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    The Gay Place: Being Three Related Novels
    The Gay Place: Being Three Related Novels
    The Gay Place: Being Three Related Novels
    Audiobook17 hours

    The Gay Place: Being Three Related Novels

    Written by Billy Lee Brammer

    Narrated by George Guidall

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Since its 1961 publication, Billy Lee Brammer's book inspired by Lyndon B. Johnson has gained a cult following. It has been praised by the New York Times, Gore Vidal, and Larry King, and has been ranked alongside All the King's Men as one of the great American political novels. Brammer, who served on Lyndon Johnson's staff, uses his knowledge as a political insider to show the good and the bad of politics. Three interlocking tales each feature a different protagonist-a state legislator, a junior senator, and the governor's press secretary-and illuminate the figure of Arthur 'Goddam' Fenstemaker, a master politician and the governor of Texas. Considered a ruthless, exuberant politician, Fenstemaker works for the ultimate good of the people, even though he often employs questionable methods. After receiving glowing critical acclaim for The Gay Place, Brammer was unable to write another novel praised so highly. Consequently, this novel stands alone in its portrayal of Texas-and American-politics. "[A] classic American political [novel] ... stunning, original, intensely human ... It will be read a hundred years from now."-New York Times Book Review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 20, 2008
    ISBN9781440796227
    Author

    Billy Lee Brammer

    Billy Lee Brammer (1929–1978) was a journalist, political operative, and author born in Dallas, Texas. He worked as a newspaperman in Corpus Christi and Austin before becoming an editor at the Texas Observer magazine. He then joined the staff of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. While working for Johnson, he wrote the three novels that make up The Gay Place. He began work on a sequel, but never completed it, dying at age forty-eight of a drug overdose.

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    3.5/5

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    • 5/5
      The Gay Place consists of three interlocking novels that dip in and out of the lives of a group of Texas state legislators, one very junior senator, a series of wives, girlfriends, students, and journalists, and one very LBJ-like governor named Arthur "Goddamn" Fenstemaker. And the book is amazing. Brammer draws a picture of late 1950s Austin and the rising tide of young liberals in Texas politics with a keen eye and a light touch. Although some characters have a tendency to be clichéd, they are clichéd in exactly the way that politicians (and especially Texas politicians) work their cliché-magic. Even more than the politics, Brammer gives us an engrossing story of complicated men and women who drink too much, fall into bed too easily, and fail over and over again to attain the ideals they set for themselves, but somehow keep forgiving each other and trying all over again. And yet, even though depressing things happen all the time, the book as a whole isn't depressing at all. The writing is strong and varied, the dialogue spot-on, and the characters and plot have kept me thinking about this book for days and days.