Annie Proulx has written three collections of stories set in Wyoming (known collectively, and sensibly, as “The Wyoming Stories”). They include Close Range, Bad Dirt, and Fine Just the Way It Is. Her most famous story is, of course, “Brokeback Mountain,” which was later adapted into a superb movie. But reading these three collections together gives you an idea of her great range and stellar talent.What an amazing writer she is.
“Clever” novels frequently put me off. You know the sort I mean: those that make use of different fonts, footnotes, and other similar affectations. I often wonder if the purpose of all these bells and whistles is simply to disguise the fact that the author really has nothing much to say to the reader. And I find that so often novels about child geniuses all follow the same story arc: kid burns out and comes to no good end. So you can imagine my relief and readerly joy when I discovered that Reif Larsen overcame both of my ingrained prejudices in The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet. It’s about twelve-year-old cartography genius Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet, who lives at the Coppertop Ranch (just north of Divide, Montana) with his über-laconic rancher father, his scientist mother (who is obsessed with finding a certain type of beetle that nobody else believes exists), his older sister, Gracie, and the memory of his younger brother, Layton, whose death has left an unhealed scar on the family’s psyche. In this satisfying first novel, we experience the world through the eyes of this brilliant, funny, and emotionally wounded kid.
Other Wyoming books include a classic: Owen Wister’s 1902 The Virginian (really, still the classic novel of the Wyoming territory, if not the wholeWest); Mark Spragg’s memoir Where Rivers Change Directions; Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spaces, with its deep appreciation of nature; and Wyoming Summer by Mary O’Hara, which, despite its title, isn’t totally set in Wyoming, but the small sections that are really make us feel as though we’re there with the author and her husband experiencing the sudden weather changes, the way the sky appears different from one moment to the next, and the tenuousness of small ranch-holdings. (O’Hara published her hit novel My Friend Flicka, set in a remote area of Wyoming, in 1941. Wyoming Summer, made up of a series of journal notes she’d been keeping, wasn’t published until 1963, but she tells us that the manuscript was finished and put away long before Flicka became popular.) Here’s how she describes the Wyoming sky:Over all, and low above me, was a pale blue sky, calm and benign. On it, flat sheets of cloud, with indeterminate, melting edges, floated so slowly, so indifferently, so serenely that they made me feel slow, indifferent and serene too.
And here:Now the day is waning and the light changing for sunset. Soft and lovely. No clouds. Just a clear emerald green—and the evening star big and golden.
Fabulous.
ZAMBIA
After much turmoil in the southern part of the African continent, the country of Zambia was formed out of the former Northern Rhodesia and became the Republic of Zambia in October 1964. Its existence was complicated by the fact that three of its neighbors were still under colonial powers (Southern Rhodesia, Mozambique, and Angola). Here are some books I’ve enjoyed over the years.
The Swedish writer Henning Mankell’s novel The Eye of the Leopard takes place in Zambia, just after it achieved independence.
In Scribbling the Cat,Alexandra Fuller describes her friendship and travels in Zambia with one of her parents’ neighbors, a white African and veteran of the Rhodesian Wars, both of them trying to understand the past and its attendant horrors.
Christina Lamb’s The Africa House is a biography of Stewart Gore-Browne, a fascinating Edwardian Englishman whose contradictory attitudes toward his adopted country—Northern Rhodesia—make for fascinating reading. This is a good choice for fans of White Mischief by James Fox.
In The Eye of the Elephant: An Epic Adventure in the African Wilderness, biologists Delia and Mark Owens discuss their attempts to save Zambia’s elephants from wholesale slaughter in the Luangwa Valley. (The couple was expelled from Botswana after writing Cry of the Kalahari and chose to settle in Zambia as a result.)
The farm in Zambia that Sheila Siddle and her husband, David, purchased became the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, the largest primate sanctuary in the world.Their adventures with their “guests” are winningly described in In My Family Tree: A Life with Chimpanzees.
If you’re looking for much lighter fare, Mrs. Pollifax, a CIA agent in her spare time, sets out on an African safari in order to save the life of the president of Zambia, in Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman. Reading this, you can’t escape the feeling that Gilman herself had just been on safari, too, though the rest of the story is surely pure fiction!
ZIPPING THROUGH ZIMBABWE/ ROAMING RHODESIA
Zimbabwe, formerly Southern Rhodesia, has long been the subject of some terrific novels and memoirs—perhaps the lure for writers is its uniquely African combination of beauty and inept (and corrupt) governments that consistently fail to improve the lives of their citizens.
Journalist Peter Godwin wrote two books about growing up in Zimbabwe, and both do a remarkable job of combining the personal and the historical. Although I found Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa to be engrossing and enlightening—it’s set from 1964 to 1982 against the background of the war that gained Rhodesia independence and black rule as the country of Zimbabwe—I was totally hooked by the evocative writing of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, which describes the long reign of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe in all its brutal details while at the same time exploring the repercussions of a long-held Godwin family secret.
