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Show msftasaiattaaasi INTERVIEW An abiding sense of place Annie Proulx captures the heart and soul of the West Yes, I like research, Proulx admits. For this book I did too much, really, and have and boxes of material could not use. A great deal has happened in the region, is better at conveying the complex boxes writer American contemporary she notes, adding an exhaustive list of historic trends from ancient buffalo hunts to novel, of a place than Annie Proulx. Readers of her Pulitzer the rise of the small cattleman and the current generations flight from the ranches he Shipping News, need only remember the startling authenticity of both her and farms of the panhandles. evocation of dreary upstate New York towns and her portrayal of Proulx manages to embody a good bit of this history and lore a more soulful but not much less dreary Newfoundland village to in a rambunctious cast of characters who come into contact abilities. her appreciate great with Bob Dollar. In other hands, these characters might at best In the 1990s Proulx, who lived much of her life in New populate a television sitcom (with, perhaps, a slight political England, moved to Wyoming. With the 1999 publication of her But Proulx has an extraordinary, unfailing ear for the lanin Close of an set short collection stories, edge). Rouge, magnificent guage of the region (an odd combination of both the exaggeraunforgiving Wyoming landscape, Proulx appeared to be setting tion of tall tales and the reticence of the stoic), and this lends her a new course for her career. The publication of her latest novel, 7 hut Old Aee in the Hole, confirms that direction. Proulx (whose characters depth and humanity. The attention to local patois and regional turns of phrase is name rhymes with shoe) seems bent on nothing less than and the soul rural second the heart of nature at this point, Proulx writes. When I hear a vigby layer, uncovering, layer orous and lively phrase, I write it down or try very hard to American West. remember it. I do keep notebooks of phrases and expressions. Ihot Old Ue in the Hole is set in the Texas and Oklahoma he novel's main protagonist is Hob Dollar, a likeWhen am working on the text of the novel, go through these panhandles. lists and try and incorporate words and phrases one might able, somewhat purposeless young man who takes a job as a hog hear. (arm scout for an international conglomerate. Of course, the real central character ol the novel is the region itself. And Hob Proulxs sensitivity to the language of the region also means efforts to Dollars undercover and altogether too That Old Ace tit the Hole is often trick locals into selling their land for the development of malvery funny. Proulx herself has a sly odorous industrial hog farms allows Proulx to range over the sense of humor, which percolates largely ignored panhandles and unveil what is both hard and just beneath the surface of her remarkable about the place. story. Do you remember how '7 or years had been diivmg through the Texas and Oklahoma Graham Greene used to call some No of his books entertainments? she panhandles, and always found panhandle places interesting, espeasks. Ive always thought that cially the northeast corner ot the Texas handle with its long, long is views, windmills, abandoned houses, acres of antique farm meant that those novels were machinery, shady groves ol trees and nodding pumpjacks, not so much to readentertaining, conveying the Proulx tells me via (In vears past, Proulx has been ers, but to Greene in the writing. In a way this book was an entertainemphatic about avoiding the trappings of the literary life; determined to protect her time and her privacy, she prefers to conduct ment for me, and the use of humor "Hut other people I encountered, parthis interview by made difficult subjects, such as Proulx. feedlots and hog arms, easier to ticular!) Texans, said The panhandle? God, I just drive through there as last as f can, in dismissive tones. Of course this made me write about. more interested in panhandles, and I finally decided to write a novel set in the One subject that has never seemed difficult for Proulx Oklahoma and Texas handles, Proulx says. to write about is men. In That Old Ace tit the Hole "I intended the story to revolve around a windmill repairman, but was unable to Proulx once again surprises a reader by how fluently she writes about the physical and emotional lives of her gain the expertise in the craft needed to create a convincing character. So the windmill man, Ace Crouch, though central to the story, is not the major protagonist. male characters. Men? she asks. Well, I do like men, Moreover, the day of the windmill as the prime source of water has passed. I focused perhaps related to growing up in an family. Also, instead on a current problem, the proliferation of noisome hog farms in the Texas because I write almost exclusively about rural places, where the heaviest physical work is done by men, and where that work is the basis of a local panhandle with a young hog farm site scout as protagonist. economy, men natFor Proulx, a place like the panhandle area is not simply the sum of its geography, urally stand in the forefront of the story. Really, its all about place. 'if history and people, but some alchemical recombination of all of these, a formula she arrives at only after a significant amount of research. Alden Sludge writes from Oakland, California, BY ALDEN MUDGE 1 No g 1 1 1 good-hearte- d contemporary writer better at personality of a place than all-gi- HISTORY rtvo TH A .1 Remembering an old rivalry AMItEO THAT THE iiNAlfPAKC'l BY ALAN PRINCE In a competition held in 1401, Lorenzo Ghiberti defeated Filippo Brunelleschi in winning the contract to sculpt a pair of bronze doors for the baptistery of the cathedral of Florence, Italy. Subsequently, Brunelleschis plan to build a dome atop the cathedral was chosen over Ghibertis. They did not know then they could not know then that their ensuing rivalry would serve to instruct and inspire a host of other artists, thus bringing to Italy, and to the Western world, the dawn of a refreshing new age. Author Paul Robert Walker tells their story in The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and Ghiberti Changed the Art World. Millions of visitors to Florence see the artistic masterpieces of these two, hear a tour guides spiel and then leave for the next attraction. It is a pity that they depart without really appreciating the nuances of the antagonists strained relationship and with scant knowledge of their personalities and even less about the politics, working conditions and economic factors that shaped f I I life-lon- g te U BOOKPAGE DECEMBER 2002 "J 4 1 4 The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance By Paul Robert Walker Morrow, J24 95, 288 pogas ISBN 0380977877 their generation all of which are superbly resurrected in this book. Walker reviews the painstaking efforts involved in Ghibertis craftreliefs for the gilded portals. They were so ing of the religious-themebeautiful that one year after he completed the doors, he was commissioned to do two more, which Michelangelo is said to have described as worthy of being the Gates of Paradise. The author also details Brunelleschis ingenious solution to designing and constructing the cathedral s dome, which because of its size then the largest in the world had stymied everyone else for more than a century. Its loftiness (280 feet above the ground) persuaded officials to serve only diluted wine to the workmen. The author treats us to an explanation of Brunelleschis development of what probably was the most important artistic breakthrough of the Renaissance: the mathematical principle of linear perspective depicting a subject on a flat surface in such a way that it appears so real viewers feel they can reach out and touch it. With this book, Walker author of 20 previous titles on subjects ranging from the American West to miracles, from baseball to folklore widens his reputation for versatility. His newest work is sure to bring such sheer pleasure to people interested in history, architecture and art that many of them will regard the book itself as a work of art. If An Alan Prince of Deerfield Beach, Florida, now writes d and lectures. |