I liked the fun, engaging authorial voice that Hess used in his acknowledgements, revealing a likable personality and a flare for language that carried over into the book.
I know Texas--at least Houston and Galveston--pretty well, so I can definitely picture some of the middle-class places and businesses that he talks about, that sort of preening Texas quaintness.
I think our characters might be sort of antiheroes, or in a world they don't understand, with some old-school Texas anti-intellectuality or ignorance, some anti-history, anti-"culture" attitudes. They're having to put up with people who care about historical this and that, and they just want to be utterly incurious business people or whatnot.
I think the author's work reminds me of something like John O'Hara's "Appointment in Samarra," with its portrayal of suburban or small-town values among the lower-middle class, middle-middle class, and upper-middle class. But Hess's book is shorter and more fun.
I know Texas--at least Houston and Galveston--pretty well, so I can definitely picture some of the middle-class places and businesses that he talks about, that sort of preening Texas quaintness.
I think our characters might be sort of antiheroes, or in a world they don't understand, with some old-school Texas anti-intellectuality or ignorance, some anti-history, anti-"culture" attitudes. They're having to put up with people who care about historical this and that, and they just want to be utterly incurious business people or whatnot.
I think the author's work reminds me of something like John O'Hara's "Appointment in Samarra," with its portrayal of suburban or small-town values among the lower-middle class, middle-middle class, and upper-middle class. But Hess's book is shorter and more fun.