Understanding Annie Proulx

Karen L. Rood surveys Proulx's life, career, and five book-length works of fiction to identify and discuss their major themes. In addition to examining the lyrical prose, wealth of detail, and distinctive characterization that have brought Proulx widespread praise, Rood identifies and analyzes the novelist's primary thematic concern7the way ordinary people conduct their lives in the face of massive social, economic, and ecological change. Rood chronicles Proulx's childhood, development as a writer, and relatively late entry into fiction writing. In separate chapters Rood provides critical appraisals of Proulx's two short-story collections and three novels. She discusses how in these works Proulx warns her readers about the dire consequences, for both the globe and those inhabiting it, of the headlong rush toward modernization. She also traces Proulx's ambitious attempt to define American life in all its aspects, underlining the vast disparity between Americans' idealized vision of their past and the real history of violence and prejudice that has shaped the nation as it is today.