E-Luv's pick of Monte Walsh naturally led him to the idea to change the venue of our little reading group discussion to something more, well, western-looking than the urban-chic, Keep-Austin-Weird coffee jungle of Ruta Maya. Hence, E-Luv, Shoeless, Perm, Satellite, and XXX met last Wednesday at an Austin touchstone that bills itself as "the last of the true Texas dance halls," the Broken Spoke. While it may not be that exactly, it was the perfect Austin venue to discuss Jack Schaefer's novel of hell-on-horseback ranch hands and their vanishing way of life. We all gathered at the Spoke during happy hour on dance lesson night, when the front room was occupied with a country cover band until the backroom opened for boot-scootin' school. Luckily, there was a secret bat-room off to the side with billiards and two small tables, just perfect for the five who showed up to discuss our little western. We welcomed a new member that night, a friend of Satellite's we'll refer to as XXX until we settle on a proper nom-de-plume for him. Anyway, discussion of the novel started briskly but soon drifted like a Montana cowhand with no sense of direction, due mainly to the fact that only three of the five participants had finished the fucking thing. Still, we touched briefly on Dobe Chavez, Monte's story arc, Chet and Monte's bromance, Monte's mastery of both horses and barroom harlots, and that heartbreaking ending. Discussion continued to encompass upcoming films and touch on our next book, Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion. Hopefully, next time we'll dig a little deeper into the novel we read, but who can consider a night when we ended up drinking pitchers of Lone Star in a shit-kickin' bar while talking pop culture a failure? Not me, hoss.
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