Annie Proulx is the author of eight books, including the novel
The Shipping News and the story collection
Close Range. Her many honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and a PEN/Faulkner award. Her story “Brokeback Mountain,” which originally appeared in
The New Yorker, was made into an Academy Award-winning film. Her most recent book is
Fine Just the Way It Is. She lives in Wyoming.
Campbell Scott directed the film
Off The Map, and received the best actor award from the National Board of Review for his performance in
Roger Dodger. His other films include
The Secret Lives of Dentists, The Dying Gaul, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle and
Big Night, which he also co-directed.
Originally published in THE NEW YORKER and then as part of the collection CLOSE RANGE, Annie Proulx's short story packs a punch. Cowboys Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar find love or something like it watching over a herd of sheep one summer on Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain. Their lives diverge and intersect again and again as they simultaneously resist and are drawn into a doomed, impossible romance. Campbell Scott's clear reading puts Proulx's beautiful and harsh language front and center. The story is mostly straight narration, but there are a few chances for dialogue, and Scott gives the various characters subtle Western shading, with a gentle drawl for Jack and a gravelly growl for Ennis. It's a timeless story that stands up to repeated listening and will stay with listeners long after they've finished the hour-long CD. J.M.D. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine