Helpful Score: 2
I really enjoyed the homespun way this story unfolded - and the narration was spot on, bringing you into the panhandle hog ranch drama. Prior to starting this book, I knew nothing of this kind of prairie angst - but I'm ever so much smarter now, and I surely did enjoy my time with Bob Dollar and the folks of Woolybucket.
Helpful Score: 2
Annie Proulx uses the bland and blank canvas of Bob Dollar's character to help the citizens of Woolybucket in the Texas panhandle come to life. Hard reading at first, the book gets more interesting as the reader gets to know the people of the town and their history. Crazy names and quirks make the characters lively and lovable. Proulx even makes an environmental statement before the book is over.
Helpful Score: 1
Hilarious and poignant both, this is one of Annie's masterpiece novels. I can sure this one being made into a movie already. I have read SHIPPING NEWS, CLOSE RANGE, HEART SONGS and BAD DIRT, and I think this one is my favorite by far.
Helpful Score: 1
Disappointing. Her prose is still beautiful, but in this one she has no story to tell. It's just a recitation of endless yarns, that become boring.
Helpful Score: 1
I expected to like this book more than I did - on my aunt Jeanne's recommendation, and considering how much I loved The Shipping News. But I found it hard to get into this story about hapless Bob Dollar, raised by his junkstore running uncle after his parents ran away to obscurity in Alaska. Owing to his abandonment, Bob strives to not grow up to be as irresponsible as his mom and dad, and sets out for professional success in a rather dubious undercover position as Site Scout for a global hog farming corporation. Poor Bob seems set up for failure from the outset.
I just didn't fall in love with Bob Dollar or any of these characters, although Proulx's writing is striking. I enjoyed hearing the stories Bob Dollar's landlady spewed throughout the book, but I echoed Bob's disappointment in how she would interrupt herself at crucial points in many of the stories, and was particularly annoyed with her repeated tempting to tell him a story about scars on her grandfather's back (which btw is actually how the book freaking ENDED!)
I just didn't fall in love with Bob Dollar or any of these characters, although Proulx's writing is striking. I enjoyed hearing the stories Bob Dollar's landlady spewed throughout the book, but I echoed Bob's disappointment in how she would interrupt herself at crucial points in many of the stories, and was particularly annoyed with her repeated tempting to tell him a story about scars on her grandfather's back (which btw is actually how the book freaking ENDED!)
