Download PDF The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family's Search for the American Dream, by Bryan Mealer

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The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family's Search for the American Dream, by Bryan Mealer

Download PDF The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family's Search for the American Dream, by Bryan Mealer

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Review

"The Kings of Big Spring tears like a flaming roller-coaster through four generations of a Texas family that's lived it all, from hardscrabble farms and tarpaper shacks to the crazy-making highs of oil booms and big money, with gobs of love, lust, heartache, and Jesus along the way. Bryan Mealer has given us a brilliant, and brilliantly entertaining, portrayal of family, and a bursting-at-the-seams chunk of America in the bargain."― Ben Fountain, New York Times bestselling author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk"Mealer has pulled off something downright remarkable here. On one level, he has penned a sweeping multigenerational family chronicle that can be read as a history of Texas and, by natural extension, of the American experience. But it's more than even that. In the small twists of fate and nature that buffet the extended Lewis-Mealer clan are reminders of the profound capriciousness of life, of how something as simple as a rain that doesn't come - or a weevil that does - can alter a family's fortunes forever. Masterful and deeply thought-provoking." ―Scott Anderson, author of the New York Times bestselling Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East"THE KINGS OF BIG SPRING is the kind of epic tale we rarely see, the sprawling, multi-generation story of a single, hardscrabble working-class family, scrapping and clawing its way through dust storms, droughts and oilfields in its quest for a sliver of the American Dream. At a time when the national spotlight is rediscovering the plight of Middle American families, this book will never be more relevant. Think of it as a Texas version of ``Hillbilly Elegy.’'― Bryan Burrough, New York Times bestselling author of THE BIG RICH and BARBARIANS AT THE GATE "In The Kings of Big Spring Bryan Mealer has written a mutigenerational saga as broad as the Texas landscape that forms its backdrop. With poignancy and warmth, Mealer’s memoir traces his family from Appalachian hollows to the open ranges of the West. During hardscrabble years, they suffer through droughts, depression, and dust bowl years with tenacity, faith, and more than a bit of luck, and when their fortunes rise during the oil boom, their newfound wealth catapults them into a fleeting jet set lifestyle. At once heartbreaking and exhilarating, The Kings of Big Spring brings to life one family's quest for the American Dream with a Texas twist."-Jennifer Gromada, Labyrinth Books (Princeton, NJ)“Bryan Mealer incorporates extensive research presenting the story of his family while showcasing the history of West Texas during the Twentieth Century. The Kings of Big Spring portrays the oil industry, through both the good and bad years, wrapped in an intriguing saga spanning several generations of Texans.” Martha Jarred, Henderson Book Store, owner"The Kings of Big Spring is the manual laborers' view of 20th century Texas economichistory -- a tour de force unlike any Texas history I’ve ever read. Mealerreminds me of Carl Sandburg, Howard Zinn and John Steinbeck all rolled into one. ― Erwin McGee, Balcones Books (Austin, TX)"While this engrossing memoir is set in Texas for the most part, it is truly an American tale for everyone. From the first Europeans who set out for the New World, families have moved westward (or northward) for economic opportunities. The Mealers are one of these families. This is a wonderful story about a working class family in the 20th century. Highly recommended"―Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Bookshop"If everything is bigger in Texas then so too is Texans’ resilience, that ability to muscle through the cycles of boom and bust that seem inherent in the state’s DNA.Bryan Mealer brings the mythical stature of twentieth century Texans to life with this history of four generations of his family. Theirs is a story of poverty and prayer; oil discoveries and ostentation--big personalities who live hard and take whatever fate delivers, with little regard for past misfortune or future uncertainty. Mealer’s fascinating chronicle feels ripped from the pages of a Faulkner novel: colorful folks with ambition and egos as big as the Texas sky who, when the bottom falls out, curse their fate, seek the salve of redemption, and then simply move on."―Laurie Feathers,Interabang Books (Dallas, TX)

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About the Author

Bryan Mealer is the author of Muck City and the New York Times bestseller The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – written with William Kamkwamba – which has been translated into more than a dozen languages and will soon be released as a major motion picture. He’s also the author of All Things Must Fight to Live, which chronicled his time covering the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the Associated Press and Harper’s. His other work has appeared in Texas Monthly, Esquire, the Guardian, and the New York Times. Mealer and his family live in Austin.

