Bad Dirt Lib/E : Wyoming Stories 2 (CD-Audio)

from TCWriter

Annie Proulx writes so sharply that she defines her characters with what feels like a razor's edge. This isn't a collection of happy stories about a West that never existed; it's a collection of taut essays about a hardscrabble life. Excellent writing, if not always the easiest stuff to read.

from helenleech

You know what this reminded me of? The stories of Herman Charles Bosman. He wrote about life in small outposts in the South African veld in the 1930s. There's the same dry humour - the beard-growing competition is a good example - but there's also the same stories of isolation and drought and sma...

from dandelionroots

Her forays into magical realism largely ruined this collection. While the grandeur of the landscape is ever present, it's apparent that when focused, the land and people are hopelessly bleak in a delightfully honest manner. Appreciated main characters in one story popping up with minor roles in a...

from Notesmusings

Bad Dirt is the second volume of Wyoming Stories. For me it did not reach the same heights as Close Range. In Bad Dirt there are more departures from realism and more use of the folksy yarn, less of the sharp love for the land, less capturing of character. Three stories stand out for me, each foc...

from flydodofly

Proulx is a born storyteller, and Wyoming is her home, or one of them. She knows it well and cen tell a story or two about the rough, but wonderful country and its people.