A Book Lover in Texas Book

A personal and professional memoir of a major literary catalyst in the state of Texas on radio, and the lecture platform, as author, agent, teacher, and book collector. Her review broadcasts hold the national record for forty-five years on the air.

Oppenheimer pulls no punches in her evaluation of books, writers, and the societies and organizations related to them, including anecdotes about such literary and artistic stars as Irving Stone, Willie Morris, Peter Hurd, Agatha Christie, Herman Wouk, Leon Uris, James Michener, Jacquelin Susann, and Alistair Cooke. She also tells of her own life and that of a grander and more elegant generation of Dallasites.

Publishers Weekly

Oppenheimer describes, in this salty memoir, her long career as a radio book reviewer, literary agent, lecturer and author (The Articulate Woman). Growing up in Dallas's small Jewish community in the early part of the century, Oppenheimer began her love affair with literature in childhood, and it was strengthened during the time she spent as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago during the 1930s, when she reviewed books for local newspapers. Opinionated and irreverent, she expresses her disgust at the current trend toward sex and horror of books published today. She also feels that the East Coast literary establishment is unappreciative of Western authors, and she attacks the concept of ``regional writing'' as snobbish. She dislikes the work of many renowned novelists, such as John Updike, Philip Roth, William Faulkner and James Joyce, but she has high praise for Louis L'Amour, Wallace Stegner and Toni Morrison. Included is some poetry and a short story written by Oppenheimer. For devotees of her radio shows, this memoir is literate, occasionally gossipy fun. (July)