The Pre-Loved edit from Shopbop
To share your reaction on this item, open the Amazon app from the App Store or Google Play on your phone.
Add Prime to get Fast, Free delivery
Amazon prime logo
Buy new:
-12% $15.80
FREE delivery Sunday, January 26 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$15.80 with 12 percent savings
List Price: $17.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Sunday, January 26 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Thursday, January 23. Order within 6 hrs 8 mins.
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
$$15.80 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.80
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$6.66
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Used book in good and clean conditions. Pages and cover are intact. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks. Ships directly from Amazon. Used book in good and clean conditions. Pages and cover are intact. Limited notes marks and highlighting may be present. May show signs of normal shelf wear and bends on edges. Item may be missing CDs or access codes. May include library marks. Ships directly from Amazon. See less
FREE delivery Sunday, January 26 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Friday, January 24. Order within 6 hrs 8 mins.
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$15.80 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$15.80
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3 Paperback – September 8, 2009

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 382 ratings

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$15.80","priceAmount":15.80,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"80","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"8PwsDqHxm1ataN1GsYSwBaatRuww9CAp%2BKyeYf5SEF364ERwMEHB%2FWrO%2Fz2%2BMSci1mHHBEkg5VKciLi497Q5KKtbJ%2F579qTYT712xlGcNuE4F0%2Fi8tQMWc0fzfPv6SPrN3ycYerxnlE%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$6.66","priceAmount":6.66,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"6","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"66","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"8PwsDqHxm1ataN1GsYSwBaatRuww9CApIgU9Y2g87jeeEnjZ94LiNKz%2B2tSGCL9wrGM0re6KURhcWqGWCf6fspk8Nr0ZneIH0brsHJojkqN4mZah3rVGut%2Fy5Z0yIuC540%2FOkgeBqudseJ1LXYBrwCm1%2FWWq8MjPX5MwXqQXl8ybKbP2wljVqvUuhqMJ7q%2BU","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Annie Proulx, an "unforgettable" (Miami Herald) and "vivid" (Oprah Daily) collection of stories set in Wyoming.

Winner of two O. Henry Prizes, Annie Proulx has been anthologized in nearly every major collection of great American stories. Her bold, inimitable language, her exhilarating eye for detail, her dark sense of humor, and her compassion inform this profoundly compelling collection of stories.

Proulx creates a fierce, visceral panorama of American folly and fate in these nine dazzling stories about multiple generations of Americans struggling through life in the West. Each character is a pioneer of a sort—some are billionaires, some are escapists, and some just think the rest of the country has it wrong. Deeply sympathetic to the men and women fighting to survive in this harsh place, Proulx turns their lives into fiction with the power of myth, leaving the reader in awe.
The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

This item: Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3
$15.80
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jan 26
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$9.49
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jan 26
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$9.99
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jan 26
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
spCSRF_Treatment
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Fine Just the Way It Is] bears Proulx's brand of hard drama, hard irony, hard weather and hard and soft characters blown about and many times destroyed by the powerful mix..... She writes like a demon." -- Ron Carlson, The New York Times Book Review

"Vivid.... In the tour de force finale ... we see the method in Proulx's genius, where he enchanting description, unparalleled sentence structure, and unwavering insight combine to reveal both the coldest and most resilient recesses of the human heart." -- Pam Houston,
O, the Oprah Magazine

"Astonishing.... 'Tits-up in a Ditch' breaks new literary ground with the gut-wrenching tale of an Iraq veteran who returns to her family raw with grief... unforgettable characters." --
Publishers Weekly, starred review

"[Fine Just the Way It Is] takes gigantic steps toward securing Proulx's position as one of the most inventive yet, at the same time, traditional story writers working today." --
Booklist, starred review

"Deliciously macabre stories....A must for fans." --
People, 3 1/2 stars

"[Proulx] shows without mincing words that the present-day West is every bit as inhumane and vengeful as it was way back when... Excellent and original...." -- Kate Christensen,
Elle

