Goodnight, Texas

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Goodnight, Texas (11171 Unbridled) Pub. Date: 10/4/2007 Publisher: Unbridled Books
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Goodnight, Texas (New Edition) Pub. Date: 10/1/2006 Publisher: Unbridled Books

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Overview

The town of Goodnight by the Sea lies on a peninsula between two bays, Red Moon and Humosa, and for years its people have struggled to get by, profiting on its shrimping industry, making a few bucks from tourism, especially as a winter retreat for visitors from the Great Lakes. All that is about to change. The shrimping industry is in a slump. The off-shore oil fields are played out. Global warming is causing the sea levels to rise, putting the vacation homes and condos at risk of catastrophic storms. When Gabriel Perez, a local shrimper, gets laid off, he looks for someone to blame. The rich tourists are an easy target for his job woes, but that's not his only problem: He also manages to lose his girlfriend, Una Vu, a Vietnamese-American waitress, who is disgusted with both the smallness of her life and Gabriel's petty anger. Gabriel blames Falk Powell, a teenage co-worker of Una's, for stealing her heart.

Meanwhile Falk gets credit for discovering and photographing a giant fish beached on the shore, a huge creature that has swallowed a horse. Falk's employer, the Russian émigré and entrepeneur Gusef Smurov, has the giant fish taxidermied and mounted on the roof of his restaurant, The Black Tooth Café, and makes it into a tourist attraction. But before he can enjoy its benefits, a devastating hurricane hits Goodnight. A storm surge swamps the coastline, catching many off-guard. By the end, Gabriel has his vengeance, but the people of Goodnight are not defeated.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Goodnight by the Sea, Tex. (not to be confused with Goodnight in the Plains, 600 miles away), is a dying gulf coast town where global warming and international trade have made the once-reliable vocation of shrimping unprofitable. Alligators run amok while the West Nile virus picks off the elderly. When Russian restaurant owner Gusef learns a gigantic and thought-to-be-extinct zebra fish has beached itself nearby (replete with a dead horse in its belly), he dispatches his good-natured juvenile delinquent fry cook Falk to photograph it. As Gusef concocts schemes to capitalize on the dead fish, a hurricane brews in the gulf, portending possible doom for the town. The characters aren't particularly unique, but Cobb manages to breathe tragicomic life into them: Una, Falk's co-worker who wants more than Goodnight has to offer; Falk's adolescent cousin Leesha, who falls for Una's ex-boyfriend, Gabriel, the drunken bad boy turned driver's-ed instructor who in turn has it in for Falk. Though Cobb (The Fire Eaters) sometimes strives too hard for colloquial legitimacy ("nowadays you'd be lucky to catch a gafftop catfish a pound"), he expertly exploits the claustrophobic and incestuous atmosphere of smalltown Texas. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A prehistorically colossal zebra fish with a half-swallowed dead pony protruding from its mouth washes up on the shores of Goodnight, TX. To the wise and wizened locals, this offering from the sea is a bad sign. And, in fact, bad things have already started happening. The fishermen of Goodnight have lost their jobs owing to overfishing, the weather has turned unseasonably warm, and there is an abundance of disease-carrying mosquitoes. The lives of the townsfolk don't offer much more reason to hope. Falk, the orphaned teenager who works as a cook at the Black Tooth Cafe, nurtures an impossible love for the beautiful waitress, Una, who lives in a trailer with her overbearing mother and dreams of leaving Goodnight. Gabriel, her violent boyfriend, loses his shrimping job and becomes a predatory school bus driver, while Gusef, the Russian owner of the cafe, dispenses foreboding advice and faces the possible loss of his business. Cobb (The Fire Eaters) deals with the underlying issues of the destructiveness of nature and the ultimate redemption of humankind. Superbly written, dark and amusing, Cobb's portrait of this small town on the edge of disaster will stay with one long after the last page is turned. Highly recommended.-Joy Humphrey, Pepperdine Law Lib., Malibu, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781932961447
Publisher: Unbridled Books
Publication date: 10/4/2007
Edition description: 11171 Unbridled
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 955,255
Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 0.90 (d)

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harstan

Posted December 9, 2008

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a reviewer

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 has 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
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