LEAVING THE GAY PLACE | Kirk Reviews

Contents:

• THE GAY PLACE
• ‘LEAVG THE GAY PLACE’ AND ‘THE GAY PLACE’ REVIEW: THE TEXAS WAY
• THE GAY PLACE: BEG THREE RELATED NOVELS
• LEAVING THE GAY PLACE
• 'THE GAY PLACE' WAS ONE OF THE BT NOVELS OF S ERA; A NEW B TELLS THE DALLAS-BORN THOR'S VIVID STORY
• THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS

THE GAY PLACE

The Gay Place (1961) is a seri of three novellas, wh terlockg plots and characters, by Amerin thor Billy Lee Brammer. In most lists of Amerin polil fictn, Billy Lee Brammer’s “The Gay Place, ” published nearly 60 years ago, gets a spot, and rightly so.

” —Willie MorrisSet ep the heart of Texas, The Gay Place nsists of three terlockg novels—The Flea Circ, Room Enough to Caper, and Country Pleasur—each wh a different protagonist.

Origally published 1961, The Gay Place whstands the tt of time—the them of power, money, and fay are eternally ronant. 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.

‘LEAVG THE GAY PLACE’ AND ‘THE GAY PLACE’ REVIEW: THE TEXAS WAY

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. To that pot, I now spect someone I know stctured their personaly along the morals and verbiage of this book, but that's neher here nor Gay Place is geo and reads like a classic bee is one, wh all the benefs and shortgs that e wh that signatn. While I did love all the fely-not-LBJisms, the bt part of Gay Place was the easy, rich loly oozg down the pag.

As a kid who grew up wh policians tryg to tell me what "real Texas" was and (more often) was not, I found Gay Place's At to be rehg and validatg. Billy Lee Brammer was an LBJ staffer, but his boss never spoke to him aga after The Gay Place me out. It's not nearly as dry as that sounds, sce morn Texas polics n be fascatg; The Gay Place is so well-crafted would be worth readg jt for the novel aspect.

THE GAY PLACE: BEG THREE RELATED NOVELS

Brg up Billy Lee Brammer's The Gay Place, the Texas polil novel published 1961, and you'll get mixed reactns.

LEAVING THE GAY PLACE

The Gay Place won praise om Gay Tale, David Halberstam, Kathere Anne Porter, Willie Morris and Calv Trill, who lled the bt Amerin novel about polics wrten the 20th Lee Brammer cir 1960, an image om Leavg the Gay Place: Billy Lee Brammer and the Great Society, by Tracy Dgherty. Brammer and his book, the only one he pleted, are likely to attract a h round of attentn wh the publitn of Tracy Dgherty's Leavg the Gay Place: Billy Lee Brammer and the Great Society. Leavg the Gay Place: Billy Lee Brammer and the Great Society, by Tracy Dgherty(Universy of Texas Prs)Brammer was born Dallas 1929 and grew up Oak Cliff.

'THE GAY PLACE' WAS ONE OF THE BT NOVELS OF S ERA; A NEW B TELLS THE DALLAS-BORN THOR'S VIVID STORY

The future print would serve as the primary spiratn for the protagonist of The Gay Place. Wh a prcriptn) chased wh Dr Pepper to keep him Lee Brammer 1961, an image om Leavg the Gay Place: Billy Lee Brammer and the Great Society, by Tracy Dgherty.

(At-Amerin Statman / Universy of Texas Prs)Some of the bt sectns of Leavg the Gay Place ncern how Brammer's teractns wh Johnson helped shape The Gay Place.

Brammer was able to e the dynamics of his own failg marriage as material for The Gay Place as spe of mostly good reviews, The Gay Place failed to sell well. Kg, along wh Doatsy Shrake (seated, at left), Holly Gent Palmo, Pete Gent and Billy Lee Brammer an undated image om Leavg the Gay Place. Brammer wrote nsistently the years after The Gay Place, tryg unsuccsfully to fish a mancript he lled "Ftian Days.

THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS

Brammer spent the fal years of his life as a speed eak, eventually dyg of an Dgherty (Hannah Cm / Universy Prs of Texas)Dgherty reunts Brammer's saga and the tim which he lived pellg fashn, which mak Leavg the Gay Place one of this year's bt nonfictn books about thor W.

Leavg the Gay PlaceBilly Lee Brammer and the Great SocietyTracy Dgherty(Universy of Texas Prs, $29. After kickg off wh this aerial view of a vast wtern landspe, Billy Lee Brammer— his only published novel, The Gay Place—floats toward an unnamed state pal where the first stir of life the cy’s quiet streets is “an old tck rryg migratory tton pickers. Fenstemaker domat the three novellas that pose The Gay Place, even though he’s only sporadilly the foreground actn.

Aga and aga, the women The Gay Place aren’t jt playthgs. Brammer was wise to put the three to a sgle volume, if only bee that way he has been able to provi wh a full three-angle view of a splendid creatn named Arthur Fenstemaker, ernor of the state, a natural polician, sly, pragmatic, more cled to good than evil, blsed wh a roarg prose Gay Place, published when Brammer was 31, was a Book-of-the-Month club selectn.