photo credit: njteton

My original inspiration for this series, Melanie Jones, has tackled another state — conveniently one I have yet to cover…  Wyoming!

photo credit: Emjay -> MJ

Her pick is Annie Proulx’s latest, Close Range.  Proulx is known for her Pulitzer winner, The Shipping News, as well as her short story, Brokeback Mountain — both of which were turned into movies.  Here are Jones’s thoughts…

Annie Proulx opens her collection of Wyoming short stories, Close Range, with a quote from a retired rancher: “Reality’s never been of much use out here”. Proulx’s landscape lends itself to this otherness, set in a land where “only earth and sky matter”- orange lichen and tumbled coyote bones meet tea-colored rivers running “fast with snowmelt” and “pollened catkins like yellow thumbprints”. Her characters however, despite sometimes dabbling in magical realism, are so realistic that, in their flawed, irascible way, they prove surprisingly engaging. Proulx’s focus is to make her irascible, flawed characters engaging and likable, and to a large extent she succeeds.

To outsiders unfamiliar with Wyoming’s official motto (take care of your own damn
photo credit: greenbrokeself), the stories paint a complex picture of the state, from the commercialization of ranching to the lives of professional bull riders. Yet Proulx’s greatest achievement comes when she moves beyond the obvious connotations of her setting and lets her characters mold the environment to suit them. The Bunchgrass Edge of the World finds Ottaline Touhey listening wistfully to couples argue over her radio scanner while above her the sky is covered with “tumbled clouds like mechanics’ rags” and “nervous lightening crooked as branchwood”. Brokeback Mountain meanwhile, proves itself at least equal to the film it inspired, painting a doomed love story through the eponymous mountain and all it comes to symbolize. Annie Proulx’s stories are at once character and a landscape studies, an anthology of universal impressions that, nonetheless, could only take shape in the author’s native state.

photo credit: summitcheese

Curious about what states we’ve done so far and which ones are on deck?

Photo by marxchivist

First, from Melanie Jones:

Alabama: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (check out my To Kill A Mockingbird Sample Kit!)

Michigan: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides

Alaska: The Man Who Swam With Beavers by Nancy Lord

Arizona: The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

North Dakota: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

Vermont: The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Hawaii: Heads by Harry by Lois-ann Yamanaka

Georgia: Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones

Massachusettes: Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

Oregon: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

And I happily borrowed the collective wisdom of Omnivoracious for

• Delaware: Marisa de los Santos (and W.D. Snodgrass, Robert Montgomery Bird, Jonathan Kellerman… they are choosing an author for every electoral vote…)
• New York: Check out the list of literary greats — wow…
• Rhode Island‘s little giants…
• Indiana‘s sweeping greatness…

And I went out on my own for…

Florida: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Zeale Hurston

Minnesota: In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien

Wisconsin: When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton

Louisiana: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells (Jones’ pick) and The Awakening by Kate Chopin (my pick)

Colorado: Plainsong by Kent Haruf

Maryland: Anything by Anne Tyler

Georgia: Awakening by Kate Chopin

Ohio: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Arkansas: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Virginia: John Grisham

Idaho: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

North Carolina: Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons

Tennesee: Run by Ann Patchett

New Jersey: Anything by Janet Ivanovich

Texas: Anything by Elmer Kelton

Connecticut: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Montana: The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie

Utah: Edward Abbey

South Carolina: Pat Conroy

Iowa: Wallace Stegner

Pennsylvania: John Updike and James Michener

Missouri: Mark Twain

New Hampshire: Robert Frost

Kentucky: Robert Penn Warren

California: John Steinbeck

Wondering where your state is? Coming soon… In the meantime, weigh in on future picks!

Welcome back!