That Old Ace in the Hole: A Novel

Lots of very colorful characters, but not enough plot.

Frankly, because of my experience with both the other Annie Proulx novels I've read, I was a little reluctant to even begin reading her 2002 novel "That Old Ace in the Hole." I found both "The Shipping News" and "Accordion Crimes" (well written as they are) to be a little too somber, almost

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depressing, to suit my tastes, but this one was a very pleasant surprise.

"That Old Ace in the Hole" is the story of one Bob Dollar, a young man from Denver so desperately in need of work that he takes a job as a scout for the Global Pork Rind company. Bad as that company name is, the job is even worse. As scout, it is up to Bob to find Texas Panhandle ranchers and formers willing to sell their acreage to him regardless of what his company plans to do on the purchased property. Because the massive hog farms run by Global Pork Rind are so ruinous to the environment and so unpleasant for the neighboring farms, Bob is encouraged to lie and cheat in any way necessary to get these aging ranchers to sign their names on the dotted line.

Bob Dollar, though, finds himself enjoying life in little Woolybucket, Texas, so much that he just can't quite bring himself to disclose his real purpose in the town. This premise allows Proulx to tell the history of the region through the wonderful characters she creates for the novel (men and women Bob Dollar is trying to deceive into selling their property), all of them descendants of those who settled that part of the state when Indians were still a constant danger.

Proulx's writing (and certainly her plot) reminds me a bit of the kind of comic novel that Larry McMurtry writes. I think that McMurtry fans will easily take to this novel and that they might even be surprised that someone out there can even top Mr. McMurtry on occasion in this type of story. I come away from "That Old Ace in the Hole" thinking that I have been underestimating Ms. Proulx's work. I look forward to reading more from her.

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I listened to this book as I was driving from Iowa to North Carolina. I don't really know if I would've liked it as much if I'd read it, but listening to it was wonderful. It's become one of those rare, golden experiences I return to often in memory. Everything was perfect -- the sunlight, the

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drive, the story -- it all came together. Best book-on-tape experience I've ever had. And while Bob Dollar is something of a dithering idiot, the characterization of the Texas pan handle and the hog farming industry was riveting. Also, all that stuff about Bakelite...sweet. I don't know. I can't really say why I liked this book, other than that sometimes, Proulx's writing borders on incandescent. Her descriptions can be breathtaking. Obviously, her short stories are better from a language standpoint, but nothing she's written has ever struck me like 'That Old Ace in the Hole.'

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Annie Proulx has done another fine job of showing readers the West as it is now. Her stories are a bit absurd at times but the character development is more than worth the absurdity.

National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, Annie Proulx masterfully spins the hilarious tale of a young, mediocre businessman - - Bob Dollar working to scout out locations for Global Pork Farm hog operations in the Texas-Oklahoma panhandles. I've been to that country and some of those hog

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factories are there! (lj)

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I really enjoyed this book as with all of the other previous books I have read of hers. I sometimes experience racing thoughts. That seems to be why one reviewer disliked Prouix's 'over'detail and the way she bounces between subject's, but that is the exact reason she is one of my favorite authors.

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I read and take my time, reflecting on how the character's intertwine. Not to mention her stories tend to be set in the midwest or at least farmland, cowboy type stories that come along with all the most individual and interesting character's they meet. Terrific!

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A hoot. I mean it in a good way.

That Old Ace in the Hole features Bob Dollar, a hapless recent university grad from Denver, Colorado. Armed with a diploma and a desire to work at a position better than clerk at his Uncle Tam's junk shop or a lightbulb inventory manager, Bob more or less aimlessly stumbles into a job scouting out

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hog farm sites in the Texas Panhandle for a company called Global Pork Rind. Since hog farms are not exactly pleasant to have next door or otherwise upwind, Bob's task is to clandestinely infiltrate a Panhandle community and do his scouting under the radar.

That's how Bob finds himself in Woolybucket, Texas crashing for $50 a month in the rundown bunkhouse of the ever-loquacious LaVon Fronk. Bob's sure that scouting out a site for GPR will be a piece of cake, especially considering he's bunking with the town gossip who surely will give him some tidbits about who's looking to sell out of failing, too-dry ranch land. Soon, though, Bob is losing sight of his purpose as he falls into Woolybucket's rhythms and begins to find that, this place, seemingly destined for hog farms and drought, is beginning to feel like the home he never had.

