Mr. Texas

Journalist and novelist Wright, whose nonfiction work The Looming Tower won the Pulitzer Prize, brings decades of insider knowledge to bear in this devilishly witty send-up of Texas politics. The novel opens at a funeral in West Texas; the death of a longtime Democratic state representative has drawn head honchos from Austin sniffing a chance to flip the seat. Among them is L.D. Sparks, a lobbyist scouting for a Republican replacement. A news clip of a local rancher bursting through flames to save a horse from a burning barn leads Sparks to military veteran Sonny Lamb, who with his wife, Lola, is struggling to hold onto his herd amid a devastating drought. Sparks sees “pure political gold” in the video and tells the dumbfounded Lambs he can get Sonny elected, casting the rancher’s lack of experience as “a chance to write your own script.” The plan works, and the bumbling and good-hearted Lamb suffers a few knocks while adjusting to his new life in Austin, where he eventually starts resisting his party’s puppetmasters. Though the fable-like ending is a bit too transparently written for big-screen adaptation, Wright never loses sight of the dark consequences of all the political shenanigans. No one emerges unscathed in this rollicking satire. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Sept.)