Bird Cloud

The author of THE SHIPPING NEWS and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN has written a meditation on place--a bend in the North Platte River in Wyoming--and a process--the careful planning and construction of her house. Proulx, a National Book Award winner, also shares a brief history of her early life--and in her own voice, too. Though Joan Allen is billed as the narrator of this production, Proulx reads the first chapter, which recounts some of her history, debunks a cherished family myth, and acknowledges a debt to a garrulous shopkeeper. When the delivery shifts to Allen with the second chapter, one can't help feeling a sense of loss as the rough edges of the author's voice give way to the flawless consistency of the professional. The listener must wait until Proulx's dream house has been constructed before the audiobook finds its footing again when the author herself revels in the beauty and history of her particular corner of the sky. E.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 15, 2011

In her first work of nonfiction in over 20 years, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Proulx shares her experiences designing and building a house in rural Wyoming. Tony Award-winning actress Joan Allen's exemplary narration conveys not only Proulx's occasional frustration and aggravation at the endeavor but also her quiet wonder at the surrounding natural world and its calming effects on her. The production is professionally produced, with consistent volume and no background noise, and disc-change announcements occur at natural breaks, making thought repetition unnecessary. This charming memoir, with its vignettes of home-building and ownership woes, is a most appealing nonfiction listen, especially for Proulx fans and anyone interested in natural history. [See Major Audio Releases, LJ 12/10; the Scribner hc was recommended "for all builders of the Western dream," LJ 11/15/10.--Ed.]--Laurie Selwyn, formerly with Grayson Cty. Law Lib., Sherman, TX

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 27, 2010
The Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Brokeback Mountain portrays her flawed paradise in the majestic, hardscrabble West in this vibrant memoir. Proulx bought a 640-acre nature preserve by the North Platte River in Wyoming and started building her dream house, a project that took years and went hundreds of thousands of dollars over budget. In her bustling account, Proulx salivates over the prospect of a Japanese soak tub, polished concrete floor, solar panels, and luxe furnishings that often turn into pricey engineering fiascoes. The meticulous master builders she dubs the James Gang are the book's heroes. Though the house never quite lives up to its promise, it does inspire the author's engrossing natural history of the locale. Proulx drives cattle off of the overgrazed terrain; finds stone arrowheads; recounts the lore of the Indians, ranchers, and foppish big-game hunters who contested the land; and documents the antics of the eagles, magpies, mountain lions, and other critters who tolerate her presence. Like her fiction, Proulx's memoir flows from a memorable landscape where "the sagebrush seems nearly black and beaten low by the ceaseless wind"; the result is a fine evocation of place that becomes a meditation on the importance of a home, however harsh and evanescent.