Graham notes that everyone these days is boosting Texas literature, from chain book vendors to newspaper book pages to Texas First Lady Laura Bush, sponsor of the annual Texas Book Festival, scheduled for November this year on the state Capitol grounds. On the other hand, Graham observes in one essay, many Texas writers are abandoning their craft in return for fast bucks writing film scripts and crime stories. Only nobody seems to have noticed. Graham said his remarks were meant to be provocative. But he clearly is concerned that the new crop of Texas writers does not seem drawn to the production of serious fiction.
Publishers are more congenial toward genre works, detective novels, crime novels.
It's like expecting a baseball team to win the World Series every year. For newcomers unfamiliar with Texas writers or for people who want to refresh their memories, Giant Country is a quick study on the careers of Dobie, Larry McMurtry, John Graves, Billy Lee Brammer, William Humphrey and Katherine Anne Porter, author of Pale Horse, Pale Rider, considered by many to be the greatest work of fiction by a Texas native.