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Wyoming Stories #2
Bad Dirt
The stories in Annie Proulx's new collection are peopled by characters who struggle with circumstances beyond their control in a kind of rural noir half-light. Trouble comes at them from unexpected angles, and they will themselves through it, hardheaded and resourceful. Bound by the land and by custom, they inhabit worlds that are often isolated, dangerous, and in Proulx's bold prose, stunningly vivid.
In "What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?" rancher Gilbert Wolfscale, alienated from his sons, bewildered by his criminal ex-wife, gets shoved down his throat the fact that the old-style ranch life has gone. Several stories concern the eccentric denizens of Elk Tooth, a tiny hamlet where life revolves around three bars. Elk Toothers enter beard-growing contests, scrape together a living hauling hay, catch poachers in unorthodox ways. "Man Crawling out of Trees" is about urban newcomers from the east and their discovery, too late, that one of them has violated the deepest ethics of the place. Above all, these stories are about the compelling lives of rapidly disappearing rural Americans.
Through Proulx's knowledge of the history of Wyoming and the west, her interest in landscape and place, and her sympathy for the sheer will it takes to survive, we see the seared heart of the tough people who live in the emptiest state. Proulx, winner of the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, and many other prizes, has written a collection of spectacularly satisfying stories.
240 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2004
130 people are currently reading
2927 people want to read
About the author
Annie Proulx
110 books3,406 followersEdna Annie Proulx (Chinese:安妮 普鲁) is an American journalist and author. Her second novel, The Shipping News (1993), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction in 1994. Her short story "Brokeback Mountain" was adapted as an Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award-winning major motion picture released in 2005. Brokeback Mountain received massive critical acclaim and went on to be nominated for a leading eight Academy Awards, winning three of them. (However, the movie did not win Best Picture, a situation with which Proulx made public her disappointment.) She won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her first novel, Postcards.
She has written most of her stories and books simply as Annie Proulx, but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx.
She has written most of her stories and books simply as Annie Proulx, but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 425 reviews
May 12, 2022
How to Write a Great Short Story
I have never been drawn to short stories, and mostthat I have read just did not interest me. So, why this book? I decided to give them another try, but as I was reading, I was analyzing my feelings about these short stories. .
First, these stories are no different from the stories we tell each other every day but are embellished to make them more interesting. I thought of the story that I wrote about in my journal, which was transferred to a review I did on here, “Nobody’s Fool.” It was a true story that my friend had told me of her own experience of seeing a rancher chasing a cow and killing it on another rancher's land, and how she and her husband got out of their car and ran over to him, screaming that he should not have killed the cow in front of her. Then the owners of the land that the cow was killed on showed up, and they would not allow the man to have his cow; instead they cut the cow up and had a free barbeque in Creston. Now the author of this book would have taken that story and embellished it. The rancher, who killed his own cow, would have his own story told, and we would have learned more about him, like how no one liked him anyway, or that he had always been a curmudgeon, etc.
I love these kinds of stories in Creston, but I knew the people. But while Annie Proulx tells you more about the people involved in her short stories, you still have not been able to develop a closeness with them, jut a little bit more than what I had written, and this is why I really am not attracted to them. Plus, I this book some of the people are not any that I would like to know. Still, I finished the book and I willread more.
I liked some of the stories in this book, especially the one about the woman who needed some hay during a drought, so she was told about a man who was selling a load of it in another State, so she sent a man to go get it. What coUld go wrong? I suppose it would not have been a story if something had not gone wrong. And each of her stories had a twist in its ending, just like the story of the cow and how it as eaten by the town’s people and not its owner.
Many of Anne’s characters were unlikeable which made it hard to want to finish each one. Such as the story of Buddy, a likeable man, who helped a woman whose husband had beat up their young children, and maybe they were not married. I just did not like her any more than I liked her man, wishing by the end of the story that I had never met her, much less her man. And, So, it goes.
I have never been drawn to short stories, and mostthat I have read just did not interest me. So, why this book? I decided to give them another try, but as I was reading, I was analyzing my feelings about these short stories. .
