God Save Texas

Starred review from January 15, 2018
Wright (The Terror Years), a Pulitzer winner and New Yorker staff writer, takes an unflinching look at Texas—the state where he has spent most of his life—in all its grandeur and contradictions. A clear-sighted and often witty reporter, Wright highlights the state’s past and present political figures (among them Lyndon Johnson, both Bush presidents, Ann Richards, and Ted Cruz); entrenched belief in low taxes and minimal regulation; booming economy of oil and technology exports; and track record of subpar social services and legislative accomplishments (redistricting, open carry and concealed carry gun laws). Wright also showcases three of the state’s fastest-growing cities: Houston, the only major U.S. metropolis without zoning laws; Dallas, with its history of reinvention after John F. Kennedy’s assassination and currently hot market for commercial construction; and Austin, with its high rate of start-up companies and its citizenry devoted to “quirky passions.” Interspersed throughout are the author’s personal reflections on growing up in Texas and on why he continues to live there. The demographics of this vast and diverse state suggest it’s far more progressive than its representatives, and its population is increasing at an astonishing rate. Wright’s large-scale portrait, which reveals how Texas is only growing in influence, is comprehensive, insightful, and compulsively entertaining. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency.

February 1, 2018
One of the state's most renowned writers takes readers deep into the heart of Texas.As a staffer for the New Yorker and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Wright (The Terror Years: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State, 2016, etc.) has illuminated a variety of intriguing subcultures. His native Texas is as exotic as any of them. He approaches his subject on a number of levels: as a stereotype, a movie myth, a cultural melting pot, a borderland, a harbinger of what is to come in an increasingly polarized and conservative country, and as a crucible that has shaped the character of a young writer who couldn't wait to escape but was drawn back. "Some maybe cowardly instinct whispered to me that if I accepted the offer to live elsewhere, I would be someone other than myself," he writes. "My life might have been larger, but it would have been counterfeit. I would not be home." The Austin-based author makes himself at home in these pages, traveling through Austin, Dallas, Houston, and El Paso and exploring the desolate wonders of Big Bend, "one of the least-visited national parks in the country, and also one of the most glorious," and the West Texas wonders of Marfa, Lubbock, and Wink. The chapter on the levels of Texas culture, an updated version of a Texas Monthly piece from 1993, is particularly incisive. But the misadventures of the Texas legislature are what will strike most readers with an uneasy mixture of amazement, amusement, and disbelief; one law, notes the author, allows citizens to "openly carry swords, a welcome development for the samurai in our midst." Once a Democratic bulwark (albeit conservatively so), the state has since become even more conservatively Republican, though a population that is not only growing, but growing younger and more diverse--the "Anglo" majority has become the minority--could make the state very much in play.A revelation--Wright finds the reflection of his own conflicted soul in the native state he loves and has hated.

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March 1, 2018

Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime Austin resident Wright (The Looming Tower; The Terror Years) delivers an impressive ode to the Lone Star State in this work that is outside his typical journalistic focus. Written in a balanced tone, this narrative examines Texas' historical, political, and social fabrics that make the present tapestry, revealing a portrait of one of the most perplexing American states. Wright's analyses of Hurricane Harvey and 2017 legislative battles, along with the ambush of Dallas police officers in 2016 give the work currency. However, this reviewer wishes that Wright would have had a chance to evaluate the Astros' championship and the Sutherland Springs church massacre. Beyond that untimely omission, the author has done a masterful service of revealing both the warts and beauty of Texas' big state of mind. VERDICT Highly recommended for Texans and non-Texans alike, who are interested in works about the current zeitgeist.--Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2018
Wright (The Terror Years, 2016) is a staff writer for the New Yorker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and a longtime resident of Texas. It is a state whose history, politics, and culture Wright finds endearing, repelling, and puzzling, all dependent upon which aspect he is exploring and describing. This thoughtful, engrossing, and often-amusing survey is a kind of waltz across Texas. Wright uses history, politics, and a series of vignettes to reveal a great deal about a state that may soon surpass California in population and economic dynamism. Wright shows how the activities of several intrepid and ruthless entrepreneurs fostered Texas' modern oil-based economy. He touches on the heritage of the cowboy culture, as seen through Charles Goodnight, who inspired Larry McMurtry's novel Lonesome Dove (1985). Wright provides an affectionate yet critical portrait of Lyndon Johnson. As a Texan, Wright despises the condescension and snobbery directed at his state, but he finds the casual bigotry and ignorance of many Texans infuriating. He recalls the bipartisanship that once characterized politics in contrast to the current domination by Republican ideologues. This is an important book about a state and people who will continue to have a large impact on the U.S.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)