Return to The Gay Place – Texas Monthly

Contents:

• RETURN TO THE GAY PLACE
• THE GAY PLACE
• THE GAY PLACE
• THE GAY PLACE: BEG THREE RELATED NOVELS
• THE GAY PLACE
• THE GAY PLACE - SOFTVER
• GAY PLACE BY WILLIAM BRAMMER (9 RULTS)
• GAY PLACE BY WILLIAM BRAMMER, FIRST EDN (4 RULTS)
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

RETURN TO THE GAY PLACE

Published forty years ago, a novel lled The Gay Place ptured a perd Texas that today may seem as archaic as the book’s tle, but s power bridg the years and generatns gone by. Wh nary a sharecropper or a horseman, The Gay Place was Texas’ first succsful urban novel. It do not, however, explore gay and lbian sexualy (though today often wds up misplaced that sectn of bookstor.

) For centuri “gay” has suggted joy, brilliance, and mirth; the thor found his gaiety the boozy, ctuo liv of policians, journalists, and mp followers At the fifti.

THE GAY PLACE

Billy Lee lifted his tle om a le a wistful Fzgerald poem (“I know a gay place / Nobody knows”) and ed as an epaph for the At he had known, and for love self. Comprisg three novellas, lled “The Flea Circ, ” “Room Enough to Caper, ” and “Country Pleasur, ” The Gay Place has two nnective sews: the theme of maral alienatn and fily and an outrageo Texas ernor lled Arthur “Goddam” Fenstemaker.

Like most fictnal characters, The Gay Place’s Arthur Fenstemaker was a montage of persons real and imaged, but Billy Lee worked for LBJ for several years when Johnson was the U. The shame was what he chose to do to the time of s publitn, The Gay Place was herald as a lerary triumph, not a polil tattletale.

Only two are still prt and much remembered: The Gay Place and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Authors as distguished as Gore Vidal, Ronnie Dugger, and the late Willie Morris have praised The Gay Place as one of the bt novels ever wrten about Amerin polics.

THE GAY PLACE

David Halberstam, the thor of The Bt and the Brightt and other splendid books about the natn’s life, says of his iend’s novel, “The Gay Place still stands as one of those really rare brilliant achievements.

THE GAY PLACE: BEG THREE RELATED NOVELS

Of the polil novels our lerature, only two rank wh The Gay Place: Robert Penn Warren’s All the Kg’s Men and now Joe Kle’s Primary Colors—though remas to be seen if Kle’s book will endure as a work of art.

” Years before Kle anonymoly published his roman à clef about the Cltons, he wrote about The Gay Place: “Brammer’s unwtg triumph was to disver the perfect stcture for munitg the exasperatg unrealy of the master polician. ”For Texas wrers, The Gay Place reached far beyond polics.

THE GAY PLACE

And The Gay Place ntu to spire a host of talents. More than any other book or film, The Gay Place ptur the spir and verve of At.

THE GAY PLACE - SOFTVER

The state’s polics has performed a 180-gree flip the four s sce The Gay Place was published. And the At idyll suggted by The Gay Place’s openg passage is a the book holds up.

The Gay Place succeeds bee s characters have texture, ronance, and pth.

A first novel, The Gay Place stands at ease among them.

GAY PLACE BY WILLIAM BRAMMER (9 RULTS)

”One of those transactns poured fuel on her rentment and played an important role the birth of The Gay Place.

GAY PLACE BY WILLIAM BRAMMER, FIRST EDN (4 RULTS)

Tryg to make more money, Bill started wrg the novel that evolved to The Gay Place. The Gay Place brought jt a $1, 500 advance, but the al was prtig, lerary.

In June his edors announced that The Gay Place had won a Houghton Miffl Lerary Fellowship. (McMurtry’s ranchg novel beat out The Gay Place for the Texas Instute of Letters’ prize for fictn that year. Columbia studs bought the movie rights to The Gay Place for $25, 000.

But he persisted tryg to wre a sequel to The Gay Place. Once more they were back At and make matters worse, the film of The Gay Place never got ma. Set Texas, The Gay Place nsists of three terlockg novels, each wh a different protagonist—a member of the state legislature, the state's junr senator, and the ernor's prs secretary.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

Origally published 1961, The Gay Place is at once a cult classic and a major Amerin novel. While workg for Johnson, he wrote the three novels that make up The Gay Place.

All-fictn ameri polricks553 reviews121 followersMarch 16, 2018What Robert Penn Warren did for Louisiana polics wh ALL THE KING'S MEN, the late Billy Lee Brammer tried to do wh Texas polics THE GAY PLACE. THE GAY PLACE is a book I'm always happy to "Gay" here is ed s tradnal meang of "jubilant, " "ftive. "442 reviews134 followersJanuary 24, 2013The Gay Place's reputatn as the greatt novel about Texas polics ever wrten was well-served.

982 reviews163 followersJuly 17, 2019A Gay Place is 3 related novels about Texas polics. It’s not unual ( fact, ’s very normal) for a novel’s protagonist to be s thor light disguise, but ’s a ltle tragic to see an thor wh the cleverns to regnize the personaly type but lackg the abily to see and remedy 6 books4 followersAugt 22, 2011The Gay Place, a novel wh a tle that today suggts somethg entirely different than when wrten 40 years ago, is wily regard by many reviewers as the bt ever work of fictn about Texas polics.