Read God Save Texas A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State Lawrence Wright 9780525435907 Books

Product details Paperback 368 pages Publisher Vintage; Reprint edition (March 5, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 0525435905

God Save Texas A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State Lawrence Wright 9780525435907 Books Reviews

• A friend from another country once asked me why Texans are so proud of their state.
  
  Other than my dad’s attempt to move us to Florida when I was four (we moved back to Texas in eight months), and my year of teaching in Oklahoma, I’ve lived in Texas my whole life. My roots are deep here--there are two streets in Fort Worth named after my great-grandfather, whose father farmed the banks of the Trinity River. I’ve lived in East Texas, South Texas, North Texas, West Texas and the panhandle. I’m thoroughly Texan. In college, I was on the rodeo team—the Tarleton Texans. I mix Spanish with English, wear boots without irony, and know the price of cotton and cattle. I even--I hate to admit--have an armadillo tattoo (the official small mammal of Texas), a remnant of my Tarleton Texan days. Still, the question above is a tough one.
  
  In his book, “God Save Texas A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State,” Lawrence Wright attempts to answer that question and others.
  I read this book with more interest than I have any other in a long while. That’s partly because the material is familiar to me—the author writes about places I’ve visited, lived, and loved. But it’s also because of the author’s style. He is a remarkable writer who can really spin a yarn (Texan for “tell a story”) with vivid detail and subtle humor.
  
  One of Wright’s main subjects is the political culture of Texas, how it began, how it evolved, and why it matters, not just to Texas, but to the whole country. In short
  
  “The political story in Texas both reflects and influences the national scene.”
  
  Wright misrepresents nothing; Texas is exactly as he describes it. And he has the necessary background to get it right—he was born and raised in Texas and knows many of his subjects personally—George and Laura Bush among many others.
  
  In the early part of the book, Wright describes three levels of culture level one—the most basic and authentic level. The early German settlers in the Texas hill country built their homes from limestone because limestone is what was available. Level two culture is the least authentic, when a place adopts a foreign culture to become more sophisticated. Northeastern high rises in Austin, Texas, for instance. And level three—an informed return to the original culture “Returning to one’s roots with knowledge, self-confidence, and occasionally, forgiveness…Level Three requires shaking off the mythic illusions and telling new stories about who we really are.”
  
  These levels of culture are also stages that we pass through in life; maybe the author hints at that. His discussion of Level Three reflects his own position in writing this book. He isn’t blindly patriotic about his native state, but he’s not ashamed of it, either. Rather, he sees it accurately—the good and the bad, appreciates it for what it is, and helps readers do the same.
• Lawrence Wright is a noted writer of non-fiction - his book, "The Looming Tower" was a Pulitzer Prize winner - and one work of fiction. As an almost life-long resident of Texas, his latest book, "God Save Texas A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State", is a journey through the history of the state as well as a bit of a journey through his life. He and his family have lived decades in Texas - mostly in Austin - and he's lived though some of the most important events since 1950. His book is like a road trip through Texas with his interesting narrative along the way.
  
  Wright's written a rather idiosyncratic view of Texas. Less a history than assorted chapters about what has made Texas, Texas, Wright's book talks about history, politics, society, and that spirit that leaves much of the rest of the United States saying, "huh", when we hear about something outlandish that makes the news. Wright attempts to explain the vagaries of the Texas political structure, which has flipped almost completely from Democratic to Republican in the past 30 years. He also writes about the music scene and Texans timeless endearment of firearms. His book is also a love letter to the city of Austin and it's "Keep Austin Weird" vibe. But in all his writing, I couldn't detect much, if any nastiness about his subject. That's not saying Lawrence Wright is not critical about his beloved state, but what is said critically is said with a love the reader can't miss. Sort of like a parent writing about a much-loved, if slightly exasperating, child.
  
  It took me a while to read "God Save Texas". I began it on Tuesday when it was released and just finished it. It was a book that I savored. It was like the fact that I have liked every Texan I've ever met in the flesh, as opposed to who - and what - I see in the news. It's not difficult to dislike Texas and its people if you don't know any Texans or you haven't read a book like Lawrence Wright's.
• The only "soul" plumbed is revealed via an egocentric exercise by the author that thankfully begins to bubble to the surface only in the book's later stages. However, that is preceded by 250 pages decrying Texas' failure--with the exception of Austin, of course--to have morphed into California. One can visualize the author on his knees praying that Texas’ electoral votes will soon join California and New York in erecting an eternal barrier to any but Progressive candidates for national office. Lulling one into a false sense of the author's purpose, however, are the first 60-70 pages that offer cute vignettes describing Texas' origins and its heroes, but reader beware of the pitfalls to come.
  In one particularly pitiful chapter, the author describes the terrors of Hurricane Harvey, which he blames on global warming, which was, of course, the Republicans’ fault, but into which he declares himself forced to drive to work on a play that wasn’t going to open—for reasons obvious to everyone but him (aren’t Pulitzer Prize winners supposed to be smarter than that?).
  One might continue reading, as I did, hoping against hope for some semblance of sanity, or at least some recognition of reality. One can perceive humor, but it’s invariably unintended. In the final analysis, the last page arrives as an immense relief.