áo sơ mi đã bạc màu lồng vào nhau, tựa như vẫn miết da thịt vào nhau, gom tất cả nỗi nhớ thắt tim cùng nỗi đau xé lòng tựu thành kỷ niệm.
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Ở một quá khứ xa xôi, từng có hai kẻ tuổi trẻ như nắng đổ vàng ươm, ngồi cạnh bên đống lửa tí tách tàn, nghe hơi thở phả vào nhau miết mải; từng cùng nhau sưởi ấm trong những cơn gió tuyết thốc tháo, thấy mái lều nhỏ bé tựa một gia đình, thấy chênh vênh hóa hư không, và yêu thương thoang thoảng như làn khói. Giá như họ biết trước được rằng, rằng họ sẽ chỉ có duy nhất một mùa hè đó thôi...
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"Cà phê cũ đang sôi nhưng hắn bắt kịp trước khi nó trào, rót vào cái tách cáu bẩn và thổi chất nước đen, để một mảng giấc mơ tràn đến. Nếu hắn không buộc mình cảnh giác, nó có thể khơi dậy ngày ấy, hâm nóng lại thời lạnh lẽo trên núi, khi họ làm chủ thế giới và không có điều gì sai trái."
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Ừ thì làm gì có điều gì sai trái. Tất cả là tình yêu.

Annie Proulx is one of the foremost American writers today. Her novel The Shipping News won the Pulitzer Prize, and her latest novel Barkskins seems to have been written in the same vain. As I am drawn to Pulitzer winners in my ongoing personal challenge to read them, I decided to sample Proulx's writing before undergoing the reading of one of her full length novels. Brokeback Mountain set high in the Rockies and later made into a movie of the same name was originally published in the New Yorker. A controversial story of forbidden love, the writing did not disappoint.

Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist were both twenty and looking to embark on their ranching careers. Each came from a distinct background from opposite ends of the state of Wyoming yet wound up on the same summer sheep drive up on Brokeback Mountain near the Montana border. Both young men were classic macho cowboys who could hold his own on the range. Ennis was engaged to be married to a local sweetheart the following December. Yet, one cold night while sharing a sleeping bag, the two men engaged in a forbidden act of love that is all but taboo in the cowboy community. This one event commenced Jack and Ennis' relationship for the next twenty years, one that would hold disastrous for them and their families.

At only fifty five pages in length, Proulx weaved a tragic story of forbidden love. It is a subject matter that I often stay away from yet the writing was so compelling that I read the entire story in mere minutes. Proulx is originally from the eastern United States, but her prose describing rural Wyoming is captivating, and one could see how from this short story, that the scenery could easily transfer to the big screen. It is because of the writing that I stuck with the story. I felt for Ennis' wife who had to hide her husband's secret for years, working to support their two daughters while he pined for Jack. Proulx set the story up so that the majority of readers would sympathize with the cowboys, but I was lead to feel for the supporting cast of characters who were all effected by these two men's decision of continuing a forbidden, clandestine, taboo relationship. Not only were the characters well fleshed out, but Proulx weaved in multiple story lines in this short tale, making the writing engaging from start to finish.

After reading the tragic Brokeback Mountain, I am left uncertain whether I will read Proulx's Pulitzer winning novel. I have heard that her full length books are slow moving albeit attentive to detail and emphasizing character development rather than plot. It is obvious that from this short tale that Proulx can write and I am intrigued to fit her novels into my ongoing Pulitzer challenge. For now, I am left with a bittersweet taste in my mouth after engaging in this short story.

4.5 stars writing
2.75 stars story

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"...

This ended up being by far the most depressing freaking story ever. It was sad through and through and Jack was gay and Ennis was just in love with Jack. It’s a complicated thing when you love someone you can’t. Someone who you know can never be yours. I also assumed that the very aggressive middle of the night sex scenes were added to the movie for the taboo aspect of these twos forbidden romance. Reading it was far more stressful and gave me a sense of dread. This is coming from someone who read a prison romance. That was a lot gentler and loving than these scenes.

The descriptions of everything were kind of yucky and even his sex life with his wife made you so depressed you couldn’t wait for all of it to end. I didn’t like Alma. I didn’t care for Jack. I spent ever page worried about Ennis and his insane depression and I loved every moment of this story but I also wanted it to end. It’s a crazy thing but it’s how these romances go for me sometimes. I love when things stay unrequited and unresolved. This ending took me out.

