Review: Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

Title: Brokeback Mountain
Author: Annie Proulx
Genre: Literary
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2005
Pages: 64

Rating - 7 out of 10

I have wanted to see the movie fashioned after this book for awhile, but put it off until I read the book.
Now, years later, I came across this slim little volume while browsing the shelves of a used bookstore.
I read it in about half an hour, but was surprised that such a little amount of time had gone by.
At a mere 64 pages, "Brokeback Mountain," which is actually a short story, doesn't look like a laborious read. I began reading it flippantly, skeptical about the idea of an epic romance being contained in under 100 pages.
However, this book wasn't what I expected.
First of all, it wasn't an "epic romance." I had imagined it being much like a man version of "Titanic."
And secondly, I certainly didn't see Proulx's powerful writing coming.
In such a small amount of paper, the author covers 20 years, and pulls it off more than successfully. "Brokeback Mountain" may be a short story, but it impacts the reader like a full-fledged novel that you've been reading and loving for weeks.
Sure, Proulx could have written this tale as a detailed, long, volume. But her writing clearly points out for itself that she doesn't need to.
Her simplistic, to the point prose was a bit hard to get used to, but after a few pages, I was thanking her for it. She includes minor little "supporting" details without ever going into them, giving you a picture of a character in a sentence when other writers would take a chapter. Her writing is short and sweet - or, better put - short and bitter.
Because if there is a word that does not describe this book, it is sweet. Annie Proulx writes with unabashed, realistic, often dirty prose. Her tale is straight black coffee - cowboys didn't have fancy espresso machines, whipped cream, and sugary sprinkles, after all.
I was impressed at the way she handled the two main character's relationship. There was no "gazing into his beautiful brown eyes" business. There was no romanticizing it, no beautification. It was a solid, honest story about two men. Their relationship begins with unromantic, unfeeling sex, for example. Not passionate sex, or a sex scene that belongs in a Harlequin. Just sex. The feelings come later, but still without touching up, without airbrushing.
There was no epic here - it could very believably have been labeled a true story. And if it had been, it wouldn't have been the dramatic, popular story that the Titanic became. Because, fundamentally, this book is quite normal. Jack and Ennis are everyday men with ordinary, average lives. One would probably be inclined to say, in fact, that their lives were more than a bit mundane.
But underneath this violent, hardened world that the reader is drawn into, lies, somewhere, a love story.
It is not an obvious love story, or an amazing love story - it is simply a love story.
Does it need to be anything else?

Review: Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory

Title: Earthly Joys
Author: Philippa Gregory
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Touchstone
Published: 2005
Pages: 516

Rating: 7 out 10

Although I normally read books quite quickly, I stretched out my reading of this one over a few days. The vividly portrayed Renaissance England setting, the complex, familiar characters, and the interesting, steady flow of the plot line made me want to stay in this story longer than I usually do with others.

The main character is John Tradescant, a gardener in the time of King James I. While other men entwine themselves in politics and charge eagerly off to war, John is content to nurture seedlings, discover new plants, and watch his beloved trees grow along with his life. John ends up becoming the loyal personal servant of George Villiers, the young and handsome Duke of Buckingham, and the king's favorite. As the years slip by, John sacrifices his family and his life for his master, viewing him at different times as a son, a brother, a friend, and a lover.

I just loved this story! There was so much complexity, so many undercurrents, so many sub-plots. Though I have certainly heard more than a few complaints about the historical accuracy of Philippa Gregory's works, this one in particular, I found this to be a very well written book.

First of all, the way that Gregory writes is just lovely here. She captures everything so perfectly. Some authors write their books with a poetic beauty, some with a touch of appreciated humor, some with drama, some with characters you can't help loving, but Gregory seems to mix a bit of all these together into a writing style that just compels you to keep reading. I had to struggle to put the book down, or not read so quickly as I normally do, because despite wanting to savor this book, I also felt compelled to tear through it in one sitting.

I read a review on the back cover of another of her books that said no one has mastered Renaissance England like Philippa Gregory. I don't know if I would go that far, but she has definitely mastered this setting. I just absolutely love books that fully transport you to another time and place, and this book certainly succeeds with that.

The only parts that I felt a lack of a setting were when John travels the world – to India, Asia, Russia, and France. Surprisingly, there is a very large lack of placement here. After being so sharply introduced to the sights and smells of England, it was a bit startling to suddenly be whisked off to another country – even if a similar one, such as France – and have no descriptions of a setting at all.
In these scenes, the author focuses on John himself, his botany, and other things that are going on in the plot. But the scenery is left a mystery, something that I felt extremely odd, considering how good Gregory is at that.

All of the characters in Earthly Joys are wonderful. John is a simple man, and yet, we see into his thoughts and actions so deeply that he becomes a complex, and essentially a very realistically ordinary, yet interesting man. The relationship between him and his wife was an extremely well written one, and though there was no great love story, Gregory combined fondness, duty, love, resentment, and guilt into a very believable marriage. George Villiers was another of my favorite characters. Or at least, another of the most well written characters – I hated him! Excessively arrogant, reckless, selfish, and – the reader is led to believe – a traitor and a murder.

Something about this book that I was not expecting was how sexual it was. Gregory makes no attempt to hide all of the homosexual alliances, affairs, and romances going on at the time – in fact, she makes good use of them and even has John take a male lover as well.

All of the characters, settings, politics, and events in this book were very well written. Gregory may not be the deepest or most historically accurate writer, but she certainly is an engaging one.