Brokeback Mountain (Wyoming Stories), by Annie Proulx

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I feel a bit like a philistine when it comes to “Brokeback Mountain”: The relationship between the two farm hands, Ennis and Jack, made sense to me and felt real. Sadly, both the story this short story tells as well as the style in which it is told, fall somewhat flat for me.

Annie Proulx laconically and unemotionally narrates her story and while there are some powerful scenes (the shirts…), I cannot help but feel that some of this story’s potential hasn’t been fulfilled.

I’m late to to read this, though: First published in 1997 and the narrated time starting quite a bit earlier, western societies at least are changing: We’re still farther from true equality than I had would have hoped for but at least in my native Germany, we’re making progress:

With Nyke Slawik und Tessa Ganserer we have two openly transgender people elected to the German parliament, the Bundestag.

And there are more members of the German parliament who give me hope that the times of “tire irons” are over. If you’re interested, read about Armand Zorn, Lamya Kaddor, Kassem Taher Saleh, Muhanad Al-Halak, Serap Güler, Ates Gürpinar (and my apologies in advance to those people whose names I’ve missed!).


Three out of five stars for this novella.


Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam



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