It is hard to envision a person with such a distinguished collection of interests and literary achievements than Lawrence Wright, a Pulitzer Prize winner and staff writer for The New Yorker who has tackled the rise of al-Qaeda, Scientology, a global pandemic and the ever-entertaining, oft-perplexing theater of the absurd that is Texas politics.
Best known for his serious journalism and meticulous research, Wright, 76, easily could have been a Texan of the Year finalist previously for any of his countless plays, novels, essays, screenplays and nonfiction. However, this year it is Mr. Texas, a hilarious satirical peek at the Texas Legislature and political culture, that makes Wright a finalist for 2023 Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year.
Wright, who grew up in Dallas and lives in Austin, began as a race relations reporter in Nashville in 1971 and was a staff writer for Texas Monthly and a contributing editor to Rolling Stone before becoming a staff writer at The New Yorker in the early 1990s. His documentary series God Save Texas, based on his nonfiction account of the state’s conservative politics, will air at Sundance in January.
Mr. Texas, which began as an unproduced movie script when Ann Richards was governor and Democrats controlled the Texas Legislature, is smart social criticism that doesn’t devolve into cardboard stereotypes. Veteran Capitol watchers may see a mashup of their colleagues in the pages, characters and situations, proving that life in Texas’ political universe is often larger and stranger than fiction.
Wright’s Pulitzer Prize winning nonfiction, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, unveiled an uncomfortable reality of missed signs leading up to 9/11. Likewise, Mr. Texas explores Texas politics and culture in the spirit of the late columnist and political commentator Molly Ivins, who famously described Texas politics as “the finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”
Wright draws back the curtains to reveal that eccentricity through Sonny Lamb, a struggling West Texas rancher-turned-politician who demonstrates his business ineptness when he buys back the bull he put up at auction.
After Lamb saves a young girl from a barn fire, a shady political operative coaxes the newly minted hero to run for a seat in the Texas House. Devoid of political experience or definable purpose for seeking public office, Lamb wins and finds himself weaving through gantlets of soulless lobbyists, corrupt power brokers, vacuous conspiracy theorists and craven partisan hacks.
Through Lamb, we learn about the trajectory of Texas and its politics, the good, the bad and outrageous realities, especially the curious tradeoffs and deals that challenge ethics, commonsense and the public interest.
That’s the essence of social criticism that makes this book an entertaining read that leaves you laughing, smiling and even scowling at how political sausage is made. For that uncommon achievement, Wright is a Texan of the Year finalist.
We are announcing our Texan of the Year finalists in a countdown to naming the 2023 honoree on Sunday, Dec. 31. You can follow all of the finalists as they are published at dallasnews.com/opinion/texanoftheyear.
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