That Old Ace in the Hole

Just finished Annie Proulx’s latest novel, set in the Texas Panhandle. As always, she does an incredible job of painting characters. Her sense of the grotesque rivals Flannery O’Connor, and her ability to weave words into living people never fails to amaze me. “He had a sharp Aztec nose, fluffy black hair and black eyes like those in a taxidermist’s drawer.” Love that image. She seldom reverts to cliche in her similies and metaphors. She also does a great job of portraying Panhandle Texans, warts and all, without turning them into caricatures. My one disappointment was the end of “That Old Ace in the Hole.” It felt sort of anticlimactic, perhaps too “tidy.” I actually dreamed a different ending last night. Then, in a dream within a dream, I awoke and realized the “new” novel ending I’d just dreamed was the real finish, and that the disappointing ending was the “Hollywood” ending used for the movie version. Guess I’ve been watching too many bleak anti-Hollywood films on IFC and Sundance.

Regardless, I highly recommend the book, and all of her works. Great stuff. She’s definitely my favorite contemporary writer.