“I see a young man on TV, riding a horse out of a barn, hugging a little girl. Let’s face it, I’m in the market for a useful idiot, and he’s strong and has that big goofy grin. So voila, there he is, the ideal candidate. He doesn’t have the brains of a plate of spaghetti, or seems not to. A cipher even to himself. Never even voted, can you believe it. Perfect, absolutely perfect. I’ll create him. I’ll be his Henry Higgins. And he’ll repay me with votes.” L.D. chuckled. “I had no idea what I was in for.”
Those are some lines from Lawrence Wright’s novel Mr. Texas. The speaker is the most powerful lobbyist in the Texas legislature, and he was shopping for someone to replace a representative who died unexpectedly. Someone he and his wealthy donor can control.
He finds Sonny Lamb, a struggling cattle rancher who has just gotten press for running into a burning barn to rescue a little girl’s horse. Sonny lives in an area of Texas that is struggling due to loss of water and grass, making it very hard to feed cattle. He believes he has a solution and agrees to run for office in the hopes that he can get support for his plan. But he has no idea how state government works and who holds the real power.
As the flyleaf says, “Sonny must learn the ropes, weighing his own ethics and environmental concerns against the pressures of veteran politicians, savvy lobbyists, and his own party.” His staff includes an old woman, a blind game theorist, and a trans researcher. Again, from the flyleaf, “Wright has crafted a hilarious, immensely clever roller-coaster ride about one man’s pursuit of goodness in the Lone Star State.”
If you’re looking for a thoroughly readable novel about the legislative process, then you must read Mr. Texas by Lawrence Wright.
