MAY 2018 - AudioFile
Lawrence Wright lives in Austin, Texas, a funky "blue freckle" in a red state. He tours both the physical and political landscapes of Texas, offering both criticism and defense for his home in the wake of a national political shift. Wright doesn't speak with a twang anymore, but he demonstrates it occasionally as he quotes other natives. His soft-spoken narration is engaging, with the wry turns of phrase creeping up on listeners. He takes listeners on a tour of diverse, affordable Houston and reports debate over transgender bathroom rights in the state legislature. He also recalls the gubernatorial career of a radio personality who presaged President Trump. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The New York Times Book Review - David Oshinsky
…Lawrence Wright's superb new book, God Save Texas…is his most personal work yet, an elegant mixture of autobiography and long-form journalism, remarkably free of elitist bias on the one hand, and pithy guidebook pronouncements on the other. For those seeking the joys of line-dancing or the 10 best rib joints in Waco, this is not your book.
The New York Times - Jennifer Szalai
…affectionate and genial, yet dry as desert scrubland. Wright's…omnivorous sensibility suits his latest subject, helping him to capture the full range of Texas in all its shame and glory. His new book is both an apologia and an indictment: an illuminating primer for outsiders who may not live there but have a surfeit of opinions about those who do…The book rambles far and wide, and it's a testament to Wright's formidable storytelling skills that a reader will encounter plenty of information without ever feeling lost…His tone is gentle, occasionally chiding, and he seems most comfortable in the center lane, allowing the road hogs to pass by while he holds steady at the wheel. Certain readers might crave more righteous anger from someone writing about Texas, especially now, when there's little room for agreement and plenty at stake. But Wright's project is perspective, not conquest. In a chapter on Texas culture, he praises the work of contemporary artists who have returned to their Texas roots "with knowledge, self-confidence, and occasionally, forgiveness." God Save Texas is his vivid bid to do the same.
Publishers Weekly
★ 01/15/2018
Wright (The Terror Years), a Pulitzer winner and New Yorker staff writer, takes an unflinching look at Texas—the state where he has spent most of his life—in all its grandeur and contradictions. A clear-sighted and often witty reporter, Wright highlights the state’s past and present political figures (among them Lyndon Johnson, both Bush presidents, Ann Richards, and Ted Cruz); entrenched belief in low taxes and minimal regulation; booming economy of oil and technology exports; and track record of subpar social services and legislative accomplishments (redistricting, open carry and concealed carry gun laws). Wright also showcases three of the state’s fastest-growing cities: Houston, the only major U.S. metropolis without zoning laws; Dallas, with its history of reinvention after John F. Kennedy’s assassination and currently hot market for commercial construction; and Austin, with its high rate of start-up companies and its citizenry devoted to “quirky passions.” Interspersed throughout are the author’s personal reflections on growing up in Texas and on why he continues to live there. The demographics of this vast and diverse state suggest it’s far more progressive than its representatives, and its population is increasing at an astonishing rate. Wright’s large-scale portrait, which reveals how Texas is only growing in influence, is comprehensive, insightful, and compulsively entertaining. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
A New York Times Notable Book • An NPR Best Book of the Year
“Beautifully written. . . . Essential reading [for] anyone who wants to understand how one state changed the trajectory of the country.” —NPR
“Compelling. . . . Timely. . . . There is a sleeping giant in Texas, and Wright captures the frustration and the hope that reverberate across the state each time it stirs.” —The Washington Post
“Superb. . . . An elegant mixture of autobiography and long-form journalism.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Terrific. . . . Valuable and often provocative. . . . Wright’s words could speak for both Texas and America.” —The Dallas Morning News
“Vivid . . . Affectionate and genial . . . Capture[s] the full range of Texas in all its shame and glory . . . An illuminating primer for outsiders who may not live there but have a surfeit of opinions about those who do . . . It’s a testament to Wright’s formidable storytelling skills that a reader will encounter plenty of information without ever feeling lost.” —The New York Times