First, these stories are no different from the stories we tell each other every day but are embellished to make them more interesting. I thought of the story that I wrote about in my journal, which was transferred to a review I did on here, “Nobody’s Fool.” It was a true story that my friend had told me of her own experience of seeing a rancher chasing a cow and killing it on another rancher's land, and how she and her husband got out of their car and ran over to him, screaming that he should not have killed the cow in front of her. Then the owners of the land that the cow was killed on showed up, and they would not allow the man to have his cow; instead they cut the cow up and had a free barbeque in Creston. Now the author of this book would have taken that story and embellished it. The rancher, who killed his own cow, would have his own story told, and we would have learned more about him, like how no one liked him anyway, or that he had always been a curmudgeon, etc.
I love these kinds of stories in Creston, but I knew the people. But while Annie Proulx tells you more about the people involved in her short stories, you still have not been able to develop a closeness with them, jut a little bit more than what I had written, and this is why I really am not attracted to them. Plus, I this book some of the people are not any that I would like to know. Still, I finished the book and I willread more.
I liked some of the stories in this book, especially the one about the woman who needed some hay during a drought, so she was told about a man who was selling a load of it in another State, so she sent a man to go get it. What coUld go wrong? I suppose it would not have been a story if something had not gone wrong. And each of her stories had a twist in its ending, just like the story of the cow and how it as eaten by the town’s people and not its owner.
Many of Anne’s characters were unlikeable which made it hard to want to finish each one. Such as the story of Buddy, a likeable man, who helped a woman whose husband had beat up their young children, and maybe they were not married. I just did not like her any more than I liked her man, wishing by the end of the story that I had never met her, much less her man. And, So, it goes.
September 13, 2007
The cover blurb on my paperback copy proclaims Proulx's work to be in the spirit of Mark Twain, and while I doubt I'd've come up with that myself, it is spot on, especially here. Proulx has a dark sense of humor which blends perfectly with the landscape she paints of the New West. Her characters are incredibly alive, flaws and all. Personal favorite in this collection: "The Trickle Down Effect" wherein the main character is hired to haul hay from Wisconsin to Wyoming, only just past the state line on his way back he lets a half-lit cigarette fly out the cab window of his pick-up and it ignites the hay he's hauling. Thus does he drive a fireball down the desolate Wyoming highway. This is the kind of black humor at which Proulx excels. She makes me long for places I've never been. She makes me wish I could be that lonely. There is an intriguing and beautiful melancholy in each direction she goes.
May 2, 2009
Is there a style called Wyoming Gothic? If not, Proulx invented it. If so, Proulx is the master of it. The dark humor makes this an easier read than Proulx's first collection of Wyoming stories. I look forward to the next collection.
September 7, 2009
Annie Proulx has once again proven herself to be a literary treasure, one of very few writers who can affect a literary style without the pithy navel-gazing dreck found in nearly every lit mag in America. She actually tells stories, and they are interesting! Imagine that. The language is there: each sentence finely tuned to the story's sentiment at the moment. The characters were strong-willed and quirky. Although I liked the names, I had trouble believing so many character could have such names, for example 'Plato Bucklew'. The setting and sense of place comes to life everywhere: you can almost smell the dirt, the dusty, parched land.
The best story was Wamsutter Wolf. I liked Indian Wars, What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?, and Man Crawling Out of Trees.
The weakest tales had an element of magic realism--or the fantastic--something Annie doesn't really pull off. These were Hellhole, Dump Junk and The old Badger Game.
Like TC Boyle, Annie's tales often ring with humor. Her and TC are my favorite short stories writers today.
The best story was Wamsutter Wolf. I liked Indian Wars, What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?, and Man Crawling Out of Trees.
The weakest tales had an element of magic realism--or the fantastic--something Annie doesn't really pull off. These were Hellhole, Dump Junk and The old Badger Game.
Like TC Boyle, Annie's tales often ring with humor. Her and TC are my favorite short stories writers today.
May 1, 2024
Λίγοι συγγραφείς με κερδίζουν με διηγήματα αλλά η Άννυ πρου είναι από τους αγαπημένους μου. Γεμάτη εικόνες και ποιητική αφαίρεση , μιλάει για καθημερινότητα ρουτίνα και απλότητα στο μοναχικό γουαιομινγκ πλάθοντας πολύ ωραίους χαρακτήρες και όμορφες μικρές ιστορίες σαν ψηφίδες που σχηματίζουν μια γενιά και ένα ψηφιδωτό που σε κάνει να νοιωθεις ότι ξέρεις την περιοχή και ταυτόχρονα ότι έχει μια δική της μαγεία .