"Nine unforgettable stories.... [An] assured and unnerving collection." -- Connie Ogle,
Miami Herald

"'Tits-Up in a Ditch' ... rivals Proulx's famous 'Brokeback Mountain' in the tender-tough emotional trajectory it explores." -- Michael Upchurch,
Seattle Times

"Proulx writes with clear-eyed, ironic affection about life in the real West, not the sentimental version.... Breathtaking." -- Colette Bancroft,
St. Petersburg Times

"Brilliant." --
Associated Press

About the Author

Annie Proulx is the author of eleven books, including the novels The Shipping News and Barkskins, and the story collection Close Range. Her many honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and a PEN/Faulkner award. Her story “Brokeback Mountain,” which originally appeared in The New Yorker, was made into an Academy Award–winning film. Fen, Bog, and Swamp is her second work of nonfiction. She lives in New Hampshire.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; Reprint edition (September 8, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 221 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1416571671
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1416571674
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.44 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 382 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Annie Proulx
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Annie Proulx's The Shipping News won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. She is the author of two other novels: Postcards, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, and Accordion Crimes. She has also written two collections of short stories, Heart Songs and Other Stories and Close Range. In 2001, The Shipping News was made into a major motion picture. Annie Proulx lives in Wyoming and Newfoundland.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
382 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Customers say

Customers find the book easy to read with an excellent writing style. They appreciate the interesting characters and compassion for them. The beautiful Wyoming scenery is described as brutally beautiful and colorful. Opinions differ on the story quality, with some finding it exquisitely told and perfect, while others consider them grim and dark. There are also mixed views on evocativeness, with some finding the stories evocative and timely, while others find them harsh and unforgiving.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

16 customers mention "Reading quality"12 positive4 negative

Customers enjoy the book's reading quality. They find it a good collection of Anne Proulx short stories, polished, and enjoyable.

"Super book! I just love Annie Proulx's writing style! Her words just come off the page and evoke my imagination like no other writer does!..." Read more

"...That said, it is still quite good. I found most of the stories to be quite dark and disturbing and very few happy endings...." Read more

"...clumsy story lines and abrupt endings make for a sluggish uninteresting read. There are no true stand out stories nor memorable characters." Read more

"...of a once-civilized people gone feral, and her Wyoming is both magnificent and malevolent...." Read more

14 customers mention "Writing style"14 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing style. They say it's excellent and easy to read.

"Super book! I just love Annie Proulx's writing style! Her words just come off the page and evoke my imagination like no other writer does!..." Read more

"While still excellent writing, of the three books which make up the series "Wyoming Stories", this is easily the least cohesive and suffers from a..." Read more

"Annie Proulx is a wonderful writer. You FEEL Wyoming reading these stories...." Read more

"Ms Proulx is obviously a highly talented writer and her work would be an absolute delight were it not so morbid (or is that its charm?)...." Read more

4 customers mention "Character development"4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the well-developed characters. They find the book well-written and appreciate the author's compassion for the characters. The characters are described as hard but with humanity, clearly describing Wyoming people.

"...The people in her Wyoming stories are clearly defined and clearly Wyoming people and yet I recognize in them people I have known in the Midwest, the..." Read more

"...She has a compassion for the characters, all of which are developed in depth, and represent a symbolic greater truth. To NOT read her work...." Read more

"...Hard stories about hard people but with lots of humanity too. I read most of her stuff but don't expect a feel-good collection...." Read more

"Well-written fook; interesting characters; Great packing and fast delivery." Read more

3 customers mention "Beauty"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's vivid descriptions of Wyoming's rugged terrain, including sharp peaks, red cliffs, and vast plains.

"...colossal landscape, you see Wyoming's rugged, isolating, gorgeous terrain of sharp peaks, red cliffs, and vast, haunting prairie...." Read more

"...Wyoming seems like a beautiful but harsh place...." Read more

"Annie Proulx always paints a detailed and colorful picture in her prose. Each story in this collection kept me more involved than the last...." Read more

20 customers mention "Story quality"13 positive7 negative

Customers have different views on the story quality. Some find the tales exquisitely told and perfect, with startling descriptions and straightforward talk. Others find the stories grim, disturbing, and lacking happy endings. There are no true standout stories or memorable characters.

