(Untitled)

[wildcolumbine]

TITLE: Constant Companions

Comments

Terrific!

[bews]

I especially liked this sentence: "The rooms had small-paned windows whose beautiful, thick glass gave the outside world a warped, unnatural look and Ennis liked to peer through, turning his head this way and that, making the trees and clouds and sky slide and melt into comical shapes."

Looking out those windows, it's the world that's warped and crazy, not the ones who live inside the house. Well done!

Re: Terrific!

[wildcolumbine]

I thought I might have been a bit heavy-handed with that description so I appreciate your comments. I've always been fascinated by Annie Proulx's use of the names Earl and Rich, which indicates that their personal life together was worth all the comments and hatred they received.

[valleyview]

Very, very sad and disturbing - but excellently well-written. Beautiful, poetic descriptions. Very moving. One can well imagine a boy like little Ennis being warped for life by such experiences.

[wildcolumbine]

Thank you for that. Ennis's experience was so shattering that I've often wondered how well he might have known the two men.

[foxart58]

Well, you've done it again! Excellent writing full of pain and heartache. You have an amazing talent!
Arlene

[wildcolumbine]

Why, thank you, Arlene! Ennis and Jack are so easy to write about because the original characters were so beautifully realised by Annie.

[wannabebrit]

This was just excellent. A very plausible backstory for Ennis. Thank you for sharing it.

[wildcolumbine]

And thank you for commenting. This was my second attempt at filling in Ennis's background. He is such an intriguing and tragic man.

[fuzzy_carpet]

On this picture-postcard Wyoming day, under a sky full of fluffy clouds, for all the world like sheep grazing on vast, cerulean fields, all warmth, all colour drained from the earth, and in the sickening void which engulfed him Ennis was aware only of his father’s hand like a vice around his neck and the obscene sight which met his horrified stare and the faraway sound of a nine-year-old boy dying inside.

Can't get enough of the power of your words, or the images -- both light and dark -- that they conjure up in my mind.

Brutal, and beautiful...and I thank you once again for sharing your writing with us.

[wildcolumbine]

And thank you again. I didn't want to go into too much detail about that horrible scene. Annie Proulx covered it well enough. We writers are so lucky that the source material towers above just about everything else.