Recommendations from our site
“Proulx’s story builds on the Western books about gender and violence that I mentioned previously by indicating how certain forms of masculinity have become absolutely brutal. In this case, it’s in the form of homophobic fathers and employers. Her Western takes place in the early 1960s. The main characters, Jack and Ennis, are sheepherders instead of cowboys. The two men fall in love while working in Wyoming. They end up in unhappy and tortured marriages but manage to meet up and reunite for the next several years. Their relationship ends when Jack is brutally killed. Brokeback Mountain had a tremendous impact, and no doubt opened up new possibilities for storytelling in the genre.” Read more...
Susan Kollin, Literary Scholar
“It’s a beautiful, beautiful book, and it was also turned into an Oscar-winning film. Brokeback Mountain is important to me because it’s the first time I’ve heard ordinary people in the street comment on a story focused on homosexual love—without distinguishing between it and heterosexual love. The film helped bring gay sex into the mainstream. The way the sex is described is not feminine sex. Annie Proulx is excellent at not saying: ‘Well, it’s gay sex, but it’s acceptable because it’s gentle and sensitive and soft focus and pink.’ No. In the book there is blood. They hit each other. There is loving force and strong passion. She’s saying that passion can be aggressive and it can be very masculine.” Read more...
Susan Quilliam, Psychologist
