Annie Proulx

What comes to mind when you think of rural? A harsh, jagged coastline? A barren desert? A secluded farm in the mountains? You could be forgiven for believing that the world's most rural settings would make poor backdrops for novels featuring rich descriptions, beautiful characterisation, and life-affirming change. But very few can bring a moment to life like Annie Proulx (1935-Present), who uses every literary device in the book to bring bleak environments to life. She's no stranger to important topics, either. From the path of destruction left by deforestation to the disastrous effects of industrialisation on local businesses – Proulx has covered it all. Let's learn more about her before diving into some of her work!

Annie Proulx: biography

Born in 1935 in Connecticut, USA, Edna Ann Proulx shares both French-Canadian and English ancestry. After graduating with honours at the University of Vermont, she attended Concordia University to complete a MA and pursue her doctorate. In the process, she began authoring stories, eventually abandoning her doctorate in favour of her writing.

Although Proulx initially focused on instructional, non-fiction writing as she edited for her local newspaper, she returned to fiction with a collection of short stories, Heart Songs and Other Stories (1988). In 1992 Proulx followed this with her debut novel, Postcards, which received the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction.

Proulx went from strength to strength when her follow-up novel, The Shipping News (1997), received The National Book award and The Pulitzer Prize, among other awards! She also authored the short story collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999) and two later follow-up collections that depict rural Wyoming. One standalone short story addressing this theme, 'Brokeback Mountain' (1997), was widely acclaimed, and earned Proulx two O. Henry Awards and a National Magazine Award.

Annie Proulx: writing style

Proulx is famed for writing about the rural side of America. Whether it be the jagged coast of Newfoundland, the Texas Panhandle, or the deserts of Wyoming, Proulx always depicts settings that are far removed from industrial city life. In doing so, she can accurately depict the practical, simple local lifestyles most affected by societal change. The Newfoundland fishermen see their businesses destroyed by large-scale fishing operations in The Shipping News. In Postcards, Loyal Blood's family, who have spent their lives cultivating their farm, are met by disaster as a new era of technology and industrialisation approaches.

In contrast to the harsh, barren landscapes depicted in Proulx's narratives, her prose is poetic and filled with metaphor and simile. By writing so vividly and focusing on complex, beautiful characterisation, Proulx brings dull locations to life, adding colour to a bleak setting. Her novels often focus on the necessity of human spirit and resistance when dealing with change, and the importance of relationships when overcoming personal hardships.

Annie Proulx: novels

Let's look at some of the most significant novels by Annie Proulx

Postcards (1992)

Proulx's debut novel follows the story of Loyal Blood, who moves away from his family farm in Vermont after accidentally killing his girlfriend while making love, leaving him so traumatised that he is permanently incapable of touching women. The novel examines the link between Blood, who spends 40 years living as everything from miner to farmer to trapper, and his family, through postcards he sends. While Loyal sends occasional postcards about his new life, he never receives any in return as he doesn't provide a return address.

The Shipping News (1993)

Proulx's second novel is about change, how quickly an individual's life can be altered, and the adaptations characters must make to deal with hardships. The Shipping News follows the story of Quoyle, a man who packs up his life and moves to Newfoundland – the home of his ancestors – with his two daughters after several traumas leave him at his lowest point. In doing so, he tackles personal struggles and the dark history that defines his family's past, working towards becoming more self-assured while breaking the chain of abuse in his ancestry and building a better life for his daughters.

Fig. 1 - Newfoundland Coast.

The Shipping News is primarily set in Newfoundland, a rugged Canadian province known for its fishing history. Proulx builds on the theme of technological and economic change depicted in Postcards by mirroring the personal changes in Quoyle's life with the broader changes occurring in Newfoundland. Large fishing industries are replacing the smaller local businesses many fishermen once based their lives around.

Proulx shows herself capable of complex characterisation and representing the intricate technological and social change occurring in North America during the late 20^th Century. The Shipping News was widely acclaimed, received multiple awards, and was adapted into a feature film in 2001.

