A review by aizataffendi
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

4.0

This was a half-hour read, I never knew that the book is this short! A forbidden love between two men with internalized homophobia, as they "straighten" themselves in the public eyes and repeat their "I am not queer" affirmations. A duped but dutiful wife, who kept her mouth shut and raised her kids to the best of her abilities whilst her philandering husband mucks around. Children, basically growing up without father figures. The reality painted here may sound far-fetched but reading the news (especially here in Malaysia) lately, I feel that this is one reality which is becoming more prevalent in our communities as closeted men feel the need to conform to the conventional definition of love between two people of opposing sexes. I feel for the cowboys, their wives, but most of all.. their children who must have had childhood traumas growing up with emotionally-distant fathers and who in their adulthood may as well suffer another trauma when they uncover the illicit affair of their fathers.