A New York Times Notable Book • An NPR Best Book of the Year
"Beautifully written. . . . Essential reading [for] anyone who wants to understand how one state changed the trajectory of the country." --NPR
"Compelling. . . . Timely. . . . There is a sleeping giant in Texas, and Wright captures the frustration and the hope that reverberate across the state each time it stirs." --The Washington Post
"Superb. . . . An elegant mixture of autobiography and long-form journalism." --The New York Times Book Review
"Terrific. . . . Valuable and often provocative. . . . Wright's words could speak for both Texas and America." --The Dallas Morning News
"Vivid . . . Affectionate and genial . . . Capture[s] the full range of Texas in all its shame and glory . . . An illuminating primer for outsiders who may not live there but have a surfeit of opinions about those who do . . . It's a testament to Wright's formidable storytelling skills that a reader will encounter plenty of information without ever feeling lost." --The New York Times
"Important, timely, and riveting. . . . Wright, a lifelong Texan and acclaimed author, knows his way around the state's contradictions, from its wild borderlands to its craziest legislators." --New York
"A godsend . . . . Brilliant analysis. . . . Wright's treatment flows impressionistically from one topic to the next . . . introducing myriad characters in a cascade of crystalline sketches." --Newsday
"The most entertaining and edifying nonfiction book I've read so far this year . . . [Wright] is a rare beast: an elegant writer and a fearless reporter, with a sense of humor as dry as the plains of west Texas." --Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times
"At once a piece of journalism, a love letter to a place and a memoir.. . . [Wright] writes about his state with the fervor, knowledge, and ambivalence that comes from deep-seated familiarity." --The Wall Street Journal
"Wright's affectionate, eye-opening, and, at times, rueful love letter to his native state . . . This is Texas in all its fascinating outrageousness." --The Christian Science Monitor
"The reader comes away with an idea that the state is a place of competing melodies: a bit of Austin country, a few measures of Roy Orbison, a riff from Buddy Holley and, for [Wright], maybe a stanza of 'Home on the Range.'" --The Boston Globe
"Wright tames his sprawling subject matter with concise sentences and laser-precise word choice . . . Gives readers a front-row seat to the battle within the Texas GOP between business-oriented conservatives, led by House Speaker Joe Straus, and the social-conservative wing headed up by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick." --Houston Chronicle
"Both celebratory and melancholy. . . . The grand scale of Texas, and the sheer range of its places and people--Houston to El Paso, the Panhandle to the Valley--is inevitably compelling to any writer, and Wright is happy just trying to get his arms around it all." --Austin Chronicle
