Author: Annie Proulx

Reader: Paul Hecht

Short Review: Proulx’s amazing, National Book Award- and Pulitzer-winning novel about loss, reclamation, love, and Newfoundland read well but slightly too stiffly by Paul Hecht.

Long Review: I love this novel, well and truly. It’s one of the finest books I’ve read on paper in years, and I know I will read it on paper again and again. Proulx wove so many beautiful and poignant things into its cloth: knitting, Newfoundland, fishing, storms, love, loss, community, abuse, work, family, writing, learning, risk, friendship, knots, failure, superstition . . . It is many things, but at its heart it is the story of a broken man who fails again and again, yet finally manages to redeem his own life and his children’s lives by going to his ancestral home and starting over. Proulx’s language is precise, and simple, and right over and over again. I think she has proven to be one of the best writers in the English language of our age, and I feel very lucky to have access to her work.

This is when I should probably admit that I have a serious crush on Newfoundland, and Proulx’s combination of the setting and repeated references to hand-knits would have kept me engaged in this book even if it had been pap. Thankfully, it’s brilliant, and it has enough in it other than knitting and Newfoundland that I can talk to normal, healthy people about it without making them twitch and attempt to force-feed me sedatives so I’ll stop talking about moving to Newfoundland and how vital knitting is in the novel.

Hecht is a good reader, but not an ideal one. I liked the audiobook, but I didn’t love it as much as I loved the paper book. His speech is a bit too formal, and a bit too stiff. It isn’t bad–it just doesn’t match what my mind needed. That said, I still loved listening to the audiobook because I love the characters and the story so dearly. I think my reaction to the audiobook is similar to the way I react to just about any movie based on a book I love. I may just love this book too much to be entirely happy with anyone who reads it aloud.

I’ve read some amateur reviews that complained about the spareness of Proulx’s language, the length of the book, and the supposed lack of action in it. All three complaints baffle me. I know there is an abridged version of the audiobook available, and that too makes scratch my head. I can’t puzzle out why anyone would want this story to be any shorter, whether on paper or on CD. With both the paper and audiobook versions, I was sad to finish the story, and I’ll miss Quoyle and Agnes and Wavey.

Brokeback Mountain

Author: Annie Proulx

Reader: Campbell Scott

Short Review: A ground-breaking story about the nature of love and sexuality, beautifully-read by one of my favorite audio book narrators.

Long Review: I’m guessing the plot of this story is no surprise to most. The film was a major success, of course, and the center of a great deal of controversy. But I hate that the jokes and the brouhaha tends to over-shadow the story itself.

Because the story is beautiful, and heartbreaking, and feels so very true. Annie Proulx describes landscapes and the particular culture of a time and a place like no one else. She also captures the emotions of reticent characters well, which is particularly important for these men in this period and place.

Annie Proulx’s short story garnered an O. Henry Award, helped Proulx make the Pulitzer short-list, and helped The New Yorker win the National Magazine Award for Fiction. Recording it as an audio book must have been an intimidating task. Thankfully, Campbell Scott was brought on board. The narrator of this audio book needs to be able to voice two conflicted, macho guys trying to fight stereotypes and realities of homosexuality in a sere landscape. Scott’s baritone is just right for the job, particularly when matched with his restraint, and his tendency to flatten his voice in moments of tension. His is the voice I will hear whenever I reread the story on paper.

This is one of the best audio books I’ve listened to, and I know I’ll listen to it again.

Brokeback Mountain is also available through both the Simply Audiobooks Rental Program and the Simply Audiobooks Dowload Club.