Around that time Jack began to appear in his dreams, Jack as he had first seen him, curly-headed and smiling and bucktoothed, talking about getting up off his pockets and into the control zone, but the can of beans with the spoon handle jutting out and balanced on the log was there as well, in a cartoon shape and lurid colors that gave the dreams a flavor of comic obscenity. The spoon handle was the kind that could be used as a tire iron. And he would wake sometimes in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release; the pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheets.
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.

Update: Today, I finally sat down and watched the movie based on this short story. Wow, just wow. The movie was beautifully shot, with strong performance from Heath Ledger as Ennis del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist. The breathtaking scenery of Wyoming, especially of Brokeback Mountain, and those chubby, cutie sheep add so much poetry to a truthful but forbidden love story.

I must admit, when I read the story, I really didn’t know how director Ang Lee could transform 55 pages of words into an Oscar-nominated 2-hour-long movie that brought tears to my eyes. But after watching the movie, I kinda knew how he did it. What Annie Proulx described in her short story in one sentence, Ang Lee let it play out in multiple different scenes, permitting viewers to experience the story of “Brokeback Mountain” in a deeper and more complete way. He also added some new side characters (I believe) to the movie version, which in turn gave the story more dynamics and colors. Heath Ledger, with his sad eyes, brilliantly portrayed Ennis del Mar - an introverted, silent cowboy who had to choose between his responsibility as a husband and father, and the dream of being with Jack Twist in their own paradise. Jake Gyllenhaal also brought Jack Twist to life - a seemingly straight man who leaned more toward gay in the sexuality spectrum.

Both actors and the script really highlighted the struggle that gay men at that time must have faced, not only repressed sexuality but also the ties and bonds in their realities that prevented them from living their love and the life that they wanted. So much happened in both Ennis and Jack’s lives; so much passed between them, and they lost 20 years in which they could have been together during that process. All that was left was Brokeback Mountain, the memories of those days they spent together when they were young, which were represented in the two shirts and a photo of the mountain, hiding inside Ennis’ closet. I cried when Ennis cried; my heart broke for him, for Jack Twist, for the love that must forever be kept silent…

How sad and how depressing. I just wish both Ennis and Jack had been born in this time, when there has been so much improvement and openness on how the society views the LGBTQ community. Then this love story wouldn’t have had to be so tragic and heartbreaking like this…

Old review:

I bought this book at a discounted price (only 1 dollar) during my vacation in Cambodia in the summer of 2012. I don’t know why I waited nearly 6 years to read it. What can I say? The best summary about this beautifully written short story belongs to Walter Kirn’s review in New York Magazine:

n  

“A stand-out story… ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is the sad chronology of a love affair between two men who can’t afford to call it that. They know what they’re not - not queer, not gay - but have no idea what they are.”

n

Yes, both Ennis and Jack refused to identify themselves as gay or queer. Ennis even said he loved having sex with women. Both got married, had kids, but somehow the bond that formed during those nights spent together on Brokeback Mountain still haunted them ever since. Ennis missed Jack so much; Jack wanted to have more chances, more time, more love makings with Ennis rather than just one or two copulations in four years. They were trapped in an unsung love and the fear of being repudiated, even tortured, by the society, at that time still didn’t accept that men could fall in love with men, too.

Were Ennis and Jack gay, or were they bisexual? Does this question even matter, when, in my opinion, this story isn’t just about repressed sexuality? It’s simply about love between two human beings, which transcends sexual orientation, labels or what we come to define as LGBTQ.

And don’t let me start talking about the ending, which nearly broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes:

n  

"The shirt seemed heavy until he saw there was another shirt inside it, the sleeves carefully worked down inside Jack’s sleeves. It was his own plaid shirt, lost, he’d thought, long ago in some damn laundry, his dirty shirt, the pocket ripped, buttons missing, stolen by Jack and hidden here inside Jack’s own shirt, the pair like two skins, one inside the other, two in one. 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.”

n

The only thing I didn’t like about this story is that it was too short, which means there wasn’t enough space for character development. There were many parts in which I felt the change in the characters’ attitude, feelings or thoughts were too abrupt. Even the progression of Ennis and Jack’s love story felt a little bit rushed. With an amazing idea like this, I would love to see it be made into a novel, and I don’t mind reading more pages and more words if it means I could experience the story in a deeper and more thorough way.

How director Ang Lee took this 55-page short story and turned it into an Oscar-nominated 2-hour-long movie is beyond me :D I must watch the movie as soon as possible ahhhh!!!! R.I.P. Heath Ledger :((((

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.