Proulx's Woolybucket is full of outsized characters whose parents and grandparents and great grandparents before them have their histories woven inextricably into the Panhandle. In his adventures, Bob finds himself chatting with a quilting circle of ladies who produce one quilt per year depicting a religious scene to be raffled off at the town's Barbwire Festival. He works part time for Cy Frease who opened his restaurant, the Old Dog, because he was sick and tired of "the pukiest sh*t-fire-and-save-the-matches goddamn grub this side a the devil's table." He listens to LaVon Fronk go on about the history of ranching in the Panhandle in between town gossip. He listens to old-timer Tater Crouch's barely true memories of his cowboying youth. Proulx brings to life a community, a way of life, a landscape that seems to be utterly unique and unfailingly entertaining. Proulx imbues the town with personality and captivating characters who get themselves into some ridiuculous small-town situations, but it never comes off as too quaint or sugary-sweet like some small town stories that seem to try too hard. Rather, it's easy to fall in love with the people who have staked out a tough life in the Panhandle, who have steely strength below their mostly friendly and welcoming exteriors. I was so absorbed in Proulx's small town and so in love with its characters that when the book ended, I was sad to see them go.

In case you couldn't tell, I loved That Old Ace in the Hole. It is a story that serious and funny at the same time. The people are real, if exaggerated, and the rip-roaring tales they tell smack of the sort campfire-side story-telling that I've always loved.

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A novel set largely in the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle, this is another winner from Proulx.

Despite what feels like a slightly rushed "Hollywood" ending, this is classic stuff; sharply etched characters set in relief against a wide-open, largely inhospitable landscape.

So many of Proulx's characters

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struggle with change, and [book: That Old Ace in the Hole] is no exception.

She manages to stuff this book with an interesting history of the Texas Panhandle without bogging down the plot, and hints at the challenges soon to face this region.

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The book is paced in a style that seems true to its setting: slow and steady. It takes its time to describe the scene and helps you feel the character of the town. I really liked that about the book, even though I thought I wouldn't when I began reading.
Bob Dollar is trying to buy land for hog

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farms for a big corporation (which is itself a character in the novel) in a small town where folks ('folks' is more appropriate than 'people') are nostalgic about the old ways and the simple ways. He's a good character: has depth and compassion and struggles with the direction of his life. Very likable.

It's been a while since I read [book:The Shipping News], but I see a similarity in it to this book, similar in a way that if you liked the one you'll probably like the other without thinking you're reading the same thing again.
Both books are set in small very rural places in which a 'newcomer' is the protagonist and gets to know (and love) the community and all its eccentric ways. Weather has a place in each book, too.

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Bob Dollar takes a job as a land scout for Global Pork Rind to locate industrial hog farms in the Texas panhandle. Since hog farms are so unpopular, he must go undercover, and presents himself as a scout for a luxury home real estate developer. He bases himself in the town of Woolybucket, lodging

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in an old cowboy bunkhouse and getting to know all the oldtimers in town. Proulx uses this thinnest of plots to relate episodic stories of the old cowhands from the earliest days of the twentieth century through the present day. The novel is full of eccentric and colorful characters (including the eponymous Ace Crouch, repairer of windmills) whose stories meander and criss-cross with each other over the years. Like Proulx's masterpiece The Shipping News, the sense of place, in this case the Texas panhandle rather than Newfoundland, is as important an element as the characters or the plot.

I'm really sorry I let this languish on my shelves for so long. Highly recommended.

4 stars

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This book is funny in some ways, for example in the outlandish names that the author hangs on some of the characters. However, these same characters don't call up any goodwill in my heart.

The main character is trying to scout land on the panhandle of Texas, for his job working for pig factory

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farms. Everybody in the book likes to eat pig, and cow and chickens and buffaloes, but when it comes to selling their land for a pig factory, their hypocritical response is NIMBY. They think their panhandle is theirs (not the Indians they stole it from). Yawn.

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