The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 24 April 2000
by E. Annie Proulx
This is one brilliantly dark book. Back in the years of World War II, the Blood family is struggling with its small farm in rural Vermont. Loyal, the eldest son, handsome and impulsive, abruptly abandons his family and heads west alone. What follows is a tale of isolation and lonliness as Loyal endures a positively Odyssean life. Meanwhile, his family back home disintegrates. In a fit of blind physical confusion, Loyal grabs a handful of postcards which, one by one, slowly trickle back to Vermont. His only constant is his memory of the beloved farm, and his postcards show is faith in its unchanging tranquility. In this, her first novel, Proulx created an intricate story of dreams and catastrophe. It is complicated and sad. At times, it seemed the author was trying to tell too much, with characters coming at the reader from left and right, and within twisting plot lines. We learn of Loyal's dreams of another farm, his trapping and mining. We learn of his brother Dub, settling down as a real estate tycoon. And we learn of Mernelle, his sad sister dreaming of love. There are drunken astronomers, sullen miners, murderous farmers, lonely women, and lots of dinosaur bones. Yet the pace is compelling, and the long story of the lives of the Blood family hard to put down.
(For this book, Proulx was awarded the 1993 PEN/Faulkner award.)
Also by E. Annie Proulx: [Accordion Crimes]