Although the title of this book points to one of the many characters, a retired windmill repairman Ace Crouch, the story’s real main character is the setting and its culture. Through the book’s characters, the specific place of the Texas Panhandle and its idiosyncrasies is made timeless through the masterful pen of Annie Proulx.

As to the human action in the story, Bob Dollar is sent by the company of Global Pork Rind Corporation to scout for a location or locations for hog farms. The catch is he is not to tell the people what he is looking for. So he comes up with the story that he is looking for a land for building fancy luxury homes that a good company wants to place in that area.

Bob Dollar, abandoned by his parents, has been raised in Denver by his uncle Tam who owns a thrift store. He values perseverance and hard work and is determined to be successful for the company that hired him. Unbeknownst to him, his own character and personality, however, is much more respectable and decent than Global Pork Rind Corporation and his boss there.

To do what he intends, Bob Dollar selects the town of Woolybucket and finds a room at a bunkhouse on the Busted Star Ranch. The owner of the place is the old woman LaVon Fronk, who is archiving the local ways and legends. From her and from the other people in town, Bob Dollar learns and enjoys the quirky, isolated, and localized ways of the town and their dislike and resistance for hog farms that mess with their way of life as well as changing things, like the ecology of the area. Then, while listening to stories and interacting with the townsfolk, Bob Dollar takes so much interest in the people and in the area that his bosses become impatient with him.

Will the Global Pork Rind Corporation get what it deserves and will Bob Dollar see the light through the goodwill of the town’s people and Ace Crouch? And what will happen on the road to Bob Dollar’s redemption is for the readers to find out.

I enjoyed reading this book greatly for its depiction of a rural life and a character’s interactions with the locals while he is trying to find his way in the world. in addition, the author’s writing is exquisite, realistic, and unsentimental, and the ending is satisfactory, at least for me.

enjoying well-written anecdotes of local color, such as rednecks, liberals, pious people, and poor whites within the greater framework of the novel.

everything.

is Annie Proulx, i.e.Edna Ann Proulx, born in 1935. She is an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist who has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

I enjoyed it very much, but it is literary and sometimes a bit slow. For that reason, people who are into much action rather than inner content may not like it.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of That Old Ace in the Hole   from Amazon.Com!

Created Nov 23, 2018 at 5:00pm • Submit your own review...