I enjoyed the voices and the stories in this one. The main character and his story and indeed the overall plot weren't nearly as interesting to me as the folksy narratives and memorable people Proulx exposes that character and thus us to. I'm ambivalent about her zany names for nearly every person in the book -- I'm a sucker for zany names but it became absurd almost beyond the fun of it. It's not the deepest or most nuanced book I've ever read, but I really enjoyed it