"...Her words just come off the page and evoke my imagination like no other writer does! Frankly, this book is everything I expected...." Read more

"...Most of the stories are standard Proulx fare; evocative, timely and unique...." Read more

"...That said, it is still quite good. I found most of the stories to be quite dark and disturbing and very few happy endings...." Read more

"Annie Proulx is a wonderful writer. You FEEL Wyoming reading these stories...." Read more

9 customers mention "Evocativeness"6 positive3 negative

Customers find the book evocative, timely, and unique. They say it gives a real insight into the USA of the stories and the characters. Readers describe the writing as expert and non-sentimental poetry. However, some feel the stories are harsh and unforgiving, with hard people but also humanity.

"...Ms Proulx hones a sharp shaft of truth, and drives it into the reader's heart with each of these short stories...a very challenging job in the most..." Read more

"...She gives the reader a real insight into the USA of her stories and the characters who inhabit them." Read more

"...which make up the series "Wyoming Stories", this is easily the least cohesive and suffers from a few Twain-esque additions which mark an odd..." Read more

"...Annie Proulx is a brave example of truth through fiction. I am sure I will hungrily search out more of her work to read in the future." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2009
    Super book! I just love Annie Proulx's writing style! Her words just come off the page and evoke my imagination like no other writer does! Frankly, this book is everything I expected. I was curious about Brokeback Mountain when it appeared in the New Yorker magazine. When I saw the movie I just had to read the story to find out more. If you want to read more about Wyoming and the country life this book is for you! When I go visit my friend's ranch here in New Mexico, Annie Proulx's stories come alive for me. Her writing style, again, is very polished and to the point. I am very happy I ordered this book from Amazon.
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2022
    Why 4-stars and not 5? Because it isn't as good as some of Annie Proulx's previous work and collections of Wyoming Stories. That said, it is still quite good. I found most of the stories to be quite dark and disturbing and very few happy endings. But these are Wyoming stories, so if you have read Annie Proulx's previous two books of Wyoming stories this will not come as a surprise. These stories really put the hook in you because they reflect so much of the reality of Wyoming. I found it hard to put the book down. Most of the stories are set in days long ago. Not all though. And there is some humor sprinkled in. Annie really gets it about Wyoming and the people past and present that lived there.
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2008
    If you read all of Annie Proulx's Wyoming stories ("Close Range," "Bad Dirt," and "Fine Just the Way It Is"), you'll understand a lot about Dick Cheney. Yes, yes, I know Cheney was born in Nebraska, but he was raised in Wyoming and is a living, breathing character right out of Proulx's gut-wrenching, gut-spilling, gut-shot tales of that proud and brutally beautiful state.

    Proulx has a gift for the memorable image, for turning description and setting into action and plot. Her clear, sparse prose crackles with isolation, mistrust, and treachery of a once-civilized people gone feral, and her Wyoming is both magnificent and malevolent. She makes you wish you'd been raised in the midst of her characters just for the sheer blood and joy of it, and then just as glad you weren't.

    "Fine Just the Way It Is" (a line one of her characters uses to describe Wyoming) even has two stories about the Devil and his vast plans for redecorating Hell, and you'll get the feeling the Devil would do well as a Wyoming rancher or small-town businessman. Even as the Devil raises his eyes lovingly to take in Hell's colossal landscape, you see Wyoming's rugged, isolating, gorgeous terrain of sharp peaks, red cliffs, and vast, haunting prairie. Bottom line on "Fine Just the Way It Is": only O. E. Rolvaag's brilliant "Giants in the Earth" captures a people and a place so exactly, so palpably. And Proulx saves her best story for last: "Tits-Up in a Ditch," a no-nonsense tale of the soul-abrading, body-maiming life of a young woman in Wyoming. It ought to be anthologized in every high-school literature collection.
    15 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2010
    While still excellent writing, of the three books which make up the series "Wyoming Stories", this is easily the least cohesive and suffers from a few Twain-esque additions which mark an odd departure from the whole.