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Product details

Hardcover: 384 pages

Publisher: Flatiron Books; First Edition edition (February 6, 2018)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1250058910

ISBN-13: 978-1250058911

Product Dimensions:

6.6 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

4.2 out of 5 stars

39 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#49,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Bryan Mealer captured the essence of "catoico"-cattle, oil, and cotton and the glue that held it all together-God. The Kings of Big Spring depicts the settling of a tough, but also a forgiving land, and the hardy people who endured setback after setback, yet rose above each with a fierce tenacity and perseverance that could only be anchored by a strong faith in God. Hardship, drought, sandstorms, and the fragrance of sweet rain molded the character and spirit of the settlers that seems to be passed genetically from one generation to another in the small town of Big Spring and other West Texas towns and communities.I know this to be true because I am a product of Forsan and Big Spring and proud of my heritage.The author chronicled the history of the land and his family saga with a knowledge and love similar only to that of a mother's love and reaffirms the truth that "you can go home again". The reader need not be native to Big Spring or West Texas to relate to that universal theme or to the comfort of Faith when times are hard or success unparalleled.Mr. Mealer crafted his sweeping autobiographical story with the depth and breadth of an epic novel. The historical accuracy is well researched. The plot and subplots support the character development of family and friends. The dialog is easy and West Texan through and through. The narrative weaves a fast paced story of magical proportions that seem bigger than Texas itself, but reflect the truth of the times.Hang on to the running board for wild ride!

I bought this book for my cowboy brother for his birthday but confess to reading it before I gave it to him. After all, I had to be sure he would like it.I was born in Big Spring, the primary setting of The Kings of Big Spring. When I went to college, I left the little city behind and have only rarely been back for a few days at a time, usually for funerals. The author, Bryan Mealer is considerably younger than I am, but he captured the Big Spring of my teens. Reading his book, I recognized names I hadn’t thought of in decades and realized some of them were relatives. When he mentioned the 1967 Old Settlers’ Reunion, I recalled being at that event with my paternal grandparents. Similarly, when Midnight Cowboy was filmed there, my conservative relatives were aghast and made quite a stink over the movie’s Motion Picture Association of America “R” rating.Nostalgia aside, Mealer weaves a unique history of a West Texas town. He seamlessly blends his family history with the history of Big Spring and its environs with that of the nation. Though he focuses on local goings-on, there’s enough national news to set the scene. This is not an in-depth history of America, but a close-up portrait of a small town. For instance, the Vietnam war warrants only a few lines here and there, but it’s enough to give the flavor of the deep divide between the pro- and anti-war factions in the country—and to show the war’s effect on Big Spring’s inhabitants.Likewise, this is not a deep family portrait. Mealer covers four generations over many years, so there’s not a lot of emotion, but a retelling of family stories set gem-like into local life in Big Spring. The threads tying the stories together include oil and Jesus.I enjoyed this book because the Mealer family history somewhat mirrors that of my own family. The Schafers arrived in West Texas forty years earlier and had already survived several droughts by the time the Mealers arrived. Though my family was recently blessed with the discovery of oil on our property, we haven’t taken the road of high-living the Mealers did. My uncles and aunts still run sheep and grow cotton, living in the same homes they’ve lived in for decades.The Kings of Big Spring is a fascinating read, an epic tale of a a truly American family as well as a portrait of a time and place people outside of Texas can relate to, a family that started in tarpaper shacks and rose to dizzying heights, only to drop to the lows again.

In his new book, "The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family's Search for the American Dream", Bryan Mealer takes his readers into his family's history, and in doing so, takes them into from the "hollers" to the oil fields of the Permian Basin and many places in between.Mealer's book has been compared to "Hillbilly Elegy", by JD Vance, but it really isn't like Vance's book. Though both tell the story of a family and it's background, from poor working class to relative middle class, Vance's book is written with a seemingly self-conscience look at his kin and from where they sprang. He knows quite well the long pull he made to move up in society through study and hard work. After reading Vance's book, I wondered if he would stay in touch with his family as he grew out of their milieu. But this review isn't about JD Vance's good book, it's about Bryan Mealer's.Bryan Mealer's ancestors took the long trip in the early 1900's from the "hollers" of Appalachia to Texas for the same reason thousands of others set off - a search for the "good life". What they found was a hard and often difficult existence, where making a living had as much to do with weather and its vagueries as it did with a person's hard work. The winds came, the dust blew, and the Mealers often left Texas and headed further west to California. But they mostly seemed to return to Texas, and in particular, to Big Spring in the Permian Basin. It was in Big Spring and the oil towns of Midland and Odessa where the Mealers and their extended family lived and died. worked and prayed. And, at times, they drank and gambled. They raised their families and contributed to their communities. Though no Mealer ever struck it huge in the "oil bidness", Mealer's father was associated with a Texas-special guy, Grady Cunningham, who lived large and some of that largess fell on to Bobby Mealer and his family.Bryan Mealer is an incredibly good writer. I'd never read his previous books and picked this book up because of the subject. He writes movingly and totally without judgement on his family. That's how Mealer's book is different from Vance's. Mealer writes lovingly about his family -warts and all - while there's always a whiff of judgement in Vance's book. This book is one of the best works of non-fiction I’ve read in the past few years.

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