August 11, 2023
This collection of 11 short stories has a particularly apt epigraph, a quote from the serial killer, Charles Starkweather, “They say this is a wonderful world to live in, but I don’t believe I ever did really live in a wonderful world.” The stories are set in the rugged landscape of Wyoming, and the people are equally rugged. It’s a well-described realistic world, as the characters go about their lives, with little concern about whether their existence is wonderful or not.
One of the longer stories, “Man Crawling Out of Trees” raises the question of an outsider’s perspective on life in rural Wyoming. A middle-aged affluent couple move to Wyoming from New York. Wyoming appeals to them because of the opportunity to live by themselves with clear air, space and wildlife around them. The wife at first enthusiastically writes to her daughter, “You will never see anything like this on the east coast.” The husband settles well into this lifestyle , going on long drives into the hills and exploring the landscape, but his wife begins to tire of this life and misses New York. The winters are hard, neighbors live miles away. And it can be lonely. When she is alone one day, she is frightened by a man who is crawling toward the house, and calls the sheriff. It turns out that he is not a menace as she had thought, but a person who had broken his leg. She had “broke the cardinal rule of the country – that you give aid to a stranger, even your bitterest enemy when he is down.” Her inability to adjust to country mores leads to irreconcilable differences, and she leaves him to return to New York. Wyoming is not for everyone.
“The Wamsutter Wolf” deals with people who have lived in Wyoming all their lives. Buddy is eking out a existence working at odd jobs, and finds a rundown trailer that he can afford. His neighbors, though, turn out to be a couple; he remembers the husband as a bully who tormented him as a kid, and he’s still a bully, abusing both his wife and daughter. Buddy interferes, at risk to himself, and has to move. Common and longstanding disputes appear often in BAD DIRT.
Many of the stories are about ranch life. In “What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick”, an old timer reflects on this question and decides Jesus would pick a few pines and make simple pegged furniture with no nails or screws. He decides that no matter what, Jesus “wouldn’t get himself tangled up with no ranch,” thinking of droughts, cattle diseases, and all of the problems of ranching. There is a longing for a simpler life that emerges in many of these stories. It’s both the promise and curse of Wyoming.
“Dump Junk” involves clearing out the house of a 101 year old lady who has died. It is filled with “ancient and dusty junk – they saved it all – from the attic to the cellar.” An old tea kettle is kept though, but later it’s discovered to have a hole in it. It could serve as a metaphor for most of the stories – something of value is discovered, but there are always flaws and shortcomings, many with grim results.
One of the longer stories, “Man Crawling Out of Trees” raises the question of an outsider’s perspective on life in rural Wyoming. A middle-aged affluent couple move to Wyoming from New York. Wyoming appeals to them because of the opportunity to live by themselves with clear air, space and wildlife around them. The wife at first enthusiastically writes to her daughter, “You will never see anything like this on the east coast.” The husband settles well into this lifestyle , going on long drives into the hills and exploring the landscape, but his wife begins to tire of this life and misses New York. The winters are hard, neighbors live miles away. And it can be lonely. When she is alone one day, she is frightened by a man who is crawling toward the house, and calls the sheriff. It turns out that he is not a menace as she had thought, but a person who had broken his leg. She had “broke the cardinal rule of the country – that you give aid to a stranger, even your bitterest enemy when he is down.” Her inability to adjust to country mores leads to irreconcilable differences, and she leaves him to return to New York. Wyoming is not for everyone.
“The Wamsutter Wolf” deals with people who have lived in Wyoming all their lives. Buddy is eking out a existence working at odd jobs, and finds a rundown trailer that he can afford. His neighbors, though, turn out to be a couple; he remembers the husband as a bully who tormented him as a kid, and he’s still a bully, abusing both his wife and daughter. Buddy interferes, at risk to himself, and has to move. Common and longstanding disputes appear often in BAD DIRT.
