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A Hole in Texas
With this rollicking novel hailed equally for its satiric bite, its lightly borne scientific savvy, and its tender compassion for foible-prone humanity, one of America's preeminent storytellers returns to fiction. Guy Carpenter is a regular guy, a family man, an obscure NASA scientist, when he is jolted out of his quiet life and summoned to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Through a turn of events as unlikely as it is inevitable, Guy finds himself compromised by scandal and romance, hounded by Hollywood, and agonizingly alone at the white-hot center of a firestorm ignited as three potent forces of American culture -- politics, big science, and the media -- spectacularly collide.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
211 people are currently reading
492 people want to read
About the author
Herman Wouk
161 books1,389 followersHerman Wouk was a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish American author with a number of notable novels to his credit, including The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.
Herman Wouk was born in New York City into a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia. After a childhood and adolescence in the Bronx and a high school diploma from Townsend Harris High School, he earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1934, where he was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and studied under philosopher Irwin Edman. Soon thereafter, he became a radio dramatist, working in David Freedman's "Joke Factory" and later with Fred Allen for five years and then, in 1941, for the United States government, writing radio spots to sell war bonds. He lived a fairly secular lifestyle in his early 20s before deciding to return to a more traditional Jewish way of life, modeled after that of his grandfather, in his mid-20s.
Wouk joined the United States Navy and served in the Pacific Theater, an experience he later characterized as educational; "I learned about machinery, I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans." Wouk served as an officer aboard two destroyer minesweepers (DMS), the USS Zane and USS Southard, becoming executive officer of the latter. He started writing a novel, Aurora Dawn, during off-duty hours aboard ship. Wouk sent a copy of the opening chapters to Irwin Edman who quoted a few pages verbatim to a New York editor. The result was a publisher's contract sent to Wouk's ship, then off the coast of Okinawa. The novel was published in 1947 and became a Book of the Month Club main selection. His second novel, City Boy, proved to be a commercial disappointment at the time of its initial publication in 1948.
While writing his next novel, Wouk read each chapter as it was completed to his wife, who remarked at one point that if they didn't like this one, he'd better take up another line of work (a line he would give to the character of the editor Jeannie Fry in his 1962 novel Youngblood Hawke). The novel, The Caine Mutiny (1951), went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. A huge best-seller, drawing from his wartime experiences aboard minesweepers during World War II, The Caine Mutiny was adapted by the author into a Broadway play called The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and was later made into a film, with Humphrey Bogart portraying Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg, captain of the fictional USS Caine. Some Navy personnel complained at the time that Wouk had taken every twitch of every commanding officer in the Navy and put them all into one character, but Captain Queeg has endured as one of the great characters in American fiction.
He married Betty Sarah Brown in 1945, with whom he had three sons: Abraham, Nathanial, and Joseph. He became a fulltime writer in 1946 to support his growing family. His first-born son, Abraham Isaac Wouk, died in a tragic accident as a child; Wouk later dedicated War and Remembrance (1978) to him with the Biblical words, "He will destroy death forever."
In 1998, Wouk received the Guardian of Zion Award.
Herman Wouk died in his sleep in his home in Palm Springs, California, on May 17, 2019, at the age of 103, ten days before his 104th birthday.
Herman Wouk was born in New York City into a Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia. After a childhood and adolescence in the Bronx and a high school diploma from Townsend Harris High School, he earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1934, where he was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity and studied under philosopher Irwin Edman. Soon thereafter, he became a radio dramatist, working in David Freedman's "Joke Factory" and later with Fred Allen for five years and then, in 1941, for the United States government, writing radio spots to sell war bonds. He lived a fairly secular lifestyle in his early 20s before deciding to return to a more traditional Jewish way of life, modeled after that of his grandfather, in his mid-20s.
Wouk joined the United States Navy and served in the Pacific Theater, an experience he later characterized as educational; "I learned about machinery, I learned how men behaved under pressure, and I learned about Americans." Wouk served as an officer aboard two destroyer minesweepers (DMS), the USS Zane and USS Southard, becoming executive officer of the latter. He started writing a novel, Aurora Dawn, during off-duty hours aboard ship. Wouk sent a copy of the opening chapters to Irwin Edman who quoted a few pages verbatim to a New York editor. The result was a publisher's contract sent to Wouk's ship, then off the coast of Okinawa. The novel was published in 1947 and became a Book of the Month Club main selection. His second novel, City Boy, proved to be a commercial disappointment at the time of its initial publication in 1948.
