ustxtxb_obs_1998_04_10_50_00025-00000_000.pdf

Not for everyone, perhaps. Still, these novels have their appeal at least for those who can appreciate an implausible tale completely out of sync with the zeitgeist of our times. Moreover, there are those who will be enticed by books sprinkled with Persian rugs, Battenburg lace, and tricot de laine. It is Lud, that worst-looking of all his books, that remains one of my favorite Texas novels. When we meet the central character, Lud Daingerfield, son of an elderly Confederate veteran and a young society belle, he is seven years old, and playing outside his mother’s room at the St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio. Born to wealth, young Lud is club-footed, and always wondering what caused him to be crippled. At length he learns that his mother deliberately maimed him in infancy \(a hideous thought, but probably reflecting a pop-psychology notion of the time, that finds his way to his grandfather’s ranch near San Angelo where, in a womanless world, he grows to manhood under the guidance of his organ-playing French Calvinist grandfather and a young rakehell ranch hand. His grandfather dies, and the now-grown Lud returns to San Antonio, where no thanks to his mother he finds life’s right path after all. Perhaps it’s the quirkiness of my own upbringing \(in a Baptist parsonage, where toy cap pistols and mock Bowie knives prefer my Texas ranchers as hymn-playing Calvinists, who attend faithfully to their family devotions and mean no harm to anyone. In my view, the Shreveport cousin’s widow summed up Joseph’s character best: “How impractical Donald was; how grand his gestures.” Dwight Fullingim is the son of a Baptist minister and a long-time student of Texas letters, who now pursues his literary speculations from a corporate office in Saudi Arabia. Send the Whether you’re in Buda, Bula or Buna, you can make the Observer available to your local Observer library and your neighbors for only $2.5. Your Name Address City/State/Zip Phone Please circle the library or libraries of your choice below. If your local library does not appear on this list, call the Observer at The Texas Observer 307 W. 7th St. Austin, TX 78701 http://texasobserver.org [email protected] Number of Subs E Check enclosed Bill me to your Public Library Abernathy Abilene Alamo Aledo Alice Allen Alpine Alvarado Alvord Amarillo Anahuac Andrews Angleton Anson Aransas Pass Archer City Arlington Aspermont Athens Atlanta Aubrey Austin Azle Baird Balch Springs Ballinger Bandera Barksdale Bartlett Bastrop Bay-City Baytown Beaumont Beelfetel Beeville Bellaire Bellville Belton Big Lake Big Spring Blanco Boerne Bonham Booker Borger Bowie Boyd Brackettville Brady Breckenridge Brenham Bridge City Bridgeport Brownfield Brownsville Brownwood Bryan Buda Buffalo Bula Bulverde Buna Burkburnett Burleson Burnet Caldwell Cameron Canadian Canton Canyon Canyon Lake Carrizo Springs Carrollton Carthage Castroville Cedar Hill Cedar Park Celina Center Centerville Charlotte Chico Childress Cisco Clarendon Clarksville Claude Cleburne Cleveland Clint Clyde Cockrell Hill Coldspring Coleman Colorado City Columbus Comanche Comfort Commerce Conroe Converse Cooper Coppell Copperas Cove Corpus Christi Corrigan Corsican Cotulla Crandall Crane Crockett Crosbyton Cross Plains Crowell Crowley Crystal City Cuero Daingerfield Dalhart Dallas Dayton Decatur Deer Park Del-Rio DeLeon Dell City Denison Benton Denver City