"The Gay Place", Billy Lee Brammer: Classic Unearthed in Austin

I paid seven bucks maybe, maybe three bucks for this copy of Brammer's The Gay Place at the Lamar Half-Priced Books in Austin. That was the same trip I found my first paperback edition of Gravity's Rainbow.

The Gay Place is a collection of three novels (The Flea Circus, Room Enough to Caper, and Country Pleasures) tells the story of a quaint city where the two major power institutions that control the whole town are the University and the state government. It captures the city of Austin at a magical place in its history, before the high-tech industry came in and before Texas politics devolved into what it has (as has the country in general, what with the lack of bipartisan discourse and discussion). The bombastic governor is known as "Goddamn" Fenstemaker, and was modeled after Billy Lee's good close friend (at the time) Gov. Lyndon Johnson, who went on to be Vice President, and eventually President.

Brammer has crafted a novel that ranks in the top three American political novels in history. It's too bad that it is out of print, generally hard to find, and may have caught a stigma from it's title. It is excellent.

Billy Lee Brammer had an eventual falling out with LBJ and never finished any other literature piece before or after. He died at age 48 after getting barred from the White House. After the Kennedy assassination he was tasked with a biography of the new President. That didn't work out.

Bummer. If you know Austin, I suggest the read.