Annie Proux Paris Review

INTERVIEWER

Have you seen a lot of alcoholism in the rural areas you write about?

PROULX

I don’t see it everywhere, thank God. It exists. In fact, most of the people I know in Wyoming are very light drinkers if they drink anything. Their drink is Mountain Dew. They’re into caffeine rushes instead of stupors. I think it’s because the habit of work here is extremely powerful. People work and it’s considered the highest virtue.

Bars are social places here. They’re not so much for drinking as they are for hanging out. It’s the only place—there are no community centers, no movie theaters, no restaurants. You go to the bar and you have a few with your pals. There used to be a beautiful bar up in Ucross and there’d be cowboys at the end of the day in there; there’d be old ladies with their knitting; there’d be somebody repairing small motors over in the corner. It was very much a social center.

https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5901/annie-proulx-the-art-of-fiction-no-199-annie-proulx