A review by girlpdf
Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx

3.75

you know her, you love her… brokeback freaking mountain guys…. truly a cymbal crash at the end of a symphony, no matter what else makes an impression, it all vanishes in the wake of that huge silver explosion……. so i will not talk about brokeback mountain. what i WILL say is that there is a lot to love in this collection. what proulx really puts to work most effectively in is brevity, stories which are economical without leaning too heavily into sparse territory. some truly arresting visions leap at you — skinned cattle, cherry-red skies, sentient machinery, the clutch of labour evident in the twisted, broken bodies of the men — and make every lapse in momentum (there are a few) worth it. the longer stories — governors of wyoming, pair a spurs — felt heavy and pushed me out of the book a little. 

oh and a mention for the awesome names. love her names.

my fav stories were the half-skinned steer, the mud below, the bunchgrass edge of the world, and of course, brokeback mountain.