Description
Book SynopsisThe award-winning author of The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion traces the cultural upheavals of mid-century America through the life of Billy Lee Brammer, author of the classic political novel The Gay Place.
Trade ReviewThe book is by turns a strong, clear biography (with shades of rock n roll memoir), a poetic ode to various places and people in midcentury Texas and an oral history, all of it plugging in to an increasingly turned-on, tuned-in and dropped-out Brammer. * Texas Observer *
A comprehensive and compelling account of a life lived by a unique character against the background of a tumultuous era. * Texas Monthly *
Daugherty recounts Brammer's saga and the times in which he lived in compelling fashion, which makes
Leaving the Gay Place one of this year's best nonfiction books about Texas. * Dallas Morning News *
Mr. Daugherty paints a persuasive picture of a young man as an ambitious novelist, feeling the frustration, in draft after draft, of trying to get a book exactly right. * Wall Street Journal *
[A] superbly gauged and powerfully evocative new biography. * Bookforum *
Stellar…For decades, the questions longtime devotees of
The Gay Place have asked are: Where did this one-of-a-kind masterpiece come from? And what the hell happened to its author? Daugherty's biography tells us. * The American Interest *
Daugherty does a very good job of describing both the promise and the sheer waste of Brammer's life. * Western American Literature *
Daugherty offers those interested in the rise and fall of American liberalism and [Lyndon] Johnson a unique and personal window into this turbulent time. * Journal of Southern History *
[Daugherty] has produced a rigorously researched and highly readable portrait that should expand interest in [Billy Lee Brammer], no small achievement when dealing with a figure whose standing in his home state is (in true Texas fashion) both immense and shrouded in obscurity...In
Leaving the Gay Place, Texas has gotten the thoughtful, flesh-and-blood account of this larger-than-life border-crosser it has long awaited. * Resources for American Literary Study *
A captivating new biography. * Porter House Review *
Table of ContentsPrologue: New Frontiers
Part One: Rural Electrification
Part Two: Electronic Noise
Part Three: Electrical Violations
Part Four: The Body Electric
Epilogue: The Great Society
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
