Picks and Pans Review: Fine Just the Way It Is

By SUE CORBETT, CAROLINE LEAVITT, THAILAN PHAM, DANIELLE TRUSSONI, VICKI SHEFF-CAHAN

UPDATED 09/15/2008 at 01:00 AM EDT • Originally published 09/15/2008 at 01:00 AM EDT

by Annie Proulx

    

STORIES
Proulx's third collection of Wyoming stories mixes her gimlet-eyed worldview with compassion for those attempting survival in terrain indifferent to human struggle. Even the West's vegetation is lethal, and women are treated "with little more regard than the beef they help produce." But all is not grim: Deliciously macabre stories starring Satan lighten the mood. A must for fans.