That Old Ace in the Hole (Paperback, New ed)

One of the great delights of Annie Proulx is her talent for digging beneath the surface of an American landscape and its inhabitants and emerging - triumphantly - with a fistful of dirty gems. However unpromising or downright unappealing her choice of canvas might appear to be at first glance, she always has the knack of unearthing its social, cultural and moral riches. And never more so with this work, in which the wasted vistas of the Texas panhandle form the setting for a slow-building but deep-burning drama of a community's battle to maintain the integrity of its heritage in a swiftly globalising world. Bob Dollar, recruited as an undercover site scout for the multi-national conglomerate Gobal Pork Rind, has the task of targeting land-owners whose property might be suitable for conversion into hog-farms. He takes a room in the teetotal town of Woolbucket, where he soon finds himself more interested in hearing stories about the town's eccentric inhabitants, past and present, than in paving the way for money deals with its intransigent old-timers. Bob clearly isn't cut out for the job, and within weeks his cover is blown. But by then the dreary panhandle landscape and its people have taken a grip on him, making his role as champion of the globalised `pork unit' increasingly untenable. This is crowded, fact-strewn, celebratory fiction, rich with raucous, spot-on dialogue and unbridled humour. So peopled is it with characters, that for a while, one almost loses sight of the mild, well-meaning Bob Dollar. But with breath-taking craft, Proulx brings him back, and at the same time gives every minor character a role in the story's final blossoming, making its narrative conclusion one of the most richly satisfying, as well as the most optimistic, that she has ever orchestrated. Life-affirming stuff. Liz Jensen is the author of War Crimes for the Home. (Kirkus UK)

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.

General

Imprint:	Fourth Estate
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	April 2004
Authors:	Annie Proulx
Dimensions:	197 x 130 x 23mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	359
Edition:	New ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-00-715152-3
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction
LSN:	0-00-715152-7
Barcode:	9780007151523

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