    Most of the stories are standard Proulx fare; evocative, timely and unique. I was particularly drawn to the final novelete, "Tits Up in a Ditch" because it covered the most ground and encompassed 3 generations of the Listers, a ranch family of lower economics and backward ways, making them both embarrassing and endearing. Another gem is "Testimony of the Donkey", which reveals the writer's own pith through the character of Catlin, a fiercely independent, modern boheme, who shows us that independent traits can be both rewarding and deadly.

    When Proulx stumbles, she does so with flair. "I've Always Loved This Place" and "Swamp Mischief" are both stories featuring the Devil, and - while interesting and slightly humorous to read - are both polished coal in an otherwise unique collection of fine stones. They're good efforts, but Mark Twain she ain't. As well, "Deep-Blood-Greasy-Bowl" lopes in to paleo-historic territory and diverges into a writing meter that didn't hold my interest as well as Proulx's familiar, homespun style. When I buy Proulx, I expect Proulx.

    These low points don't exactly ruin the whole, but they dent a good fender on the vehicle which Proulx drives beautifully around her beloved state of Wyoming.
    2 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2014
    Annie Proulx is a wonderful writer. You FEEL Wyoming reading these stories. I've read all three of her Wyoming volumes (plus her novels) and this may be the best of the bunch. Wyoming seems like a beautiful but harsh place. I'm a New York city person so wouldn't last a week in Wyoming but reading these stories I have major respect for people who can live in this harsh environment. This is probably the closest I 'll ever come to "knowing" Wyoming. Annie Proulx, thank you.
    6 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2008
    She makes me laugh, and cry, and think. I own and have re-read both Close Range and Bad Dirt and I curled up with Fine Just The Way It Is as soon as it arrived from Amazon. It will be read again in the future, just as the other two will be. The people in her Wyoming stories are clearly defined and clearly Wyoming people and yet I recognize in them people I have known in the Midwest, the South, and on the West Coast. No one writes short stories like Annie Proulx and if, like some I know, you don't like short stories because you want a nice long story rather than just a piece of a story, try Annie Proulx; you might be surprised how complete a short story can be.
    4 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Alison Ritchie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great American writer
    Reviewed in Australia on June 10, 2020
    Essential reading if you like Annie Proulx. But not for the faint hearted
  • Tati
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fine just the way it is è un grande libro.
    Reviewed in Italy on March 23, 2014
    Me lo sono goduto dalla prima all'ultima riga. Entra nell'America rurale in un modo unico, originale e profondo. Lo consiglio a chi apprezza questo genere di letteratura.
  • JPSreviews
    5.0 out of 5 stars Controversial - tremendous for research - more than a collection of short stories
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2014
    I lost my first copy of this book. One Proulx short story nagged me and I trawled through all my Proulx short story books and couldn’t find it. A story of a young couple with a log cabin on the snow covered Wyoming waste. She Rose, pregnant and he Archie, off to find work at a ranch north of Cheyenne; an English ‘remittance man’ called Frewen makes an appearance. The story must have been told in that lost copy.

    I replaced the lost copy and was reunited with ‘Them old cowboy songs.’

    A great writer can be analysed through the quality of their research and their literary method. Proulx tempts with a literary jigsaw full of colours, edgy cliffs and …nuggets. From Proulx’s jigsaws emerge fancy coloured riffs. Her pen dips and her thoughts dance across the page. And what about those nuggets the nuggets that lure you back again and again - was there something I had missed? Go research Frewen. The Frewen? Why does Annie select and name Morton Frewen? What happened to the ‘e?’

