# Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3

Annie Proulx

The fantastic new collection of stories from the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain.Fine Just The Way It Is marks Annie Proulx's return to the Wyoming of Brokeback Mountain and the familiar cast of hardy, unsentimental prairie folk. The stories are cast over centuries, and capture the voices and lives of the settlers this sagebrushed and weatherworn country has known, from the native Indian tribes to the modern day ranch owners and politicians, and their cowboy forebears.In 'A Family Man', an old man nearing the end of his life unburdens himself of the weighty family secrets that were his father's unwelcome legacy. 'Them Old Cowboy Songs' follows Archie and Rosie, a young pioneer couple, and their hardships in their attempt to homestead in the exposed wintry expanses of the prairie, and 'Testimony of the Donkey' finds a young international couple, Marc and Caitlin, struggling with much more modern concerns, and confronting uncertainty as their relationship comes to its end.These are stories of desperation and hard times, often marked by an inescapable sadness, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk tales, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming's traditional character and attitudes - confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, persistence in the face of difficulty - with the more benign values of the new west. These are bold, elegant and memorable pieces, and once more confirm Annie Proulx as one of the most talented, unique short story writers in the language.

ANNIE PROULX

### Fine Just the Way It Is

FOURTH ESTATE • London

## Copyright

First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk

Originally published in the United States in 2008 by Scribner

Copyright © Dead Line, Ltd 2008

The right of Annie Proulx to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins eBooks.

Source ISBN 9780007269730

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2008 ISBN:9780007287857

Version 2016-06-13

For Muffy & Geoff

Jon & Gail

Gillis

Morgan

### Contents

Copyright | 
Family Man | 
I’ve Always Loved This Place | 
Them Old Cowboy Songs | 
The Sagebrush Kid | 
The Great Divide | 
Deep-Blood-Greasy-Bowl | 
Swamp Mischief | 
Testimony of the Donkey | 
Tits-Up in a Ditch | 
About the Author | 
Also by Annie Proulx | 
About the Publisher | 

On the surface, everything was lovely, but when you got into the inside circle you soon found out that the lines of demarcation were plainly marked.

—John Clay, My Life on the Range

Fine Just the Way It Is