Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2

Description

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx follows the success of Close Range with another remarkable collection of short stories set in Wyoming. Bad Dirt is filled with the vivid and wilful characters for which Proulx has become so well known. Each occupies a community or landscape described in rich and robust language, with an eye for detail unparalleled in American fiction. In 'The Contest', the men of Elk Tooth, Wyoming, vow to put aside their razors for two seasons and wait to see who has the longest beard come the 4th of July. Deb Sipple, the moving protagonist of 'That Trickle Down Effect', finds that his opportunism -- and his smoking habit -- lead to massive destruction. And 'What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?' is the story of Gilbert Wolfscale, whose rabid devotion to his ranch drives away his wife and sons. Proulx displays her wit in every story of this stunning collection, as well as her knowledge of the West, of history, of ranching and farming. Her profound sympathy for characters who must use sheer will and courage to make it in tough territory makes this collection extraordinarily compelling.

E. Annie Proulx is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Shipping News" and the acclaimed 'Accordion Crimes'. She was born in 1935 in Connecticut USA, where her family have lived since 1635, but has spent most of her life in Vermont. She has been a newspaper editor, medical writer, historian and author. Her first book was a collection of short stories, 'Heart Songs and Other Stories'. Her first novel, 'Postcards', was published when she was in her 50s.

Praise for Bad Dirt: 'Proulx writes in wonderful stews, everything thrown in together...the stories demand a second reading.' Daily Telegraph 'Her keen eye for idiosyncrasy ensures her continuing reputation as one of the shrewdest chroniclers of contemporary America.' David Robson, Sunday Telegraph 'Vivid and evocative... as [the stories] gather force, you find yourself being drawn in to their momentum.' Financial Times 'Proulx['s]...stories, whose sour sometimes brutal folksiness gains a singular resonance from the fine, sinewy prose in which they are rendered.' The Times 'Packed with grittily persuasive detail, they feel both modern and as timeless as the Wyoming plains.' Marie Claire 'Book of the Month' 'Performs inspired imaginative feats' Alex Clark, Sunday Times Praise for Close Range: 'A stunning collection of eleven tales about the hard lives of the ranchers, cowpokes and country wives who struggle to survive in an unforgiving environment. Written in a wonderfully flexible style that can be both spare and extravagant, her book has been hailed by American critics as a masterpiece.' Daily Telegraph 'Like a mystic seeing the transfigured universe, she recreates the beauty of ordinary things.' Independent on Sunday 'The detail is meticulous, the prose poetic and Proulx's fiction teems with life. Above all, her stories engage the heart. Magical.' Tatler 'Proulx's style, compressed, elastic, hard-hitting, is inimitable: close to poetry but never self-indulgent. This is writing to be savoured.' Sunday Telegraph 'These are tales we can almost feel in our bones.' Sunday Times 'As lean, confident and exact as a stylist, and as good a storyteller, as you could hope for. Buy this book.' Observer 'Individually, these 11 tales have a tautness and an urgency that are never less than exhilarating. Collectively, they encapsulate an entire, unremittingly bleak world. To find the pulse of humanity in such desperate lives betokens a writer of genius.' Saturday Telegraph