That Old Ace in the Hole

In Annie Proulx's 'That Old Ace in the Hole,' young Bob Dollar, adrift after college, seeks purpose by joining Global Pork Rind, a massive hog farm corporation. His mission: to scout vast tracts of land in the American West suitable for industrial pig operations. This quest leads him to the quirky, anachronistic Texas town of Woolybucket, where he quickly finds himself immersed in a world far removed from his urban origins. Renting a bunkhouse from the formidable LaVon Fronk and lending a hand at Cy Frease's Old Dog Café, Bob becomes an unlikely observer of a vanishing way of life. The novel vividly portrays the fierce, often eccentric, resistance of long-time ranch owners determined to protect their ancestral lands from corporate encroachment, even as their own children show little interest. Proulx, with her signature earthy language and unflinching honesty, masterfully weaves a tale that is both a biting critique of unchecked industrialism and a celebration of the rugged spirit of the American West, tracing the profound waves of change that have shaped its landscape and its people over the past century through the irrepressible lens of Bob Dollar's experiences.