    A great writer can make a reader react. Salinger did. So there is responsibility. What do you want - propaganda? I researched Winston Churchill’s uncle Moreton Frewen. I read his brilliant memoir ‘Melton Mowbray and other memories,’ and noted that its Moreton on the cover of ‘The Cream of Leicestershire.’ I know about Castle Frewen Wyoming. Did Annie know about Lord Manners’s famous wager at the Castle in 1881? Or that Moreton knew personally every US President from Grant and Hayes in 1877 to Wilson in 1913, and he had sat around a camp fire with the Sioux chief Sitting Bull.

    All Proulx’s nine stories have some connection with death. Regulations, rewards, ratings and risk. That’s my filing system and ‘Them old cowboy songs,’ I’ve filed under the theme of risk. Proulx’s favourite story ‘Tits up in a ditch,’ I’ve filed under regulations. So let’s return to the chase:

    Language – 10/10
    Chase – 10/10
    Politics - 4/10 beef – more beef - and - potatoes Wyoming. Lord Manners and I consider Frewen was a gentleman, an adventurer, an ‘A’ list dinner guest and public speaker. Proulx differs and pursues this fine hunting man in her memoir Bird Cloud: ‘ …an extreme ass. Frewen was loathed by the locals.’ Proulx cans Frewen why?

    Who were Proulx’s ‘locals’ in 1880’s Wyoming: the dispossessed Indians, the residents of a few lawless towns, the hundreds of cowboys employed by British capital or the scouts in the employ of hundreds of European upper class trophy hunters ranging across this unclaimed territory? Perhaps they are the immigrant settlers’ busy fencing in the free range to the anger of the Stock Association members and cattle barons like Frewen in Johnson County – wrecking Frewen’s steer fattening business model.

    Humour/poetry – everywhere - it’s stamped with the genius that’s Annie Proulx.

    In pursuit of nuggets: women were entitled to vote in Wyoming Territory in 1869, Lord Manners - a visitor to the Frewen property in Wyoming in 1881 - went on to buy, train and ride the March 1882 Aintree Grand National winner ‘Seaman,’ Wyoming became a state in the Union in 1890. Louisa Swain aged 69 was the first woman to vote in the United States in a general election Laramie, September 6, 1870. Wyoming the ‘Equality State.’
  • Diz
    4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Just the Way It Is - Tits-Up in a Ditch
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2008
    First things first - the Amazon title states that this is a paperback. Well, the one they sent me is hardback. For the price, you'd kind of expect it to be hardback.

    Nine stories, 220-odd pages. A greater range of stories than in the past. But all featuring Proulx's dry, ironic wit and cut-down, seemingly sparse prose.

    From 'Family Man', the first story:

    "It was the time of year when Berenice Pann became conscious of the earth's dark turning, not a good time, she thought, to be starting a job, especially one as depressing as caring for elderly range widows...She had believed the sex drive faded in the elderly, but these crones vied for the favours of palsied men with beef jerky arms."

    So, in a couple of sentences, you know exactly where you are and what you are dealing with. You know, also, that it is the present day - no family looking after these elderly people, only visitors. And what we get is a huge clash of values, a mutual incomprehensibility between the generations.

    What we also get in this short collection are ghost stories, winsome tales of the devil, tragic little family histories, so small that here is the only place they will be recorded, a story of life before Wyoming ranchers, and, finally, we get 'Tits-Up in a Ditch', just about the longest story in this collection and certainly the most brutal, cruel and beautifully written. Totally contemporary, linking ranching metaphors with war, the fate of women across cultures, and final betrayal by family. From Wyoming to Iraq and back again.

    Basically, the collection is worth it just for that last story. But overall, there are some real gems here, conjuring up the bleak beauty of these western states, the bleak beauty, cruelty, stupidity, fatefulness and even, occasionally, the humour of the situations and the people trapped within.
  • Mr. P. J. Laidlaw
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant American fiction.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2014
    Proulx is the most vivid short story writer I have ever come across. It isn't a generally popular medium but she is a past-master of it. Her descriptions leap straight off the page into the reader's consciousness, bye-passing all other distractions. You can hear it, feel it, smell it, taste it; and that includes abstractions like fear, hatred, jealousy and loneliness etc. etc.
    A reading experience like no other.