Opening Scene of Billy Lee

¶ … opening scene of Billy Lee Brammer's 1961 novel, the Gay Place offers a lyrical description of the Texas landscape, etching the imagery into the reader's mind. "It begins...in an ancient backwash of old dead seas and lambent estuaries, around which rise cypress and cedar and pine thickets hung with spiked vines and the cheerless festoons of Spanish moss," (p. 3). The ambiguous, almost sinister scene sets the stage for what becomes a striking political commentary. Based on Brammer's first-hand experience of Texas politics and culture, the Gay Place provides a realistic insight into former President Lyndon B. Johnson. Although fictionalized, the story of the Gay Place hit so close to home that the novel is considered more a work of American political commentary than literature.

The Gay Place is oddly structured, which seems to parallel Texas politics and politicians. Brammer divides the book into three distinct sections, each of which represents a stand-alone story. Yet the stories all revolve around one central character: Governor Arthur "Goddamn" Fenstemaker.

Fenstemaker propells the narrative even if he is never technically the protagonist in any of the stories. Rather, Brammer's protagonists are those who work with Festemaker. The stories suggest how politicians create the culture around them, affecting the lives and identity development of others. Just as the author worked with Lyndon B. Johnson, the protagonists in each of the Gay Place's sections work closely with the central politician.

In each of the three sections of the Gay Place, characters divulge as much about Arthur Fenstemaker and Texan politics as they do about themselves. Brammer uses the tripartite format to convey the complexity of Texan politics and culture in the 1950s. The novellas that comprise the Gay Place are called, in order, "The Flea Circus," "Room Enough to Caper," and "Country Pleasures." The respective protagonists include a member of the state legislature, the state's junior senator, and the governor's press secretary.

The author deftly changes tone as he shifts between the three stories. This allows readers to truly get the sense of how individuals living and working in a politically-charged environment deal with conflict differently. Moreover, each story conveys a different tone. The many facets of Texan political and social life are thereby revealed. Unfortunately none of the stories are about a gay bath house; the title of the novel has nothing to do at all with homosexuality. If it did, the stories might become even more fascinating, as they would have revealed Texan culture from a totally different perspective than the one Brammer provides. Brammer's title is borrowed from a line from F. Scott Fitzgerald: "I heard Helena / in a haunted doze / Say: "I know a gay place / Nobody knows." (Olsson). In all of the three individual stories, humor is a major literary tool that prevents the Gay Place from slipping into a monotonous diatribe. As the opening scene of "The Flea Circus" suggests, Texas's culture mirrors its landscape: a series of languishing monotony punctuated by the occasional prickle. Austin might have changed a lot since Brammer wrote the Gay Place, and in fact is one of the only places in Texas that can easily fit the title. However, Texas has changed relatively little since the 1960s. Especially in light of the ways oil and politics are in bed together, Texan politics has changed hardly at all.

If the Gay Place is treated as a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, then the author treads into fairly treacherous waters. Governor Arthur "Goddamn" Fenstemaker is a complex character and a quintessential politician. He is at once an everyman's guy with his incessant cursing. And yet he is an arrogant politician too. With his intense hubris, Fenstemaker manipulates everyone around him, which is why the author presents the Governor's impact from the perspective of three different people. None of the protagonists are better off having worked with the Governor. In fact, the first, the state legislator, falls into a spiral of alcoholism and self-loathing. The second protagonist, the junior senator, is an even more loathsome character who is being blatantly used by the Governor. All scruples fly out the window when it comes to politics. Then the third novel shows how politics impacts the personal lives of all those involved, tearing apart marriages and destroying consciences.