REVIEW SHORT STORY: "Brokeback Mountain"

#1
"Brokeback Mountain" from Close Range – Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx
Rating - B
Date Began/Finished – January 1, 2006
Genre/Date Published/# Pages: Fiction – 1999 – 30 pages
Main Characters – Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist
Setting/Time Period: Wyoming 1963 to 1983
Where Book Came From: My own TBR pile
Reason for Reading: Movie Buzz – the movie is coming to our town this
coming weekend
Brief Blurb without Spoilers: Two Wyoming sheepherders meet one summer
and begin a sexual relationship that spans 20 years, denying their
sexuality, marrying and having children, in a time where to admit to
being gay might mean suffering a gruesome death.

I hadn't planned on choosing this for my first read of the year, and
usually wouldn't think a short story would qualify for a "book" but
since this is now being sold in the stores as a stand-alone book due
movie tie-in, I guess it does meet the criteria. I figure I will make
up for it later when I read a 900-page book and that only counts as
one book.

This was a very different story and I couldn't help but be reminded of
the Matthew Shepherd case – in fact, I would wager a bet that Proulx
had Shepherd in mind when she wrote this story. How could she not?
The book was published in 1999 (the incident where Matthew Shepherd
died was in 1998) and the incident and the setting of the story are
both in Wyoming. And is it a mere coincidence that Ennis and Jack are
sheepherders?

At any rate, while I saw this as a love story, the length of the story
didn't allow for the characterization necessary to really get to know
Ennis or Jack. And what I did know of them I have to admit not liking
all too well particularly in their relationship with their children.
I am looking forward to seeing the movie though and saw that Ebert
and Roeper both put it on their Top Ten List for 2005.

I think that despite the two's sexual orientation and their own
ambiguity surrounding it -- that they certainly could have been more
sensitive to their wives and children. Although it may be difficult
to do much characterization in a 30--page short story, I found that
while I felt sorry for the characters and their plight that I really
didn't like them all that much. They were pretty darned selfish when
you got right down to it. To openly embrace in such a way right on his
own front porch was pretty inconsiderate of Ennis -- and here his wife
saw the whole thing. And then there was one passage after Ennis has
dinner with his now-ex wife, their daughters and her new husband --
and sees that she is now pregnant again, and she mentions that she has
known that their fishing expeditions weren't really fishing
expeditions for a long time -- where Ennis then figures he'll lie low
and just wait for his daughters to come to see him when they get
older. I'll see the movie -- partly because I am hoping for some
beautiful Wyoming scenery but also because I am seeing if the
movie allows for more characterization than the book or if they are
still just selfish, scared cowboys who don't know what to do with what
they have found out about themselves -- particularly in light of
retribution they know is likely if others find out about them. Sad
today (think Matthew Shepherd in the same area only a few years ago)
but really sad in the time period this is set when there were little
options. A love story -- in a way (although Jack didn't have any
problem finding someone else when Ennis wasn't able to get away to see
him) - so that was the book anyway. I am glad it was just a short
story and not 300 pages!