Here are some other books—both fiction and nonfiction—that I’ve found engrossing since I wrote the “Dreaming of Africa” section in Book Lust.
Petina Gappah’s An Elegy for Easterly: Stories
Wendy Kann’s Casting with a Fragile Thread: A Story of Sisters and Africa makes a good companion read with Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.
Doris Lessing’s Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 and African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe
Andrew Meldrum’s Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe
Tudor Parfitt’s Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel (absolutely fascinating for history buffs or those interested in the history of religion)
Douglas Rogers’s The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe
Irene Sabatini’s The Boy Next Door
Lauren St. John’s Rainbow’s End: A Memoir of Childhood, War, and an African Farm
Wilbur Smith’s Ballantyne series are perfect airplane reads, while at the same time offering a pretty accurate account of historical events.You’ll probably want to read them in order: A Falcon Flies, Men of Men, The Angels Weep, and The Leopard Hunts in Darkness. (Smith has written over thirty books set in Africa, so if you fall in love with reading about the continent, he’s an author you’ll want to remember.)
Yvonne Vera’s painful-to-read novel The Stone Virgins describes the lives of sisters Thenjiwe and Nonceba living during the period when Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain.
INDEX
Note: Bold text refers to book and series titles.
A. D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
Abani, Chris
Abide with Me
Abidi, Azhar
Abi-Ezzi, Nathalie
Abrahams, William
Absolute Truths
Absolution by Murder
Abu-Jaber, Diana
Abulhawa, Susan
Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
Accidental, The
Accordionist’s Son, The
Achebe, Chinua
Aciman, André
Ackerman, Diane
Ackroyd, Peter
Across the Savage Sea
Ada Blackjack
Adam Bede
Adams, Lorraine
Adams, Sharon Sites
Adelstein, Jake
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Adiga, Aravind
Adrift
Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, The
Aebi,Tania
Afghanistan
Africa
Africa House, The
Africa on Six Wheels
African Adventurer
African Dream, The
African in Greenland, An
African Visas
After the Dance
After the Prophet
Agents of Innocence
Airmen and the Headhunters, The
Airs Above the Ground
Aitken, Rosemary
Ajak, Banjamin
Ajami, Fouad
Al Khemir, Sabiha
Alameddine, Rabih
Alarcón, Daniel
Alaska
Alavi, Nasrin
Albania
Albion
Alcestis
Alexander, Caroline
Alexander’s Path
Algeria
Alice I Have Been
Alice in Sunderland
Alice in Wonderland
Aline (Countess of Romanones)
Alison, Jane
All Elevations Unknown
All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers
All Souls
All the King’s Men
All the Way Home
All Things Must Fight to Live
Allen, Tom
Allende, Isabel
Alligator
Allison, Peter
Almond Picker, The
Alone in the Crowd
Along the Ganges
Al-Shaykh, Hanan
Alvarez, Julia
Always a Distant Anchorage
Amado, Jorge
Amazing Mrs. Pollifax, The
Amazonia
Ambition
“America for Me,”
American Fuji
American Girl, The
Amigoland
Among the Believers
Among the White Moon Faces
Amy and Isabelle
Anania, Michael
Anarchy and Old Dogs
Ancestral Truths
Ancient Athens on 5 Drachmas a Day
Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day
Ancient Shore, The
And a Right Good Crew
And I Shall Sleep . . . Down Where the Moon Is Small
And the Band Played On
Anderson, Doug
Andorra
Angel at My Table, An
Angels Weep, The
Angry Island, The
Angry Wind
Angus, Colin
Angus, Julie
Anil’s Ghost
Animal Dialogues, The
Anna In-Between
Anna Karenina
Annie John
Another Beauty
Antarctic
Antarctic Destinies
Anthills of the Savannah
Antigua
Antonides, John (translator)
Antony and Cleopatra
Appalachia
Apples Are from Kazakhstan
Appy, Christian G.
Arabia
Arabian Sands
Arctic
Arctic Chill
Ardizzone,Tony
Are You Somebody?
Arguedas, José María
Arizona
Arlen, Michael J.
Armbruster, Ann
Armenia
Arnold, Daniel
Arnold, Matthew
Arruda, Suzanne
Art of Travel, The
Art Student’s War, The
Artist of the Floating World, An
Arundel
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
Ashman, Anastasia M.
