End in Sight?
Cover photo courtesy of Benjamin Johnson, Loyola University of Chicago
Editor’s Note
End In Sight?
William Jensen
I saw a joke on twitter a while back that read, “Who would have thought that 2020 would turn out to be a trilogy?” It’s funny because it’s true. Get it?
It has been a weird time. I know I’ve seen a lot of things in the past few years that I never thought I’d experience. And it just keeps coming. It feels like yesterday that I wrote my editor’s note, “End of an Era,” where I pontificated about the Coronavirus, political angst, and natural disasters. That was one year into the pandemic. We were still talking about The Tiger King and baking sourdough. Simpler times.
For a while, things looked like they were getting better. People were getting vaccinated and taking off their masks. Friends held get-togethers. Schools returned to face-to-face. Restaurants re-opened. Then the Delta variant swooped in like an ugly dad-joke and sent everyone rushing for their N95s and their booster shots. Once again, as everyone thought it was safe to go outside, Omicron stood outside your door, drooling and waiting like an obsessed St. Bernard. But maybe now, just maybe, we truly are entering the end of this pandemic. Fingers crossed. Let’s cross our toes and our eyes just to be safe.
The yo-yoing between hope and despair this last year has left me dizzy. I bet you’re feeling a bit stressed and nauseated, too. It’s okay. We’re only human. It sucks, and sometimes things just suck.
This latest stretch of the slow-motion apocalypse has worn out everybody. We’re tired. And we’re hungry. Give us the snacks.
While some of us binged Mare of Eastown or White Lotus, a lot of us tried to get through our to-read pile of books on our nightstand. This summer I read The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth and The Letters of Shirley Jackson among others. Lately I’ve been on a thriller kick. Maybe the social distancing has driven me a bit mad and I need the adrenaline more than ever. It’s fun to dive into something that keeps you guessing, keeps you in suspense.
This issue of Texas Books in Review is a little late in arrival, so I’m sure a lot of you faithful readers have been in suspense too long. Don’t worry. We’re still here. Some of our contributors are familiar while others are new to our little publication. The same goes for the authors who get reviewed in this special issue. Former Texas Books in Review editor David Norman gives us his insights into a new thriller Gambled Dreams from Jim Sanderson, so if you are seeking your own adrenaline fix you should be sure to check that out. Similarly, I (the current editor of Texas Books in Review) have a few choice words about Moon Lake from Joe R. Lansdale. Lansdale is almost too prolific for us to keep up with. Someone is already working on a review on a new book from him. Try to keep up!
Of course, we cover all books Texan—not just the mysteries and the crime novels. A travelogue type memoir of poet Dave Oliphant, Travels of a Texas Poet, is reviewed in this issue, too. Oliphant, who has been part of the Lone Star State literary scene for decades recounts how traveling has affected him and his work. Anyone who enjoys poetry and literary biography will want to read the review of this memoir. For those more interested in true crime and local lore, we have a review of Texas Oblivion by the iconic E.R. Bills.
Hopefully, these books will find their way to your nightstand soon. It’s a good time to stock up on books. This issue of Texas Books in Review is a pretty good one. Besides welcoming all types of new books from the second biggest state in the union, all of us here at the Center for the Study of the Southwest get to welcome our new editorial fellow, Walter Furness. Walter is finishing up his PhD in geography and has become a happy member of our crazy family. He has helped us out a lot putting together this issue, too. We hope you enjoy this issue. We hope you enjoy everything that surrounds you. You never know when another variant is going to come bop, bop, bopping along.