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Bad Dirt
341 pages
A gritty, darkly comic portrait of stubborn people scraping by in an unforgiving, dust-choked landscape.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like sitting in a dimly lit, wood-paneled Wyoming dive bar, listening to the locals trade tall tales and bitter truths. The pace is steady and deliberate, anchored by prose that is muscular, dense, and unapologetically rugged. You are immediately immersed in a dust-choked, wind-battered atmosphere where the romanticized myth of the American West is stripped away to reveal the harsh, unsentimental reality beneath. The narrative tone balances a wry, dark comedy with a profound, quiet melancholy, observing the stubborn folly and quiet tragedies of its isolated characters. It is a deeply textured experience that will delight readers who crave landscape-driven literary fiction, sharp regional vernacular, and unflinching portraits of flawed people clinging to a vanishing way of life.
- Mood
- dust-choked
- melancholic
- rugged
- isolated
- Tone
- wry
- unsentimental
- darkly comic
- gritty
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- the myth vs. reality of the West · rural isolation · stubborn human folly · harshness of nature · changing landscapes
- The writing
- Muscular, hyper-specific, and densely textured, packed with regional vernacular and sharp, unforgiving imagery.
- The arc
- Moves from wry amusement at human absurdity to a lingering, quiet ache for a vanishing way of life.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate unsentimental, landscape-driven literary fiction and darkly humorous character studies of flawed, stubborn people.
Content notes
- animal death
- alcoholism
- rural poverty
- domestic dysfunction
About the book
author Annie Proulx follows the success of Close Range with another remarkable collection of short stories set in Wyoming.Bad Dirt is filled with the vivid and willful characters for which Proulx has become known. Each occupies a community or landscape described in rich and robust language, with an eye for detail unparalleled in American fiction.In 'The Contest', the men of Elk Tooth, Wyoming, vow to put aside their razors for two seasons and wait to see who has the longest beard come the 4th of July. Deb Sipple, the moving protagonist of 'That Trickle Down Effect', finds that his opportunism – and his smoking habit – lead to a massive destruction. And 'What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?' is the story of Gilbert Wolfscale, whose rabid devotion to his ranch drives off his wife and sons.Proulx displays her wit in every story of this stunning collection, as well as her knowledge of the West, of history, of ranching and farming. Her profound sympathy for characters who must use sheer will and courage to make it in tough territory makes this collection extraordinarily compelling.
Description from Open Library.
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