“Important, timely, and riveting. . . . Wright, a lifelong Texan and acclaimed author, knows his way around the state’s contradictions, from its wild borderlands to its craziest legislators.” —New York
“A godsend . . . . Brilliant analysis. . . . Wright’s treatment flows impressionistically from one topic to the next . . . introducing myriad characters in a cascade of crystalline sketches.” —Newsday
“The most entertaining and edifying nonfiction book I’ve read so far this year . . . [Wright] is a rare beast: an elegant writer and a fearless reporter, with a sense of humor as dry as the plains of west Texas.” —Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times
“At once a piece of journalism, a love letter to a place and a memoir.. . . [Wright] writes about his state with the fervor, knowledge, and ambivalence that comes from deep-seated familiarity.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Wright’s affectionate, eye-opening, and, at times, rueful love letter to his native state . . . This is Texas in all its fascinating outrageousness.” —The Christian Science Monitor
“The reader comes away with an idea that the state is a place of competing melodies: a bit of Austin country, a few measures of Roy Orbison, a riff from Buddy Holley and, for [Wright], maybe a stanza of ‘Home on the Range.’” —The Boston Globe
“Wright tames his sprawling subject matter with concise sentences and laser-precise word choice . . . Gives readers a front-row seat to the battle within the Texas GOP between business-oriented conservatives, led by House Speaker Joe Straus, and the social-conservative wing headed up by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.” —Houston Chronicle
“Both celebratory and melancholy. . . . The grand scale of Texas, and the sheer range of its places and people—Houston to El Paso, the Panhandle to the Valley—is inevitably compelling to any writer, and Wright is happy just trying to get his arms around it all.” —Austin Chronicle
MAY 2018 - AudioFile
Lawrence Wright lives in Austin, Texas, a funky "blue freckle" in a red state. He tours both the physical and political landscapes of Texas, offering both criticism and defense for his home in the wake of a national political shift. Wright doesn't speak with a twang anymore, but he demonstrates it occasionally as he quotes other natives. His soft-spoken narration is engaging, with the wry turns of phrase creeping up on listeners. He takes listeners on a tour of diverse, affordable Houston and reports debate over transgender bathroom rights in the state legislature. He also recalls the gubernatorial career of a radio personality who presaged President Trump. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2018-01-08
One of the state's most renowned writers takes readers deep into the heart of Texas.As a staffer for the New Yorker and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Wright (The Terror Years: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State, 2016, etc.) has illuminated a variety of intriguing subcultures. His native Texas is as exotic as any of them. He approaches his subject on a number of levels: as a stereotype, a movie myth, a cultural melting pot, a borderland, a harbinger of what is to come in an increasingly polarized and conservative country, and as a crucible that has shaped the character of a young writer who couldn't wait to escape but was drawn back. "Some maybe cowardly instinct whispered to me that if I accepted the offer to live elsewhere, I would be someone other than myself," he writes. "My life might have been larger, but it would have been counterfeit. I would not be home." The Austin-based author makes himself at home in these pages, traveling through Austin, Dallas, Houston, and El Paso and exploring the desolate wonders of Big Bend, "one of the least-visited national parks in the country, and also one of the most glorious," and the West Texas wonders of Marfa, Lubbock, and Wink. The chapter on the levels of Texas culture, an updated version of a Texas Monthly piece from 1993, is particularly incisive. But the misadventures of the Texas legislature are what will strike most readers with an uneasy mixture of amazement, amusement, and disbelief; one law, notes the author, allows citizens to "openly carry swords, a welcome development for the samurai in our midst." Once a Democratic bulwark (albeit conservatively so), the state has since become even more conservatively Republican, though a population that is not only growing, but growing younger and more diverse—the "Anglo" majority has become the minority—could make the state very much in play.A revelation—Wright finds the reflection of his own conflicted soul in the native state he loves and has hated.
