Annie Proulx

well, you don't have to i suppose...

I read 'Close Range'. It did nothing for me.

Read "Heart Songs" a long time ago, and as I remember, there are some several good stories on that one.

Really enjoyed "Close Range". Her writing takes a bit of getting used to -- it's quite sparse -- but she can really capture the sense of people and places, landscapes. She describes one character as making you smell the smoke from an unlit fire, and I think her writing does the same. Also, she's a pretty cool lady, didn't start writing till she was 58. Which gives you hope....

Annie Proulx=goth! In a good way though--the America/Canada she writes about is this monstrous bleak ENEMY that the characters either struggle against (to no avail) or learn to deal with (and are then corrupted by it). There's this underlying dread throughout The Shipping News that makes the cutesy-wutesy "oddball" characters tolerable, though I can't vouch for the movie 'cause I am avoiding 'cause KEVIN SPACEY IS THE DEVIL.* Close Range is the best example of this soul-crushing America and has the best stories.

* Julianne Moore is hot, though.