For me, short stories are either something to do with SF or have some natty, Somerset Maughan twist. Oh, or are some sort of slice or snapshot of a rather beat up and sad, Carver-eque life. And AP seems to have covered most of the bases here: a worm-hole leading National Park malefactors to Hell. Check. The bad dirt of a ranch owned (and owned is the word here) by a rugged, divorced, and taciturn rancher at a moment of bitter sweet victory. Check. A glimse of a loveless, sexless (with the marrieds) marriage. Check. Etc.
And lots of neat little lines:
Mitchell Fair and his wife, Eugenie, sped over the whiskey-colored plains in their aging Infiniti, "cutting prairie," said Mitchell under his breath, thinking it sounded western.Is one of the underplayed ones. And everyone has a great name. Plus, Brokeback Mountain was on the TV last night.
A Proulx seems to have broken this year's book-reading curse, with a bunch of stories that fizz like a lemon sorbet (not something you'd get in Wyoming, mind). Enough to make me ignore recent Carver-esque snaffus.
are there MLPs in Wyoming?
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