Many of the stories are about ranch life. In “What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick”, an old timer reflects on this question and decides Jesus would pick a few pines and make simple pegged furniture with no nails or screws. He decides that no matter what, Jesus “wouldn’t get himself tangled up with no ranch,” thinking of droughts, cattle diseases, and all of the problems of ranching. There is a longing for a simpler life that emerges in many of these stories. It’s both the promise and curse of Wyoming.
“Dump Junk” involves clearing out the house of a 101 year old lady who has died. It is filled with “ancient and dusty junk – they saved it all – from the attic to the cellar.” An old tea kettle is kept though, but later it’s discovered to have a hole in it. It could serve as a metaphor for most of the stories – something of value is discovered, but there are always flaws and shortcomings, many with grim results.
January 5, 2019
I didn't realize this was the second in a series until now.
A book of short stories similar to Olive Kitteridge in that some of the characters come up a couple times such as the bartender. Some were humorous, some not.
A paragraph from the NYT review, found when I was trying to see if "bad dirt" was something Proulx made up or an actual thing.
ANNIE PROULX'S Wyoming is a harsh and silly place. Or so it seems, at least, in her new collection of stories, "Bad Dirt," a very peculiar successor to her memorable first volume of Wyoming tales, "Close Range." In the five years that have passed since the publication of that solemn, majestically depressing book, the tone of Proulx's writing about her sometime home state has noticeably lightened: the skies are not cloudy all day, as they were in "Close Range." Five of the 11 stories in "Bad Dirt" are funky little comic anecdotes about the wacky denizens of a town called Elk Tooth, whose sole distinction is its three popular bars -- Pee Wee's, Muddy's Hole and the Silvertip -- and a sixth tale, "The Old Badger Game," is an odd animal fable described by its narrator as "not much of a story, the kind of thing you might hear on a sluggish afternoon in Pee Wee's."
Well, if the first book is gloomier, I'll give it a pass and glad I started here.
A book of short stories similar to Olive Kitteridge in that some of the characters come up a couple times such as the bartender. Some were humorous, some not.
A paragraph from the NYT review, found when I was trying to see if "bad dirt" was something Proulx made up or an actual thing.
ANNIE PROULX'S Wyoming is a harsh and silly place. Or so it seems, at least, in her new collection of stories, "Bad Dirt," a very peculiar successor to her memorable first volume of Wyoming tales, "Close Range." In the five years that have passed since the publication of that solemn, majestically depressing book, the tone of Proulx's writing about her sometime home state has noticeably lightened: the skies are not cloudy all day, as they were in "Close Range." Five of the 11 stories in "Bad Dirt" are funky little comic anecdotes about the wacky denizens of a town called Elk Tooth, whose sole distinction is its three popular bars -- Pee Wee's, Muddy's Hole and the Silvertip -- and a sixth tale, "The Old Badger Game," is an odd animal fable described by its narrator as "not much of a story, the kind of thing you might hear on a sluggish afternoon in Pee Wee's."
Well, if the first book is gloomier, I'll give it a pass and glad I started here.
August 3, 2021
3.5 stars. Picked this up from the library as I wanted to read more by Annie Proulx but didn't find much in the English language sections. Even though this is a short story collection I quite enjoyed it. It was intresting enough but I hope I can find something with a longer stories for the future. I don't know much about her works and don't know if she writes longer fiction but I'll do a quick search later to find out
February 8, 2025
Chance pickup at the library. First story is GREAT: "The Hellhole," which starts out with a Wyoming game warden citing a poacher. It morphs into a delicious revenge-fantasy, Wonderful stuff: 4.5 stars worth. Apparently first published here.
The Kindle sample online is just a teaser. But enough to whet your appetite, I bet. I'd be surprised if your library doesn't have the book.
"Pecker!" shrieked the furious poacher. "my name is Pecker!.
"You bet," said the warden. . . .
[The warden] didn't know what had happened, but it had saved a lot of paperwork.
Well. Past here, the stories range from first-rate to, well, not for me. Nothing else in the class of The Hellhole" -- though the flaming overpriced hay story is also first-rate. My 4+-star rating applies only to that story. Definitely worth checking your library, and worth a reread sometime. The best of her shorts that I've seen.
