God Save Texas: a Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State

ut the Lone Star State.
Wright, who lives in Austin, apparently wrote this book as an explanation/apologia to his New Yorker editor David Reminick.
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A rambling, baggy but quite pleasant stroll through Texas past (some) and present (moreso). Lawrence is an amazing journalist and one of our age's Important Writers. This book finds him in a more relaxed, personal mode - sharing a drink on a patio with an old friend under a wide Texas sky.

The book was definitely stronger in places where it seemed the author was more familiar with the subject (Austin, West Texas, Dallas - although as someone who also spent his teenage years there I disagree with Wright's premise that Dallas is actually slightly more enlightened than it gets credit for - it isn't). The sections along the Border seemed especially thin, and the Houston section could have been cut from any recent article in Texas Monthly or Travel & Leisure. But never mind - it's still a pleasure to sit back with the author for a while and contemplate the cosmic weirdness and ongoing tragedy of our impossible and essential state.