.
.
It is common for a reader proceeding through an Annie Proulx novel or short story to find that it is growing on you page by page, layer by layer, as her sure carpentry builds a fine and strong effect. That was my experience while reading the non-fiction “Bird Cloud.” If in her best fiction Proulx carpenters untold stories into life, this new work finds Proulx retelling old stories, resurfacing tales of history, geology, geography, climate, biology. Her evident pleasure in doing so means that many readers will be pleased with the telling.
Take note of the book’s cover: a photograph, well-selected, mostly likely a Proulx choice. It is a harbinger of what the 234 pages inside are really about. It is not by mistake that you cannot see the author’s new home whose three-year construction (2004-2006) some publicity material and reviews mistakenly suggest is the main subject of the book. You are right to sense that the vast sky and rangeland extending to the horizon hold multitudes. “Bird Cloud” is not a Wyoming version of “House,” Tracy Kidder’s meticulous recounting of the planning, design and construction of a New England custom home. Proulx offers us no schematics, no blueprints, no floor plans, no budget details. While she does parcel out a handful of practical homebuilding “how-to’s” and a selection of anecdotes (dominated by snafus and disappointments), the house-related material in fact occupies less than half of the book’s content.
The building is not where Proulx fixes her emotional energy. Her heart lies elsewhere: in side-tales of her family’s genealogy; in stories of the “rapacity and venal grasping” of all too many of Wyoming’s founders; in the terrible legacy of insults to the land, its game animals, its Indian inhabitants; in a child-like delight she takes in the “archeological possibilities” of her 640 acres; and in her experience of the raw power of nature at 7000 feet above sea level, where hurricane-force winds and isolation-inducing snowdrifts are routine. The book’s emotional apogee is the final, and longest, chapter — a narrative that tracks through the 12 months of 2007 as Proulx watches the lives of the site’s abundant bird life unfold. In these pages Proulx, amateur as a birder but first-rate as a raconteur, unleashes a warm observational humor.
The book is vulnerable to two criticisms. One is that “Bird Cloud” lacks an overarching theme. It hosts lots of little stories but does not have a big story, and readers who demand an entirely consistent narrative experience may be disappointed. Another criticism is that the book’s subtitle — “a Memoir” — is misleading. This is not a memoir as that label is understood in our era of no-holds-barred confessional outpourings. Anyone expecting this author, now in her eighth decade, to lay bare the intimacies of her personal diary, to expose her emotional core, or to explain, for example, how her three divorces have shaped the woman she is today, will come away empty-handed. Proulx is one author unlikely to appear on Oprah’s couch.
If you see yourself as a potential reader of “Bird Cloud,” consider first reading a rare and revealing interview conducted at her Bird Cloud Ranch, published in the Spring 2009 issue of Paris Review. Another useful prelude to immersion in the book is the free audio excerpt of its second chapter. Entitled “A Yard of Cloth,” it is a stand-alone story of how an eerie intervention of fate saved Proulx and her sister from a fatal accident. The audio clip is available at the website of the publisher, Simon & Shuster. Finally, readers who complete the meandering but engrossing experience of this book and who may, at that point, wonder about the current status of the site, will find the answer in the new property listing, here. Yes, Proulx has placed Bird Cloud Ranch up for sale for $3.7 million.
– – – – –
Tags: Andrew Butterfield, Annie Proulx, Bird Cloud, Bird Cloud Ranch, Dwight Garner, Jennie Yabroff, Michael Upchurch, Paris Review, Wyoming
Hello America.
Well .. Here in the UK we’ve just been listening to excepts of her book on radio 4 and whilst I found it interesting I was amazed that she was such so naive about the whole process of house building and location.
She seems to have been blinkered on the whole process?
We didn’t hear the bit about the floor being buckled, but did have the section were she threw everyone out of her house one night and ‘put their noses out of joint!’
I found the [abridged] audio book enthralling to such and extent that I wanted to see the floor plan, but alas, it’s not available anywhere? Even on your link … So sad! … But anyhow.
The tin roof in particular fascinated me, and I can just about see it from the pictures on the web sites that carry the story of her house being ‘for sale’ … It actually exists! … And it’s a red corrugated tin roof! … Is that what most houses out there are roofed with? Utterly brilliant story, but an utterly self deprecating series of events!
The world it seems, revolves around the author alone, but that said! This book is worth a read and does encroach of the inner workings of a human being. If that’s your bag! … Then it’s worth a read, as I suppose her other books are.
Rgds Jessy UK.
I totally agree with Jessy’s comments,however you have to admire the womans,get up an’ go at 75,,Sadly this enterprising spirit is sorely lackiing in our society today [British],,,,,,,,,,
Hello,
See a lot of this in our area. Wealthy people thinking it wold be fun to live in the country and totally unprepared for the reality. requires continual bought labor from locals who can barely afford their very old wood homes. interesting tensions between these groups. Can’t find her place for sale on any site. Where is it now?