Product Description

A brilliant novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning Annie Proulx, author of 'The Shipping News' and 'Brokeback Mountain'. 'That Old Ace in the Hole' is a richly textured story of one man's struggle to make good in the inhospitable ranch country of the Texas panhandle, told with razor-sharp wit and a masterly sense of place. Some folks in the Texas panhandle do not like hog farms. But Bob Dollar, the newly hired hog site scout for Global Pork Rind, intends to do his job. Bob must contend with tough men and women like ancient Freda Beautyrooms, who controls a ranch he covets, and Ace Crouch, the windmiller who defies the hog farms. As Bob settles in at La Von Fronk's bunkhouse and lends a hand at Cy Frease's Old Dog Cafe, he is forced to question everything.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112203 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
'Sometimes the laughs are prompted by joyously well-jointed plot devices, or by Proulx's small, absurd observations. As often as not, the humour comes from the unmistakable edginess and quirkiness of Proulx's prose. It is hard to think of any living writer who deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Dickens, with the exception of Proulx.' A N Wilson, New Statesman 'Proulx's own ace in the hole is her brilliance at evoking place and landscape. She sets about drawing the vast distances and parched flatlands of Texas with almost immeasurable skill.' Alex Clark, Guardian 'The travels and travails of Bob Dollar, and his habit of asking garrlous locals to tell stories about the old days, allow her to build up a rich and many-layered portrait of the region. The reader gets to pluck the fruits of all that research and through the magic of her prose become engrossed in subjects like windmill repairs and the history of barbed wire.' Richard Grant, Telegraph Magazine 'A kind-hearted and intelligent novel.' Daily Telegraph 'Proulx has a first class eye and ear.' Adam Mars-Jones, Observer 'Brilliantly written.' Peter Kemp, Sunday Times 'Amusing, intriguing and disturbing.' Mark Sanderson, Independent on Sunday 'Funny and heartfelt.' Scotsman 'An absolute corker of a novel which manages the dual feat of being a serious satire on the evils of global capitalism, and a personal comedy of Dickensian dimensions.' A N Wilson, Daily Telegraph

Peter Kemp, Sunday Times
'Brilliantly written.'

The Scotsman
'Funny and heartfelt.'

Customer Reviews

This book took me to Texas
Proulx's genius is her amazing ability to transport you into the landscapes of the places she writes about and the lives of those who live there.

Having been sucked into the geography and people of Newfoundland I picked up That Old Ace In The Hole for obvious reasons. And it lived up to my expectations.

Not that I expected another Shipping News because I do not believe that could ever be equalled. However, That Old Ace In The Hole is excellently written with rich characters and stunning attention to detail.

The crux of the story is that of a young man - Bob Dollar - moving to the Texas panhandle with a new job. Through encounters with the locals and some morally questionable situations, Bob begins to look at himself and his own desires in life.

That Old Ace In The Hole is a heart-warming story that will whisk you off to the Texas panhandle and engage you in its people and landscape.

Don't expect The Shipping News, but do expect to want to move to a small backwater town in Texas.

That Old Ace in the Hole
Annie Proulx's latest novel offers a fascinating blend of stunningdescriptions of place and superb construction of characters as she offersa compelling insight into life for an outsider in rural Texas.
Whether the Texas that Proulx describes is 'the' Texas or not isinconsequential: as the book's protagonist, Bob Dollar, sets about findingsuitable ranching land to be converted into a much-hated factory hog-farm,the rugged and unique characters merge with the rugged and unique imageryto create a superb read.
For those who have read Proulx's earlier novel, The Shipping News, thisnovel lives up to expectation: she does to Texas in That Old Ace in theHole, through her wonderful observation of physical and human quirks, whatshe does to the wind-beaten North-East coast in The Shipping News.
Some reviews have suggested that perhaps this novel is over-researched andindiscriminately edited, and certainly in terms of sheer length, this is along book. But if you are likely to be irked by lengthy characterizationand scene creation, then this is not a book that I would recommend youread anyway.
Normally a book with a distinctly average, and often non-existent, plot isbest avoided. But when the characterization and descriptions are soincredibly vivid and so powerful, as they are here, the book should not bemissed.

"To live here it sure helps if you are half cow..."
Stating that "nothing of the original prairie remain[s]," Proulx presents the Texas Panhandle through the eyes of 25-year-old Bob Dollar, a newcomer, who sees railroad tracks, grain elevators, drive-in restaurants, "welcome to" signs with mottoes, a plywood Jesus, irrigation rigs, condensation tanks, fences, and not incidentally, long, gray hog farms, with their effluent lagoons in the rear, the stench overpowering the grasslands for miles around.

Hired by Global Pork Rind to find the acreage needed for additional hog farms, Bob ingratiates himself with the townsfolk of the Panhandle town of Woolybucket, posing as a buyer of land for luxury housing. His meetings with cutely named townsfolk-Francis Scott Keister, Tater and Ace Crouch, Jerky Baum, Pecan Flagg, Blowy Cluck, Coolbroth Fronk, and Waldo Beautyrooms--and his discovery of their stories constitute the loose primary plot of this novel, which more closely resembles a quirky collection of short stories than a fully developed novel. "Eccentricities were valued and cultivated" here, but none of these earthy folk are eccentric enought to want more hog farms.

Proulx raises some big issues here, such as the alarming depletion of the water table in the Panhandle, the pollution from oil fields and chemical plants, and the illnesses associated with proximity to hog farms, but she keeps her narrative from becoming polemical by weaving these into other threads about windmill-building, quilting, cock-fighting, social life in the local diner, and plans for the upcoming Barbwire Festival. She keeps things light and amusing, using the eccentricities of her characters and the setting to spice up her narrative about their not-very-interesting lives.

Proulx is a real pro in controlling the pace of the novel. Whenever it starts to bog down or threaten to become dull, she gives us a new, outrageous name or an amusing digression (like the one about a lightbulb cemetery), or references to Bob's uncle's collection of "art plastic," or the visit of Bob's ex-con friend who, with some friends, made a recording of flatulent "Rock Hits From Prison." All these save the novel from being prairie-flat, as Bob tries to save his job without hurting the people he meets. The book is entertaining, and its feel-good ending, which explains the title, will please many readers. Others may want more substance and less artifice. Mary Whipple