The stories from "Brokeback Mountain" take place in the wilderness of Wyoming. An embittered old man on a journey in search of his stubbornly forgotten youth. A young man who sees the world around him crumbling, along with his dreams. Old legends, family secrets. Loves that do not fit within the confines of society. Figures that are sometimes cheerful and sometimes tragic, figures unbearably alone, facing the wildness of the soul and of nature. With the materials of internal and external solitude, Annie Proulx paints a stunning portrait of people who, broken by life, persist in hoping. People who contain us and are contained by us.
The story of the same title that was adapted for the big screen is, according to the British newspaper The Guardian, "the most important American film in years." Director Ang Lee states that "to make a great love story, there must be a great obstacle." And for the central heroes, the cowboys Jack and Ennis, there is no greater obstacle than conventionality, tradition, the search for identity, and the conflicting boundaries of conservatism and deeper desires.
The book was embraced by critics with enthusiastic comments. The Boston Herald wrote: "Savage realism, macabre humor, and a touch of the supernatural. Proulx is a modern Sherazade, enchanted by the beauty of nature." And Elle magazine states: "Proulx writes with precision about her lost, corrupted, often violent characters, whose psychic bond with the land is the core of these breathtaking stories."