While writing his next novel, Wouk read each chapter as it was completed to his wife, who remarked at one point that if they didn't like this one, he'd better take up another line of work (a line he would give to the character of the editor Jeannie Fry in his 1962 novel Youngblood Hawke). The novel, The Caine Mutiny (1951), went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. A huge best-seller, drawing from his wartime experiences aboard minesweepers during World War II, The Caine Mutiny was adapted by the author into a Broadway play called The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and was later made into a film, with Humphrey Bogart portraying Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg, captain of the fictional USS Caine. Some Navy personnel complained at the time that Wouk had taken every twitch of every commanding officer in the Navy and put them all into one character, but Captain Queeg has endured as one of the great characters in American fiction.
He married Betty Sarah Brown in 1945, with whom he had three sons: Abraham, Nathanial, and Joseph. He became a fulltime writer in 1946 to support his growing family. His first-born son, Abraham Isaac Wouk, died in a tragic accident as a child; Wouk later dedicated War and Remembrance (1978) to him with the Biblical words, "He will destroy death forever."
In 1998, Wouk received the Guardian of Zion Award.
Herman Wouk died in his sleep in his home in Palm Springs, California, on May 17, 2019, at the age of 103, ten days before his 104th birthday.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
December 29, 2011
Interesting story -- another Wouk plot about the intricacies and difficulties of a marriage in connection with larger national issues.
Thanks to this book, I laughed at a joke I wouldn't have understood before reading it:
A Higgs boson walks into a Catholic church. The priest tells him that no bosons are allowed. "How can you have Mass without me?" the boson exclaims.
Thanks to this book, I laughed at a joke I wouldn't have understood before reading it:
A Higgs boson walks into a Catholic church. The priest tells him that no bosons are allowed. "How can you have Mass without me?" the boson exclaims.
September 15, 2018
Have you ever heard about the Higgs Boson Blues?
I'm going down to Geneva, baby
Gonna teach it to you
Who cares?
Who cares what the future brings?
Fm: The Higgs Boson Blues, Nick Cage and the Bad Seeds, release 2013
Herman Wouk’s A Hole in Texas is not bad. It is not the bitterly acerbic satire of Heller’s Catch 22, nor is it the soaring heroics of Wouk’s own Winds of War. Much of the history and science is correct. Further Wouk is a capable writer. He is not a first rank novelist and this novel neither hurts not helps his reputation. It affirms family values but I cannot see it being of much interest to YA or younger readers. So a sold middle ground read. Too long for an airplane read and maybe a good weekend at the beach read.
Herman Wouk introduces his novel with the notion that Particle Physicists having been the leading science that gave us the Nuclear Bomb and later Nuclear Power had become the darlings of the several congresses that willingly signed checks to allow them to research ever more obscure and remote ideas. Then came the effort to build the Super Collider. After a lot of sectional politics a contract was awarded to begin construction in Waxahachie Texas. A 54 mile underground ring was dug and many of the expensive supplies and support material had been delivered when in 1993 it was cancelled.
A key problem in high energy physics at that time was that results at each new level of energy required a disproportionately larger new device to generate the energy to achieve each new level of analysis. Building and operating a super collider is a lot of money (initial outlay $4.4 Billion USD starting 1987 ). By 1993 not all of the physical properties had been rendered into agreed engineering design. Congress cut off funding turned instead to the Space Station. The Large Hadron Collider (CERN) in Switzerland, operating in international cooperation was where in 2012 the Higg’s Boson was discovered.
No longer content to call it by its given name, press coverage at the time dubbed it the ‘God Particle”. The theory being that it is the Higg’s Boson that converts energy into matter.
Writing in 2004 Wouk retells the Super Collider story and much of the science with several novelistic twists. In his version it is the Chinese who make the discovery and America responds with a lot of finger pointing, with the added urgency that a potential Boson Bomb would instantly render every nuclear weapon unimportant.
The media frenzy is such that Congress is forced into a lot of investigating, CYA over its prior decision and even Hollywood wants a piece in its effort to grind out a sci-fi movie before the public can get bored and move to the next crisis.
All of this is grist for a great deal of mostly gentle satire and poking of fun. Most of the characters are either nice, well-meaning and none truly villainous. The center of the media storm is a scientist, no longer young, once in the second string in the project to build the Texas Collider and now in the second string to build a Space Telescope. We meet Guy Carpenter a family man with a nerdy bachelor’s past who loves his sometimes fierce wife, his new daughter and their shared passion/devil their cat. Of course his past links him with the Chinese Scientist who led the effort to find the Higgs. And to round out the romantic side of the plot there is a widowed ex actress turned Congress woman who needs Guy’s brains and may be susceptible to his nice guy charms.
