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That Old Ace in the Hole
That Old Ace in the Hole | Annie Proulx
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Annie Proulx's That Old Ace in the Hole is told through the eyes of Bob Dollar, a young Denver man tryingto make good in a bad world. Dollar is out of college but aimless, when he takes a job with Global Pork Rind -- his task to locate big spreads of land in the Texas and Oklahoma panahandles that can be purchased by the corporation and converted to hog farms. Dollar finds himself in a Texas town called Woolybucket, whose idiosyncratic inhabitants have ridden out all manner of seismic shifts in panhandle country. These are tough men and women who witnessed first hand tornadoes, dust storms, and the demise of the great cattle ranches. Now it's feed lots, hog farms, and ever-expanding drylands. Dollar settles into LaVon Fronk's old bunkhouse for fifty dollars a month, helps out at Cy Frease's Old Dog Caf, targets Ace and Tater Crouch's ranch for Global Pork, and learns the hard way how vigorously the old owners will hold on to their land, even though their children want no part of it. Robust, often bawdy, strikingly original and intimate, The Old Ace in the Hole tracks the vast waves of change that have shaped the American landscape and the character over the past century. In Bob Dollar, Proulx has created one of the most irresistible characters in contemporary fiction.
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Kat_H
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Bailedbailed

All the books I want to read are already checked out from the library mnargh! Every. Single. One. So I picked this up off the shelf. I usually love a Proulx but this didn't grip me at all and I had to bid it adieu at 50 pages in.

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DebinHawaii
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#MarchMunchies #chilli??We read "That Old Ace in the Hole" (my first & only Proulx-so far) for my virtual foodie book club & it was quirky & surprisingly fairly food-filled. I made my own version of the "...famed Woolybucket curry chile, always served at the Barbwire Festival, the recipe jealously guarded."
I added sweet potatoes ? also mentioned in the book & while not at all traditional with the curry spices, it was a pretty tasty chili. ?

jenniferw88 If I remember correctly, Postcards features a lot of food (but it is about 10 years since I read it for school! 🤣) 6y
DebinHawaii @jenniferw88 Good to know--I'll add it to the stack! 👍📚 6y
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