The Kindle sample online is just a teaser. But enough to whet your appetite, I bet. I'd be surprised if your library doesn't have the book.
"Pecker!" shrieked the furious poacher. "my name is Pecker!.
"You bet," said the warden. . . .
[The warden] didn't know what had happened, but it had saved a lot of paperwork.
Well. Past here, the stories range from first-rate to, well, not for me. Nothing else in the class of The Hellhole" -- though the flaming overpriced hay story is also first-rate. My 4+-star rating applies only to that story. Definitely worth checking your library, and worth a reread sometime. The best of her shorts that I've seen.
December 29, 2025
A wonderful collection of stories set in the wide places of Wyoming. Don't look for any city stuff here. The title is explained in Wamsutter Wolf. That story opens with
There was humor, but not (for me) laugh out loud humor. Almost no broad humor although I did put a marker on this conversation that took place in a tavern.
Buddy Millar was the kind of driver who avoided traveling on a main road with other cars. This distaste for sharing the highway often took him rough-wheeling across the prairie or into a labyrinth of faded gravel tracks. Some of these roads were shortcuts, but most were long, and a few were serious bad dirt.This typifies both the type of characterization throughout the book and also the wildness of the back country where most of the stories are set. Yes, there are towns. Well, sort of. Many times people would drive 20 miles or so to get to a town of a population of 80 where shopping could be conducted. The only time bigger places were mentioned is if one of the characters had come from say, Billings or Colorado Springs.
There was humor, but not (for me) laugh out loud humor. Almost no broad humor although I did put a marker on this conversation that took place in a tavern.
"___", said Erwin Hungate, the reader, "lay off, will you? Sound like Umberto Eco."There is nothing special and everything special about this collection, the second in her series Wyoming Stories. I have the third in the series marked as wish-list, and I see my library has a copy. I hope not to wait years and years to get to it. This is not 5-stars worth, but definitely a solid 4-stars with perhaps some upward mobility.
"Who?" said Vic.
"I know him," said Old Man DeBock. "Bert Eckle, used a work for Bob Utley. He's out in Nevada now in a home. Home for old cowboys."
August 11, 2025
Fabulous read. Really liked the story about the adulterous badger.
January 1, 2012
Short stories set in Wyoming. They mostly center around the fictional town of Elk Tooth, with three bars and no Wal-Mart.The best one of the bunch is called "The Wamsutter Wolf". It is about a guy who drifts around from job to job. He finds himself living in a trailer across from a family of true trailer trash. Eventually the husband, drunk, beats one of the kids and breaks his arm. The wife seeks the main character's trailer for refuge, but ends up going back to her useless, violent husband.One story (Man Crawling out of Trees) is about a couple who retire and move into a ranch development in the mountains. The wife finds it unbearably boring and lonely and decides to leave the husband and go back to Connecticut. In one of the final scenes, she is home alone and an injured skier crawls out of the woods into her backyard. Used to city ways, she locks the doors and calls the sheriff, and endangers the man's life.Another funny one (The Contest) chronicles a beard-growing contest among the denizens of Elk Tooth's bars.
January 3, 2016
One star for being somewhat readable, but there's nothing in this collection worthy of being read. The style is full of basic grammar, occasional and meaningless references and sometimes even a big word. It's boring.
The stories read like a half-edited series of character notes. This is a book that I can bet was published to fill a contract. It's like Proulx did some therapeutic writing in her back garden where consideration isn't given to the reader or to the narrative or the plot or the structure, but just to the act of writing itself. When writers like David Foster Wallace are criticised for being too self-indulgent, critics should be pointed to this collection. Proulx doesn't care for her readers at all.
The stories read like a half-edited series of character notes. This is a book that I can bet was published to fill a contract. It's like Proulx did some therapeutic writing in her back garden where consideration isn't given to the reader or to the narrative or the plot or the structure, but just to the act of writing itself. When writers like David Foster Wallace are criticised for being too self-indulgent, critics should be pointed to this collection. Proulx doesn't care for her readers at all.
