Goodnight, Texas

By William J. Cobb

Book Overview

Besides Versailles, there was another palace that witnessed a flight of fancy--one original flight, and then tens of thousands of impregnated others. Their sum total? Perhaps "the French Revolution."

The Palais-Royal stands on the right bank, just north of the Louvre, with a huge garden space behind it. Cardinal Richelieu had lived there, Moliere played and died there, and later, the palace was given to the king's cousin, the Duc d'Orl ans. In 1780 the Duc gave it to his son, who, over the next few years, opened the gardens to the public and encouraged the most spectacular mix of pleasure and politics in all of Europe. The Palais, belonging to the nobility, was a privileged area that the police could not enter except by invitation. Without police, what could not go on in its arcades and above and below them? It became an enchanted place, a small luxurious city enclosed in a large one, lined with caf s filled with speechifiers, the gardens filled with swarming crowds, prostitutes low-class and high, pamphleteers and pickpockets, a daily carnival of every appetite, the cultural and political antipode--even nemesis--of the stately court at Versailles. There were singers and chess players, wig-makers and magic lantern shows, billiard parlors and lemonade stands, and the miniature cannon, astronomically situated so that at exactly noon, sunrays would fall upon a lens to light a fuse, to make a boom. As someone remarked, at the Palais, you might lose track of your morality, but at least you could set your watch.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932961267
• ISBN13: 9781932961263
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Unbridled Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

dying small Texas town

The Texas gulf town of Goodnight by the Sea, Texas is dying as the once profitable shrimping industry has tottered towards extinction due to the unfair global market and the destruction of the natural habitat by warmer temperatures. Former shrimper Gabriel Perez teaches driver's-ed and is now girlfriendless as Una Vu, a waitress, dumped him apparently for a fry cook Falk Powell. Russian restaurateur Gusef learns that an alleged extinct zebra fish has landed on the nearby beach with a dead horse inside its stomach. He wants to use the fish as bait to bring in some new customers. He sends his fry cook Falk to at least photograph the gigantic corpse while he works on ways to make money off the caucus before the hurricane that is coming blows it back out to sea at a time when Gabriel plans to harm his teenage rival. Readers will appreciate this look at a dying small Texas town with no future as events well beyond their control have destroyed their livelihood, aspirations, and future. The characters are a solid cast who make for a fine ensemble look at no tomorrow (except for the hustling Gusef) at least here with the hurricane symbolizing the end. Fans of strong character studies will want to visit GOODNIGHT, TEXAS where denial battles reality as hope is abandoned there. Harriet Klausner