Aslam, Nadeem
Assembling California
Astrid and Veronika
At Home in the Heart of Appalachia
At the Edge of Ireland
At the Mercy of the Sea
At the Water’s Edge
Atta, Sefi
Atwood, Margaret
Atxaga, Bernard
Audience with an Elephant, An
Auge, Christian
Aung San Suu Kyi
Austen, Jane
Australia
Avery,Tom
Aw,Tash
Awakening
Away
Axe, The
Ayatollah Begs to Differ, The
Babe in Paradise
Babylon Rolling
Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba
Back of Beyond, The
Backer, Sara
Bad Dirt
Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia
Bahrampour,Tara
Baier, Molly J.
Baikal
Baking Cakes in Kigali
Bakker, Gerbrand
Balakian, Peter
Balali, Mehrdad
Ballad of Frankie Silver, The
Ballard, Angela
Ballard, Duffy
Baltic States
Baltimore
Baltimore Blues
Bangkok 8
Bangkok Tattoo
Bangs, Richard
Banks, Russell
Barbery, Muriel
Barczewski, Stephanie L.
Bardach, Ann Louise
Barker, Adele
Barlow, John
Barnard, Robert
Barnes, Linda
Barraclough, Frances Horning (translator)
Barrett, Leonard E.
Barrows, Annie
Barrow’s Boys
Barry, Dave
Barry, Sebastian
Barth, John
Bascom,Tim
Bastard of Istanbul, The
Bathurst, Bella
Baum, Dan
Bay of Noon, The
Bay of Spirits
Beach, The
Beak of the Finch,The
Beaufort
Beautiful Children
Beautiful Place to Die, A (by Philip R. Craig)
Beautiful Place to Die, A (by Malla Nunn)
Beautiful Struggle, The
Beautiful Swimmers
Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw
Bechdel, Alison
Beckett, Samuel
Bedford, Sybille
Beerbohm, Max
Before the Deluge
Before You Sleep
Begley, Louis
Behan, Brendan
Behind the Wall
Beijing Confidential
Beijing of Possibilities, The
Beirut Blues
Belfer, Lauren
Bell, Gertrude
Bella Poldark
Bellaigue, Christopher de. See De Bellaigue, Christopher
Bellini Card, The
Ben Jelloun,Tahar
Benchley, Robert
Beneath the Lion’s Gaze
Benioff, David
Benítez, Sandra
Benjamin, Melanie
Bennett, Joe
Benny and Shrimp
Bentsen, Cheryl
Berendt, John
Bergeijk, Jeroen van
Berger, Joseph
Bergreen, Laurence
Berlin
Berlin (series)
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Berlin: City of Smoke
Berlin: City of Stones
Berlin Stories, The
Berlinski, Mischa
Bernières, Louis de
Berserk
Berton, Pierre
Best and the Brightest, The
Best Game Ever, The
Best of Frank O’Connor, The
Best Travel Writing (series)
Betancourt, Ingrid
Bethlehem Murders, The
Better Than Oceans
Better View of Paradise, A
Between Terror and Tourism
Between the Assassinations
Beutner, Katharine
Beyle, Marie-Henri
Beyond Belief
Beyond Bogota
Beyond the Horizon
Bickel, Lennard
Biddlecombe, Peter
Big Both Ways, The
Big Empty, The
Big One, The
Big Red Train Ride, The
Biggers, Earl Derr
Binchy, Maeve
Binding,Tim
Bingham, Hiram
Biondi, Joann
Bird, Christiane
Bird, Isabella
Bird Artist, The
Bird News
Bird of Another Heaven
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives
Birds Without Wings
Birkett, Dea
Bissell,Tom
Bissinger, H. G.
Bitter Fruit
Bizot, François
Black, Cara
Black and Blue
Black Book, The
Black Dog of Fate
Black Echo, The
Black Ice, The
Black Livingstone
Black Mountain Breakdown
Black Tents of Arabia
Black Water Rising
Blackburn, Julia
Blackout
Blanchet, M. Wylie
Blind Man of Seville, The
Blindsight
Blistered Kind of Love, A
Block, Lawrence
Blood River
Blood Safari
Blood Spilt, The
Bloodroot
Bloom, Amy
Blue Hammer, The
Blue Latitudes
Blue Lightning
Blue Manuscript, The
Blue Place, The
Blunt, Giles
Blyth, Chay
Boardman, Jonathan
Bobrick, Benson
Bock, Charles
Bolaño, Roberto
Bold Spirit
Boling, Dave
Bolter, The
Bolton, S. J.
Bone People, The
Bonington, Chris
Bonobo Handshake
Book About Blanche and Marie, The
Book of Ebenezer Le Page, The
Booth, Alan
Booth, Martin
Border Town
Borges, Jorge Luis
Borges and the Eternal Orangutans
Borgia, E.
Born to Run
Borneo
Boston
Bostridge, Mark
Boswell, James
Botswana
Botton, Alain de. See De Botton, Alain
Bouldrey, Brian
Bounty, The
Bounty Mutiny, The
Bowden, Charles
Bowden, Keith
Bowden, Mark