October 25, 2019
What an amazing writer! I want to start at the beginning and read this book all over again, immediately. The last time I felt that way - and did it, too, stayed up literally all night reading the book through again - was for Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men. I have an odd penchant for the Western, odd because I have no biographical connection with that way of life, that particular American experience. I think the attraction I feel to the genre is related to a commonality, that the Western addresses deep questions about ethics. It does not shy away from the worst in human capability, a subject that is existentially interesting to me.
January 20, 2023
Wyoming stories: eccentric ranchers, hapless retirees, drinkers, and a threatened ecology.
Proulx’s 2004 collection of eleven short stories follows her Pulitzer a decade earlier for Shipping News. The tales are set in contemporary Wyoming and feature moving descriptions of its natural beauty and the rigors of winter:
“The mountains crouched at every horizon like dark sleeping animals, their backs whitened by snow.”
“The few clouds drew out as fine and long as needle threads and the wind-damaged sky showed the same chill blue as a gas flame.”
Her Wyoming is a Darwinian world. Ranchers struggle with drought, selling their land to tech moguls; retirees are shocked by the harsh winter; trailer-park residents suffer alcoholism, violence, and theft; poachers predate the wildlife; and the bedrock is being torn apart by fracking.
Despite their environmental concerns, the stories glitter with humor and the quirkiness of small-town eccentrics. Many stories are set in the appealing settlement of Elk Tooth:
“Of the three bars Pee Wee’s, with its nineteenth-century atmosphere of beer, manure, whiskey, sweaty hatbands, a hot stove, dusty rafters, and a kind of incense falsely labeled Dwarf Pine that bartender Amanda Gribb burned, was the most popular. The other bars, Muddy’s Hole and the Silvertip, had their reliable regulars, but Pee Wee’s drew the crowds.”
Proulx’s quirky stories of human foibles recall the writing of Allan Gargunus and Anne Tyler, though a few, weaker stories slide from homespun eccentricity into a sort of fairytale magic. Proulx has a strong authorial narrative voice: speaking for the environment and against mankind’s less seemly aspects (faux-cowboy clothing, nouveau riche log ranches, lives wasted on drink). This prickly moralizing, while only implicit, at times risks undermining the purity of her fiction.
What’s in a name?
Proulx’s stories stand out for their bizarrely named characters: in the opening pages we find Creel Zmundzinski, Orion Horncrackle, Plato Bucklew, Amanda Gribb, and the Rev. Jefford J. Pecker. Proulx, interviewed in 2009 noted that, “I keep a book full of names and keep adding to it. … The John Smiths of the literary world make me sick—Bob and Bill and Joe and Nancy and Sandy and Fanny and so forth. I started using distinctive names as a mnemonic device for readers.”
Proulx’s names imbue her stories with rustic charm, and one can perhaps find pathos in the tension between the hardscrabble surnames (Horncrackle, Gribb) and the wildly aspirational chosen names (Plato, Orion). Some may find Proulx’s striking monikers to be mannered: they risk being a substitute for the work of creating character (Orion Horncrackle is immediately interesting, even if only for his name).
And this is perhaps my main reservation about Proulx’s writing. Her characters have instant charisma but few are gifted with inner depth. As a result, her stories only go so far. They are surprising, often comic, and push (for many of us) the right ecological/political buttons. But we don’t feel that Proulx digs deep into her characters (my reservations with Gargunus and Tyler are the same). We don’t care about the characters, or come to the stories to learn about life.
Proulx’s 2004 collection of eleven short stories follows her Pulitzer a decade earlier for Shipping News. The tales are set in contemporary Wyoming and feature moving descriptions of its natural beauty and the rigors of winter:
“The mountains crouched at every horizon like dark sleeping animals, their backs whitened by snow.”
“The few clouds drew out as fine and long as needle threads and the wind-damaged sky showed the same chill blue as a gas flame.”
Her Wyoming is a Darwinian world. Ranchers struggle with drought, selling their land to tech moguls; retirees are shocked by the harsh winter; trailer-park residents suffer alcoholism, violence, and theft; poachers predate the wildlife; and the bedrock is being torn apart by fracking.
