What do You think about Heart Songs And Other Stories (1995)?
2008 bookcrossing journal: This is a collection of short stories from the fantastic writer Annie Proulx. I had actually read the first story in here before, in a different book of short stories. I think it was a collection by different female writers.ANYWAY. These are set in the American countryside and depict the rough tough life of self-sufficient men (and a few women), and rural poverty - something that happens over here in the UK as well, although people who don´t live in the countryside think it never happens. There are also a number of characters who have come from the cushioned modern life of luxary of the city to live in the country, full of ideals about rustic life, finding themselves and getting back to "reality". And what they manage to do is patronise the local population instead.There was one story that even had the elements of a ghost story - these two guys off on a fishing trip in the wilderness and the mist came down... I really liked the story about the guy trying to "get real" who joins this little family of musicians for weekday evening folk sessions: the fiddle player and the large lady who sang were interesting characters.There is a lot of hunting tales and the great outdoors in here, as well as rural poverty and tough lives. And whilst the writing is great, I don´t know whether this would be a book for everyone.
—Ape
I have been reading Annie Proulx's work for quite a while in The New Yorker. She has been a rare bright spot in my reading of stories in that publication because she offers a rest from the New Yorker formula of dry, depressing stories about wealthy overeducated neurotics. Proulx writes stories about simple people in rural New England and that is so rare these days that she would be worth reading for that alone. Unfortunately, I found this collection to be very uneven. There is one story in this collection that I will call a masterpiece. That story is Stone City and it is both the longest and oldest in this collection. As a collection I think this suffers from the usual complaint I have about short story collections, that feeling of sameness you get after a while as if you are reading the same story over and over again. Proulx at least changes things up stylistically but two stories in this collection have almost identical plots while being written in totally different ways.
—Christopher Roberts
Proulx writes wonderful prose - simple in structure and very descriptive. She paces the stories wonderfully, fleshing out some details and leaving others to be filled in by the reader. There is a slight tendency to sentimentality and predictability in the plots, but then short stories always tend to the formulaic because of the danger of wasting precious words on exposition.The subject matter is all very familiar to readers of Proulx - rural America (particularly New England in this collection), family, pick-up trucks, the outdoors, seasons. I'd recommend this book for its simple, engaging stories and brooding, slightly ominous mood.
—Rob Walter
