The Gay Place (1961) is a series of three novellas, with interlocking plots and characters, by American author Billy Lee Brammer. The novellas, published in a single book, include The Flea Circus, Room Enough to Caper and Country Pleasures. Set in an unnamed state identical to Texas, each novella has a different protagonist: Roy Sherwood, a member of the state legislature; Neil Christiansen, the state's junior senator; and Jay McGown, the governor's speechwriter. The governor himself, Arthur Fenstemaker, a master politician (said to have been based on Brammer's mentor Lyndon Johnson) serves as the dominant figure throughout. The book also includes characters based on Brammer, his wife Nadine, Johnson's wife Ladybird, and his brother Sam Houston Johnson
The book has been widely acclaimed one of the best American political novels ever written
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