That Old Ace in the Hole

Publisher and industry reviews

Jacket review

'Sometimes the laughs are prompted by joyously well-jointed plot devices, or by Proulx's small, absurd observations. As often as not, the humour comes from the unmistakable edginess and quirkiness of Proulx's prose. It is hard to think of any living writer who deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Dickens, with the exception of Proulx.' A N Wilson, New Statesman 'Proulx's own ace in the hole is her brilliance at evoking place and landscape. She sets about drawing the vast distances and parched flatlands of Texas with almost immeasurable skill.' Alex Clark, Guardian 'The travels and travails of Bob Dollar, and his habit of asking garrlous locals to tell stories about the old days, allow her to build up a rich and many-layered portrait of the region. The reader gets to pluck the fruits of all that research and through the magic of her prose become engrossed in subjects like windmill repairs and the history of barbed wire.' Richard Grant, Telegraph Magazine 'A kind-hearted and intelligent novel.' Daily Telegraph 'Proulx has a first class eye and ear.' Adam Mars-Jones, Observer 'Brilliantly written.' Peter Kemp, Sunday Times 'Amusing, intriguing and disturbing.' Mark Sanderson, Independent on Sunday 'Funny and heartfelt.' Scotsman 'An absolute corker of a novel which manages the dual feat of being a serious satire on the evils of global capitalism, and a personal comedy of Dickensian dimensions.' A N Wilson, Daily Telegraph

UK Kirkus review

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)

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