Despite their environmental concerns, the stories glitter with humor and the quirkiness of small-town eccentrics. Many stories are set in the appealing settlement of Elk Tooth:
“Of the three bars Pee Wee’s, with its nineteenth-century atmosphere of beer, manure, whiskey, sweaty hatbands, a hot stove, dusty rafters, and a kind of incense falsely labeled Dwarf Pine that bartender Amanda Gribb burned, was the most popular. The other bars, Muddy’s Hole and the Silvertip, had their reliable regulars, but Pee Wee’s drew the crowds.”
Proulx’s quirky stories of human foibles recall the writing of Allan Gargunus and Anne Tyler, though a few, weaker stories slide from homespun eccentricity into a sort of fairytale magic. Proulx has a strong authorial narrative voice: speaking for the environment and against mankind’s less seemly aspects (faux-cowboy clothing, nouveau riche log ranches, lives wasted on drink). This prickly moralizing, while only implicit, at times risks undermining the purity of her fiction.
What’s in a name?
Proulx’s stories stand out for their bizarrely named characters: in the opening pages we find Creel Zmundzinski, Orion Horncrackle, Plato Bucklew, Amanda Gribb, and the Rev. Jefford J. Pecker. Proulx, interviewed in 2009 noted that, “I keep a book full of names and keep adding to it. … The John Smiths of the literary world make me sick—Bob and Bill and Joe and Nancy and Sandy and Fanny and so forth. I started using distinctive names as a mnemonic device for readers.”
Proulx’s names imbue her stories with rustic charm, and one can perhaps find pathos in the tension between the hardscrabble surnames (Horncrackle, Gribb) and the wildly aspirational chosen names (Plato, Orion). Some may find Proulx’s striking monikers to be mannered: they risk being a substitute for the work of creating character (Orion Horncrackle is immediately interesting, even if only for his name).
And this is perhaps my main reservation about Proulx’s writing. Her characters have instant charisma but few are gifted with inner depth. As a result, her stories only go so far. They are surprising, often comic, and push (for many of us) the right ecological/political buttons. But we don’t feel that Proulx digs deep into her characters (my reservations with Gargunus and Tyler are the same). We don’t care about the characters, or come to the stories to learn about life.
September 8, 2025
This was one of 6 books that happened to be in a lookout tower where I spent the weekend. It was really serendipity that I read this, as it wasn't even on my radar.
These stories are a little more hit and miss than Close Range (Proulx's first book of Wyoming stories). Some stories are masterful: The Indian Wars Refought, Man Crawling Out of Trees, The Wamsutter Wolf. The rest range from okay down to a little bit silly.
Proulx's use of a little magic is less effective here - it feels clunky and just sort of tossed out there for fun images (like poachers dropping literally into hell), with little connection to themes or character development.
The settings are strong, and the characters mostly are too - we're immersed in the culture of Wyoming ranchers.
These stories are a little more hit and miss than Close Range (Proulx's first book of Wyoming stories). Some stories are masterful: The Indian Wars Refought, Man Crawling Out of Trees, The Wamsutter Wolf. The rest range from okay down to a little bit silly.
Proulx's use of a little magic is less effective here - it feels clunky and just sort of tossed out there for fun images (like poachers dropping literally into hell), with little connection to themes or character development.
The settings are strong, and the characters mostly are too - we're immersed in the culture of Wyoming ranchers.
December 4, 2023
Poviedky zo zaprášeného prostredia rančerského Wyomingu - a pre toto prostredie mám akosi prekvapujúco slabé miesto. Annie Proulx vie, vie vykresliť atmosféru a prostredie, postavy, ktoré sú aj na ploche poviedky uveriteľné a plnokrvné, vie text vypointovať, vie prekvapiť aj pobaviť. Veľmi dobré. Čitateľské dojmy boli umocnené tým, že som zhodou náhod túto knihu čítala v období, keď aj Sílu psa Thomasa Savageho, a tieto dve knihy k sebe naozaj ladia výborne.
January 28, 2024
As someone trying to write, I found so much to admire in Bad Dirt. Efficient characterization, convincing dialogue, perceptive and unsentimental narration. I wasn’t a fan of her novel The Shipping News, but Annie Proulx shines as a short story writer.
Highlights:
- The Wamsmutter Wolf
- What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?
Highlights:
- The Wamsmutter Wolf
- What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?
