Heart Songs and Other Stories

Nothing will ever top Annie Proulx's THE SHIPPING NEWS, but everything this talented woman writes is a jewel. Her short story collections are just riveting. The stories stay with me long after I've read them. Her characters are rich and real. Many people have said they reread her sentences because they are so dazzling and breathtaking. It's true. I look forward to anything she she writes, as her fiction is the best.

Along with the use of active voice, something else jumped out at me the moment I had read a few pages of Proulx. She's loaded with images. Her images come mostly from apt and surprising similes. (That's not email "smilies.") As we learned in school, a simile is a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds--usually formed with 'like' or 'as.' Her similes bring to life her descriptions of people and enhance the concrete "feel" of things and places in her stories. The first sentence of the book has two of them, maybe not the best she has to offer, but two that immediately create images that pile up as she goes along: "Hawkheel's face was as finely wrinkled as grass-dried linen, his thin back bent like a branch weighted with snow." Another reviewer (Library Journal) has pointed out how she refers to a character as "thin as a folded dollar bill, her hand as narrow and cold as a trout." Maybe these images account for some of the appeal her style has for many readers. I for one find them satisfying and stimulating, here in the short stories even more than in Shipping News.

Excellent collection of short stories by one of the very best short story writers, set in a rural community where poor country folk struggle to eke out a living. Tough, gritty stories with a deep-rooted connection to the land that give full play to the author's gift for capturing rugged, rural landscape in all its moods. Hunting and fishing provides an unusual backdrop for some of the human dramas played out: revenge, ill-will, greed, infidelity, passion and jealously, violence and death are all strong presences in these stringent stories so don't be misled by the tame hunting and fishing reference. Annie Proulx creates a cast of vivid characters - eccentric, downtrodden, down and out, malicious and conniving - bringing them alive in the space of a striking image or phrase. A strong theme threading through several stories is the clash of values of two very different worlds: the world of wealthy outsiders from the city who come with their soft hands and soft bellies sporting their flash hunting gear and brand new boots -their rifles new and shiny, just like their cars - bringlng unwelcome improvements impinging on the land, customs and traditions of the poor rural community. My personal favourite of the collection is Stone City: a hunter stumbles on a remote, derelict farm high up on the snow-covered wooded hillsides but senses an atmosphere of evil pervading the abandoned ruin, Stone City, once owned by the Stone family, old man Stone and his brood of wild, unruly offspring. Gradually, more shocking revelations about the Stones and the grim past of Stone City come to light. Try also Annie Proulx's other superb short story collection of Wyoming stories, Close Range. Both books highly recommended!

Excellent collection of short stories by one of the very best short story writers, set in a rural community where poor country folk struggle to eke out a living. Tough, gritty stories with a deep-rooted connection to the land that give full play to the author's gift for capturing rugged, rural landscape in all its moods. Hunting and fishing provides an unusual backdrop for some of the human dramas played out: revenge, ill-will, greed, infidelity, passion and jealously, violence and death are all strong presences in these stringent stories so don't be misled by the tame hunting and fishing reference. Annie Proulx creates a cast of vivid characters - eccentric, downtrodden, down and out, malicious and conniving - bringing them alive in the space of a striking image or phrase. A strong theme threading through several stories is the clash of values of two very different worlds: the world of wealthy outsiders from the city with their flash guns, flash hunting gear, flash cars, flash houses and unwelcome improvements impinging on the land, customs and traditions of the poor rural community, the actions of the outsiders often appearing naive, clumsy, even foolish. My personal favourite is Stone City: a hunter stumbles on a remote, derelict farm high up on the snow-covered wooded hillsides but senses an atmosphere of evil pervading the abandoned ruin, Stone City, once owned by the Stone family, old man Stone and his brood of wild, unruly offspring. Gradually, more shocking revelations about the Stones and the grim past of Stone City come to light. Try also Annie Proulx's other superb short story collection of Wyoming stories, Close Range. Both books highly recommended!

To those, who were already enchanted by E.Annie Proulx's masterpieces ('Postcards' or 'The Shipping News'): do not eschew this collection of early short stories. They are not unskillful sketches of incipient, promising author but dazzlingly and glamorously brilliant splashes of her extraordinary talent (paradoxically both tragical and comical), unforgettable portraits of sundry people, to whom from the first pages you will feel admiration or aversion but never indifference or lack of interest, people in search of lost happiness... such as all of us are...