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Brokeback Mountain  By  cover art

Brokeback Mountain

By: Annie Proulx
Narrated by: Campbell Scott
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Publisher's summary

Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.

Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.

©1998 Dead Line Ltd. All Rights Reserved (P)1999 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved, AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Critic reviews

"Proulx's understanding is at its most remarkable in the astonishing Brokeback Mountain. [She] knows what she could only know...by the infrared that allows a very few writers clear sight in the dark of the imagination." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Brokeback Mountain does some of the best things a story can do. It abolishes the old West cliches, excavates and honors a certain kind of elusive life, then nearly levels you with the emotional weight at its center." (The Boston Sunday Globe)

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What listeners say about Brokeback Mountain

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Finally! Someone gets it.

It's great to read a story about two men in love with eachother and not with "Liza" For the first time ever I can associate with a gay character. This story is not about "gay pride" or "AIDS" Its a story that lets you get into the heart and soul of the two men. and what I believe is the heart of most men. scared, and conforming to expectations to hide true feelings, and selves.

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42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Well worth the listen

I was curious about this story, in light of the recent media attention on that movie. I bought it before some quick business travel -- it's length suggesting little investment on my part if it turned out to be disappointing.
What I got was a great story, at a bargain price. It is a little raw at times, and perhaps not for the faint of heart, but the charactors are great and the story was well written.
A poignant and involving listen that will not require a large amount of your time.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Unforgettable story

This is a very well read version of a well-written, lean short story. Both the narrator and the author capture the feeling of loneliness and desperate longing for something greatly desired and tragically just out of reach. This is a tale that will fascinate you and haunt you as you think about it for days after you hear it. Highly recommended.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Gay Life

This book is not what gay life is about from a gay mans view since it was written by a straight woman but it is a good book to listen to. The movie was interesting because I was born in Wyoming and I often wondered what cowboys did out in the hills and mountains of Wyoming. It is possible some do have sex with each other. As I mention it is not the real gay life style.. most gays do not like the book or movie but for myself I found it interesting to listen to. I am gay and would recommend seeing the movie and listen to the book.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Because quitting someone is not that easy...

If you wish to check the full review of this title, google me!! Inkish Kindgoms! (Wordpress)

I have to confess that I have listened to the audiobook twice, read the novella once, and watched the movie three times. I even did an essay comparing the movie and the novella, and if you let me brag a little bit, it all went amazingly good!

I love this novella not only for the love story which made cry my eyes out, but for the strong political discourse that it has. I really like how Proulx transgress the normative by having two gay cow boys in a state that is known for its bigotry and violence against the LGBT community. She does not only transgress and breaks the stereotype of the macho bravado of the typical cowboys, but she unbox the gay characters from the limp-wristed sissy and gay psychopath label.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ho
  • 02-03-06

Have both: movie and book

The movie and the book are complementary to each other. It is one of the best adapted screenplay.

The movie expanded some plots: the father-son relationship between Jack/Ennis and Jack's father;(The father-son relationship is a quite constant theme in Lee Ang's film); the father-daughter relationship between Ennis and Alma Jr.; the fidelity of Jack;the marriage of Jack and Lurren and so on...
The movie gives more vivid life of characters which is quite difficult to be portriated in a short novel; or in the other veiw, the *short* novel delibrately omits these aspects, so to focus on the two cowboys.

The novel goes to a deeper aspect of the inner world, especially the dreaming of Jack which is not dealt with in the movie. At the beginning of the novel, it writes: '...yet he is suffused with the sense of pleasure, because Jack Twist was in his dream...' The novel ends with: '...Around that time Jack begans to appear in his dreams...He will wake, sometime in grief, sometimes with the old sense of joy and release. The pillow sometimes wet, sometimes the sheet. The was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing can be done about it. And if you can fix it, you gotta stand it.'

Campbell Scott gives a quite good narration. The narration is as good as the voices of Jack and Ennis in the movie.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Purple but Good

If you listen to this, don't bother to see the movie and vice versa. This has to be the best adapted work of the year -- that said, you're travelling familiar waters if you experience both works. The short story is great -- Campbell Scott does an EXCELLENT job as narrator. The prose gets a bit purple at times but it's probably "expected" as this is a classic romance.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Broke my heart

What a wonderfully written and narrated story. Actually enjoyed the images created by the book even bettr than the movie

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

resonating

This is a haunting, resonating short story. The narration is excellent and the story stay with you long after it is completed. I can understand why it was made into a movie; this story begs to be told.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great

A story that rings true to the charactors and the place in time.

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4 people found this helpful