{"id":1278,"date":"2018-12-31T16:32:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2018-12-31T16:32:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:32:43","slug":"1273","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1278","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Review: GOD SAVE TEXAS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a former life, I was a paralegal for an international law firm in Dallas. During a conversation with a lawyer from Philadelphia, he told me something astonishing. According to him, neither does Pennsylvania require years of state history in school curriculum, nor do automobile manufacturers create Pennsylvania-edition SUVs. He\u2019d never experienced anything like the Texas identity juggernaut and wanted me to explain it. I\u2019m going to send him an email recommending Lawrence Wright\u2019s new book.<\/p>\n

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Wright focuses his razor-sharp lens inward and on his home state in God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State<\/em>. Austinite Wright is a staff writer for The New Yorker, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and author of ten books of nonfiction, including Pulitzer Prize winner The Looming Tower <\/em>(Alfred A. Knopf, 2006). God Save Texas<\/em> is history lesson, cultural criticism, reporting, and memoir. By turns funny and fond, disgusted and resigned, Wright defaults to weary exasperation, but he can\u2019t deny that only Texas feels like home.<\/p>\n

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God Save Texas<\/em> is written in first person, rare for Wright. When he references \u201cmy friend Steve,\u201d he is referring to beloved Texas writer Stephen Harrigan, with whom he has been close friends for decades and frequently debates questions of Texas\u2019s hegemonic personality. Wright claims you can get a crash course in Texan-ness by perusing the merchandise at Buc-ee\u2019s, which embodies Texas archetypes \u2014 \u201ca low-brow society \u2026 that finds its fullest expression in a truck stop on the interstate.\u201d This is harsh. Wright names the usual culprits: rugged individualism, simple patriotism, isolationism, nostalgia for a past that mostly never was, insubordination, braggadocio. \u201cIt\u2019s an irony that the figure who most embodies the values people associate with [Texas],\u201d Wright notes, \u201cis a narcissistic Manhattan billionaire now sitting in the Oval Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wright accuses Texas of \u201c[nurturing] an immature political culture\u201d that has harmed not only itself, but the entire country, because \u201cwhat happens here tends to disproportionately affect the rest of the nation,\u201d from textbooks to undemocratic redistricting schemes to the Tea Party to Alex Jones. Texas simultaneously reflects frontier myths and predicts the future. Thankfully, as Wright admits, the old stereotypes are softening around the edges with new stereotypes \u2014 hipsters, musicians, technology titans, and a growing artistic community. Texas has plenty to be proud of, and cautious optimism is excused.<\/p>\n

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Wright interjects personal anecdotes to enliven the facts and figures, sometimes approaching stream of consciousness. If you live in Texas and are sentient, then you won\u2019t find surprises in God Save Texas<\/em>. If you haven\u2019t been paying attention, it\u2019s a fine primer on policy, and it makes a collective impact gathered in one volume.<\/p>\n

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I admire Wright\u2019s work and his brain. He\u2019s a smart guy with a dry humor and a thoughtful, precise manner, though he meanders periodically here. The conclusion is disappointing because there isn\u2019t one; I wanted a grand summation of the thesis, but God Save Texas<\/em> ends abruptly.<\/p>\n

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Wright is conflicted, so why does he live here? For the same reason I do. Like Wright, I have left and returned. I have tried to be someone else, somewhere else, but those places aren\u2019t home. And to paraphrase from Attica Locke\u2019s Bluebird, Bluebird<\/em>, Texas is mine, too, and I refuse to surrender it.<\/p>\n

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* * * * *<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An editorial review of God Save Texas <\/em>by Lawrence Wright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[216,314,12,16],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bookreview","tag-lawrencewright","tag-lonestarreview","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}