The Purse Bearer

Overview

This novel explores the underbelly of the almost always politically incorrect world of politics and campaigning in Texas in the 1980s. Rose Marie "Red" Ryder made a name for herself by becoming the first female state comptroller of Texas and she is now running to become the first woman U.S. senator from the Lone Star State. Ryder's campaign team is a potluck of misfits and miscreants: a has-been evangelist's son who once ran a string of mobile massage parlors, veterans of the civil rights struggles, Austin lesbian activists, old-school political operatives with sterling motives and shady morals, and then there is Wily T. Foxx. Until he joined the campaign, almost entirely by accident, Wily's passion in life had been cock fighting. Now he is literally the candidate's "purse bearer," a combination bodyguard/campaign worker, privy to all of the political intrigue found on the campaign trail. In a state where the dead can rise and walk to the polls, ballot boxes can grow fat in counties with more cattle than people, and the votes of common folk can be disqualified on a whim, this lively and insightful novel captures the absurd and timeless qualities of running for political office.

Reviews

"Joe Holley makes his fiction debut with the oddly titled The Purse Bearer, a novel 'of love and lust' that dunks us in the cesspool of '80s politics. The Houston Chronicle columnist pits a liberal-leaning lefty woman, possibly the first senator of that persuasion from the state, against a red-meat Republican in a head-spinning tale reminiscent of Brammer and Shrake." —Steve Bennett, San Antonio Express-News 

"Texas journalist and novelist Joe Holley tracks the ordeals of Wily T. Foxx, a state employee turned campaign staffer for Rose 'Red' Ryder, whose run for the U.S. Senate bears a likeness to that of a certain legendary female Texas governor — ahem, Ann Richards. Or Wendy Davis? The Purse Bearer: A Novel of Love, Lust, and Texas Politics, which many will regard as a roman à clef — portrays Red as a no-nonsense, former state comptroller ready to take on the good ol' boy network." —Patricia Portales, therivardreport.com

"It's about one Wily T. Foxx, a sharp-eyed campaign worker who lands a job as bodyguard for Senate candidate Rose Marie Ryder in the 1980s. Ryder, a savvy, sharp-tongued politician seeking to become the state's first female U.S. Senator, takes on the good-ol'-boy network backing her opponent, rancher and banker Jimmy Dale Sisco. As Ryder's bodyguard and assistant — the "purse bearer" of the title — Foxx finds himself in the swirl of outsized characters and chicanery that characterizes Lone Star politics, even as a University of Texas student threatens his longtime relationship with girlfriend Jo Lynne James." —Carl Hoover, Waco Tribune

"Inevitable but unconvincing disclaimers aside, the novel abounds with references to the culture of Central Texas, and part of the fun is indulging the temptation to play pin-the-tail on the real people and locales of Texas' political milieu .  . . . Festooned with insider references, Holley's novel should be a certified hoot." —Martin Barkley, Texas Observer

Author Biography

Joe Holley is the politics editor and "Native Texan" columnist for the Houston Chronicle. He written for several newspapers and magazines, including Columbia Journalism Review, the San Antonio Express-News, Texas Monthly, the Texas Observer, and the Washington Post. He is the author of My Mother's Keeper and Slingin' Sam: The Life and Times of the Greatest Quarterback Ever to Play the Game. He lives in Houston, Texas.