August 20, 2022
Really enjoyed. Look forward to reading more Annie Proulx
October 28, 2024
Fun, easy read.
December 2, 2022
I found this little gem a few years ago at a library book sale. Finally got around to reading it. While the grammar takes a bit getting used to, it is essential to make the backdrop and characters in those stories come alive. All of the stories have a nice surprise element and a good dose of dark humor in them which made me laugh out loud several times. I appreciated that all stories were somewhat interconnected via their settings and/or characters while at the same time could have been a stand alone short story. My three absolute favorites were "The Hellhole", "The Trickle Down Effect" and "The Contest."
February 1, 2020
This collection didn't hit me in quite the same way Close Range did. Proulx's stories are bleak and real while maintaining this level of absurdity throughout, and Bad Dirt continues that. But there weren't any real standouts. Reading Close Range, I'd have to put the book down after each story just to get over the ending. I wanted a little more from these.
However, it did introduce me to the best character name in Annie Proulx history: Fiesta Punch (And choosing a favorite is saying something because she comes up with the greatest character names in literature).
However, it did introduce me to the best character name in Annie Proulx history: Fiesta Punch (And choosing a favorite is saying something because she comes up with the greatest character names in literature).
September 14, 2020
Gritty rural life in the tiny town of Elk Tooth, Wyoming. Living in poverty in an unforgiving landscape, the lives of these characters often touch one of the 3 bars in town. Told by a master storyteller. Plenty of humor and some impossible situations that will tug at your emotions. I enjoyed the stories, which overlap with both characters and places, though each can stand alone. The author deserves all the prizes she has accumulated for writing.
May 11, 2020
Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories II by Annie Proulx (Scribner 2005) (813.54). This is the second of Annie Proulx's fine collections of short stories. These are set in the West; three of these stories in this volume are set in the tiny town of Elk Tooth, Wyoming. Annie Proulx only writes the good stuff! My rating: 8/10, finished 1/1/2007.
July 31, 2016
Hoewel ik niet zo van de verhalen bundels ben, is dit toch wel een erg leuke. Alle verhalen, nou ja, de meeste in ieder geval, hangen samen. Zo spelen ze zich af in Wyoming, en de meeste verhalen gaan over de bewoners van het dorpje Elk Tooth en de drie kroegen die het dorp rijk is. Genieten!
December 11, 2020
His feeling for the ranch was the strongest emotion that had ever moved him, a strangling love tattooed on his heart.
Leaf sussuration
Shadenfreude is pleasure at another's misfortune.
Love it. Want more!
Leaf sussuration
Shadenfreude is pleasure at another's misfortune.
Love it. Want more!
November 8, 2015
this book is appropriately named because it fucking sucks
September 6, 2017
Proulx writes sharp and the stories were a nice way to step in other people's lives. Only I didn't like the story about badgers, the little surrealism didn't fit in this collection of stories.
September 14, 2019
[Note: I read "Bad Dirt" first even though I knew it was the second book in the collection.] Bad Dirt is set in Elk Tooth, a tiny hamlet in rural Wyoming that's inhabited by people who're eccentric and who're committed to maintaining their way of life. Proulx's stories give us a peek into small-town life, particularly the gritty, lonely, vulnerable aspects of it. Many of the people in Elk Tooth struggle with circumstances beyond their control such as harsh winters, bad economy, poverty, addiction, family, customs, and encroaching modernity. Yet, they try to make the most of their situations and at times even will themselves through their difficulties. Not all of the short stories are memorable but there are stunningly vivid scenes that stand out in a few. Some of my favourites were: "What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?" where a rancher discovers that his way of life is disappearing (the Rodeo Day Parade didn't even have ranchers in it); "Man Crawling Out of Trees" where urbanites try to settle in the country and the wife breaks "the cardinal rule of the country-that you give aid and help to a stranger, even your bitterest enemy when he is down"; and "The Contest" which describes the hilariousness of a beard growing contest that's shut down by an out of town visitor. Although most of the stories are dark, some do verge on the comedic and Proulx even uses magic realism in a few. Even if the stories were average, the setting definitely stands out; Proulx's use of local speech and landscape descriptions transports readers to the Wyoming backcountry.
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