DeSoto Devine Diboll Dickinson Dimmitt Donna Dripping Springs Dublin Dumas Duncanville Eagle Lake Eagle Pass Earth Eastland Eden Edinburg Edna El-REM Eldorado Electra Elgin Elsa Emory Ennis CuIc33 Everman Fabens Fairfield Falfurrias Falls City Farmers Branch Farmersville Ferris Flatonia Florence Floresville Flower Mound Floydada Forney Fort Davis Fort Hancock Fort Stockton Fort Worth Frankston Fredericksburg Friendswood Friona Frisco Gainesville Galveston Garland Gatesville George West Georgetown Giddings Gilmer Gladewater Glen Rose Goliad Gorman Graham Granbury Grand Prairie Grand Saline Grapevine Greenville Groesbeck Groves Groveton Gruver Guthrie Hale Center Hallettsville Haltom City Hamilton Harker Heights Harlingen Haskell Hawkins Hearne Hebbronville Hemphill Hempstead Henderson Henrietta Hereford Hewitt Higgins Hillsboro Hitchcock Hondo Honey Grove Hooks Houston Howe Huntsville Hurst Hutchins Idalou Imperial Ingleside Iowa Park Iraan Irving Jacksboro Jacksonville Jasper Jayton Johnson City Jonestown Joshua Jourdanton Junction Justin Karnes City Kaufman Keller Kendalia Kenedy Kennedale Kermit Kerrville Kilgore Killeen Kingsville Kirbyville Kountze Krum Kyle La Feria Ea-Grange Ea-Marque Laguna Vista Lake Dallas Lake Worth Lamesa Lampasas Lancaster Laredo League-City Leakey Leander Leonard Levelland Lewisville Liberty Lindale Littlefield Livingston Llano Lockhart Longview Los Fresnos Lubbock Lufkin Luling Lumberton Lytle Mabank Madisonville Malakoff Mansfield Maria Marion Marlin Marshall Mason Matador Mathis Maud McAllen McCamey McGregor McKinney McLean Melissa Memphis Menard Mercedes Mertzon Mesquite Mexia Miami Midland Midlothian Mineola Mineral Wells Mission Monahans Morton Mount Calm Mt. Pleasant Mt. Vernon Muenster Muleshoe Munday Neeegeloehes Navasota Nederland New Boston New-Braunfels New Waverly Newark Newton Nocona North Richland Hills Odem Odessa Olney Grange Ozona Paducah Paint Rock Palacios Palestine Pampa Panhandle Paris Pasadena Pearsall Perryton Petersburg Pflugerville Pharr Pilot Point Pineland Pittsburg Plains Plainview Plane Pleasanton Ponder Port Aransas Port Arthur Port Isabel Port-L-Cvaea Port Neches Portland Post Poteet Pottsboro Presidio Quanah Quemado Quitaque Quitman Rankin Raymondville Refugio Rhome Rieherdson Richland Hills Richmond Rio Grande City Rio Hondo Roanoke Robert Lee Rockdale Rockport Rockwall Rotan Hound-Rook Rowlett Runge Rusk Sabinal Sachse Saginaw Salado San-Angelo SenAntenie San Augustine San Benito San Diego San-Niefeers San Saba Sanderson Sanger Santa Anna Santa Fe Schertz Schulenburg Seagoville Sealy Seguin Seminole Seven Points Seymour Shamrock Shepherd Sheridan Sherman Shiner Silsbee Silverton Sinton Slaton Smiley Smithville Snyder Sonora Sour Lake Spearman Springtown Spur Stamford Stanton Stephenville Sterling City Stratford Sulphur’ Springs Sunnyvale Sweetwater Taft Tahoka Taylor Teague Temple Terrell Texarkana Texas-64y Texlin0 The Colony Tornillo Trinity Troup Tulia Tyler Universal City Utopia Uvalde Valley Mills Van Alstyne Van Horn Vega Venus Vernon Victoria Vidor Weee Waelder Wallis Watauga Waxahachie Weatherford Weimar Wellington Wesleee West West Tawakoni Wharton Wheeler White Settlement Whitehouse Whitesboro Whitewright Whitney Wiehiter Falls Wilmer Wimberley Winnsboro Winters Wolfe City Wolfforth Woodville Wylie Yoakum Yorktown Zapata List provided by the Texas Library Association APRIL 10, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 25