Other novels by Annie Proulx

Other novels by Annie Proulx include:

Accordion Crimes (1996)

An accordion maker from Sicily hopes for more opportunity when he moves to the United States, but is killed by a lynch mob. The accordion traverses America between owners, each with a unique story.

That Old Ace in the Hole (2002)

Bob Dollar, a fundamentally good person, is told by his employer to coerce farmers into selling their properties so that their land can be replaced with large-scale hog farming operations. When he reaches a local town to convince them to sell, the uniqueness of its inhabitants eventually wins him over, helping him to redeem himself for his past mistakes.

Barkskins (2016)

Spanning over 300 years from the arrival of Europeans to the modern day, Barkskins follows the path of destruction and deforestation left by humans. It depicts the effects of climate change on Earth over time through the narrative of two immigrants moving to New France.

Annie Proulx: short stories

Let's look at Annie Proulx's most important short stories.

The Wyoming Trilogy

After moving to Wyoming in 1993, Proulx became deeply rooted in the area, eventually creating her first collection of stories, Close Range: Wyoming Stories, in 1999. This collection of 11 short stories often depicts bleak settings and difficult lives, contrasting with the vivid, beautiful descriptions Proulx provides of majestic landscapes and beautiful human nature. Proulx followed with two more collections, Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 (2004) and Fine Just the Way it is (2008). Both collections are also set in Wyoming and share similar themes with Proulx's earlier work.

Some of the more prevalent themes in the collections are; intense attention to detail, complex characterisation, and vivid imagery. Proulx's stories also typically confront difficult problems like prejudice and the human spirit in the face of adversity – often using the narrative to undermine Wyoming's traditional attitudes to race, masculinity, and sexuality.

One of the more apparent themes in the short stories, and in all of Proulx's work, is the startling effects that industrialisation and technological advancement can have on individuals, especially those who live their lives in small, rural areas and work small-scale, local jobs. Men and women are often left behind as mass production becomes the norm; there is simply no way for them to keep up with large-scale operations.

Let's look in more detail at some examples of Proulx's short stories.

'Brokeback Mountain' from Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999)

Proulx's most recognisable work, 'Brokeback Mountain', tackles challenging themes like masculinity, sexuality, and prejudice. It follows the story of two cowboys, Ennis and Jack, who meet when they both find work as ranch hands at Brokeback Mountain. The pair form an intense emotional and sexual intimacy, but they are forced to leave when the summer ends, eventually marrying wives and starting their own families. They continue to find time to meet over the years, but as more people become aware of their love, they become increasingly subject to adversity. Jack is estranged from his family and one day gets a call to say that Ennis has died from a tire explosion, although Jack believes he may have been killed for being homosexual.

'The Half-Skinned Steer' from Close Range: Wyoming Stories (1999)

The Half-Skinned Steer explores Mero Corn, an 83-year-old man who is forced to return home after 60 years away when he hears that his brother Rollo has died. On the way, he begins to reminisce over his childhood, and remembers the events that led to him leaving home. Despite distancing himself from the family home, the memories of it are ingrained in his mind and have kept him chained to the past.

Mero becomes so fixated on memories that he gets into a crash and is forced to take another car. He absent-mindedly misses his turn-off, getting stuck in a snowstorm, in which he is presumed to die. The story proposes that living in the past is dangerous as it removes you from the present, disengaging you from what matters most.

Annie Proulx: quotes

This quote reflects Proulx's style of writing, which has often been described as 'poetic'. Proulx focuses on 'shape', likening writing to an art form like painting or drawing, offering insight into how she creates such vivid imagery within her narratives.

This shows us more about Proulx's approach to writing. It offers a hint as to why she has set her narratives in landscapes stretching as far as Newfoundland and Texas, and covered topics as broad as sexuality, homophobia, industrialisation and deforestation. She always pushes herself to explore different areas and complex issues.

This quote from The Shipping News captures Proulx's concern with portraying the human spirit, endurance, and how people deal with change. Quoyle experiences unfathomable tragedy, faces it head-on, and moves on with his life. Proulx's narratives are often filled with hope, as she shows the possibility of rising above adversity.