UNHIATUS
After a week of sub-20 deg. F weather (although with a blanket
of holiday snow unusual by central Ohio standards) I was more
than ready to return to an unseasonably warm 75 deg. F in
central Texas. I left with one large suitcase containing another
large suitcase and returned with a suitcase's worth of books, thanks
mostly to two Half Price Book stores that have recently opened
in Columbus. I snagged all sorts of spiffy stuff you'll most likely
be hearing about in the near or moderately far future. I also got
through the latest issues of
The Economist
and The Atlantic Monthly, both of which I found almost uniformly interesting and which will spawn several pieces this week.
I finally obtained a copy of a political novel someone's
been carping at me to read for about 6 months, and I'm damned
glad I got around to reading
The
Gay Place by Billy Lee Brammer.
Brammer worked for L.B.J. in both Texas and Washington, D.C., and
the novel is a sort of roman a clef with a Texas Governer named
Fenstemaker playing the role of L.B.J. and several characters containing bits and pieces of Brammer (and if I were more savvy about Texas politics in the 1950s and early 1960s I'd probably
recognize more characters). I suppose I should mention that the
book doesn't overtly concern itself with homosexuality; the title comes from an obscure
poem by F. Scott Fitzgerald of which Brammer was fond.
What is does concern itself about is the politics of L.B.J. Indeed,
those who have both known L.B.J. and read the book consider
it the best portrait - fictional or otherwise - yet painted of that
curious man.
It's also considered one of the best American political novels
yet written. The cover of the
1978 Texas
Monthly (for which Brammer wrote for many years) reprint
edition I obtained contains a quote by David Halberstam touting
this and Warren's
All the King's Men as the
"two great American political novels." Except for broadening
the nominees to include
Democracy
by Henry Adams, I pretty much agree. (I'm also of a mind to include
Vidal's series of American history novels but I'll save that for
another time.)
This also makes my top 10 list of books evocative of Texas (along
with books by Larry L. King, Dan Jenkins, John Henry Faulk and
some others I'll have to spend a bit more time pondering).
This is a mostly and unjustly forgotten novel that deserves a
much wider readership. Fortunately, Amazon shows that it's
still available via a 1995 University of Texas Press reprint edition.
Note that All the King's Men is
among the "Customers who bought this book also bought:"
listings for this. Brammer never wrote another novel after this.
He started one, but the rift that developed between he and L.B.J.
because of the first novel (with Brammer being the only journalist
considered persona non grata in L.B.J.'s White House) killed
his muse. As is related in the introduction by Don Graham,
Brammer basically spent the next 25 years slowly dying, reaching
his destination in 1978. Fortunately for us, his magnum opus
didn't require a sequel.
posted by Steven Baum
12/30/1999 03:16:19 PM |
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