I expected to like this book more than I did - on my aunt Jeanne's recommendation, and considering how much I loved The Shipping News. But I found it hard to get into this story about hapless Bob Dollar, raised by his junkstore running uncle after his parents ran away to obscurity in Alaska. Owing to his abandonment, Bob strives to not grow up to be as irresponsible as his mom and dad, and sets out for professional success in a rather dubious undercover position as Site Scout for a global hog farming corporation. Poor Bob seems set up for failure from the outset.

I just didn't fall in love with Bob Dollar or any of these characters, although Proulx's writing is striking. I enjoyed hearing the stories Bob Dollar's landlady spewed throughout the book, but I echoed Bob's disappointment in how she would interrupt herself at crucial points in many of the stories, and was particularly annoyed with her repeated tempting to tell him a story about scars on her grandfather's back (which btw is actually how the book freaking ENDED!)

Proulx paints wonderful landscapes. The expansive descriptions of natural phenomena keep you reading and enjoying.

A good read, and an interesting look at a part of the country that I don't know anything about. Proulx is always fun to read.

"Proulx's sentences...are marvels of nuance."--San Francisco Chronicle.

Not as good as her other book "The Shipping News". But, if you like Annie Proulx's style you should give this one a try.

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