17. Annie Proulx, Bad Dirt

Taking some advice from SuperLibryGyrl, I'm warming up for some writing with, appropriately enough, some short stories.

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.

Bekind Rewind

Or, even more kindly, don't bother. Hmph.

Book: Playground of the Gods

Perhaps a candidate for the worst title of the year so far, this is possibly the book on Polish history.  I've even celebrated the fact by pouring red wine on it.  

Why's it good?  Well, like the best history books it brings the air of authority and also self-reflexivity, that sense you can trust the author.  Which is not what historians are supposed to say, but there you go. And there's not much else written in English on the subject (although the Cambridge Concise History is brilliant in its own way).

Structurally, it works very well, with the narrative placed deftly after the bulk of the analysis.  If there is a fault, however, it lies with the revisionism inherent in such a task. Constantly, we are told, things weren't as bad as all that, looking on the other side, we can see a durability of tradition, or a flexibility of the szlachta, etc. Fine, but becomes something of a rhetorical tick

Meanwhile: two TV shows - Mistresses, which is trying a bit too hard, and seems convinced that people are both very nice and devious at heart (which may be true), and Mad Men, which is making me want to get a sharp suit and tie.  And possibly fix a strong drink.

Next up: Bolano, 2666.  Although given its length, this may be some time.

promise

I will post this evening, I will.