Bird Cloud
By Annie Proulx, HarperCollins, $34.99
Proulx is the best-selling author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain.
This book is the first work of non-fiction she has written and, although it is called a "memoir", it is not an autobiography but rather a description of the
land and a house that she wanted to build on it - with "shelves for thousands of books and long work tables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps".
Bird Cloud is the name Proulx gave to 256ha of Wyoming wetlands, prairie and 400-foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte river. The cover photograph tells it all. It is wild.
The fauna is fascinating and she describes encounters with pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, ravens and more. Her research into the natural history of the region and comments from early American pioneers about the tribes of Indians who lived and fought there for millennia is very enlightening.
Proulx also delves into her family history, which encompasses Mississippi River boat captains and Canadian settlers. I found this a bit irritating, as I wanted to get into the house-building and environment of the Platte River.
This is not light reading, but is especially interesting for anyone who can appreciate the vast amount of research the author commits herself to. I can certainly relate to withdrawing from society and getting lost in oceans of information.