For those not entirely taken in with the pacing of the novel, too many long e mails, and the various shenanigans of the plot, (Did he then and will he now?). It can be fun to decide which of the fictional characters are supposed to be which real people. Too often the veil of fiction is paper thin. For example if you missed that the Jewish Lawyer is supposed to be Alan Dershowitz; is the reference to a prior case involving O.J. Simpson enough of a give away?
Altogether not a bad book, but hardly a must read. Were this a play, the headlines would be: “A light hearted look into science, politics, movies, the media and the human heart. Song and Music by Sondheim.”
I'm going down to Geneva, baby
Gonna teach it to you
Who cares?
Who cares what the future brings?
Fm: The Higgs Boson Blues, Nick Cage and the Bad Seeds, release 2013
Herman Wouk’s A Hole in Texas is not bad. It is not the bitterly acerbic satire of Heller’s Catch 22, nor is it the soaring heroics of Wouk’s own Winds of War. Much of the history and science is correct. Further Wouk is a capable writer. He is not a first rank novelist and this novel neither hurts not helps his reputation. It affirms family values but I cannot see it being of much interest to YA or younger readers. So a sold middle ground read. Too long for an airplane read and maybe a good weekend at the beach read.
Herman Wouk introduces his novel with the notion that Particle Physicists having been the leading science that gave us the Nuclear Bomb and later Nuclear Power had become the darlings of the several congresses that willingly signed checks to allow them to research ever more obscure and remote ideas. Then came the effort to build the Super Collider. After a lot of sectional politics a contract was awarded to begin construction in Waxahachie Texas. A 54 mile underground ring was dug and many of the expensive supplies and support material had been delivered when in 1993 it was cancelled.
A key problem in high energy physics at that time was that results at each new level of energy required a disproportionately larger new device to generate the energy to achieve each new level of analysis. Building and operating a super collider is a lot of money (initial outlay $4.4 Billion USD starting 1987 ). By 1993 not all of the physical properties had been rendered into agreed engineering design. Congress cut off funding turned instead to the Space Station. The Large Hadron Collider (CERN) in Switzerland, operating in international cooperation was where in 2012 the Higg’s Boson was discovered.
No longer content to call it by its given name, press coverage at the time dubbed it the ‘God Particle”. The theory being that it is the Higg’s Boson that converts energy into matter.
Writing in 2004 Wouk retells the Super Collider story and much of the science with several novelistic twists. In his version it is the Chinese who make the discovery and America responds with a lot of finger pointing, with the added urgency that a potential Boson Bomb would instantly render every nuclear weapon unimportant.
The media frenzy is such that Congress is forced into a lot of investigating, CYA over its prior decision and even Hollywood wants a piece in its effort to grind out a sci-fi movie before the public can get bored and move to the next crisis.
All of this is grist for a great deal of mostly gentle satire and poking of fun. Most of the characters are either nice, well-meaning and none truly villainous. The center of the media storm is a scientist, no longer young, once in the second string in the project to build the Texas Collider and now in the second string to build a Space Telescope. We meet Guy Carpenter a family man with a nerdy bachelor’s past who loves his sometimes fierce wife, his new daughter and their shared passion/devil their cat. Of course his past links him with the Chinese Scientist who led the effort to find the Higgs. And to round out the romantic side of the plot there is a widowed ex actress turned Congress woman who needs Guy’s brains and may be susceptible to his nice guy charms.
For those not entirely taken in with the pacing of the novel, too many long e mails, and the various shenanigans of the plot, (Did he then and will he now?). It can be fun to decide which of the fictional characters are supposed to be which real people. Too often the veil of fiction is paper thin. For example if you missed that the Jewish Lawyer is supposed to be Alan Dershowitz; is the reference to a prior case involving O.J. Simpson enough of a give away?
Altogether not a bad book, but hardly a must read. Were this a play, the headlines would be: “A light hearted look into science, politics, movies, the media and the human heart. Song and Music by Sondheim.”
November 27, 2010
I'd like to think that, if the project I've been working on these many years sees the light of day and achieves a life of its own, and if I then turn my hand to fiction, that the result would be something like this novel.
What I mean is that, as a tech writer, I've spent a lot of time conveying detailed info in a way that is no more dry and yawn-inducing than absolutely necessary, and A Hole in Texas is written by someone with a great deal of understanding of partical physics, in addition to well formed opinions of how the U.S. Congress and popular media operate. It's informative -- and also riveting.
The story ties into a recent historical event, namely, the untimely demise of the Superconducting Super Collider project, killed by Congress in 1993 in favor of a far more costly but sexier competing endeavor. I know something about the SSC, as my work in the early 90s largely involved developing proposals and other marketing literature that attempted to shore up the DOE's interest in the thing. When the ax fell, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union brought an end to other government spending that was also important to my employer, things around me began unravelling very quickly.
Anyway, that's my background. If this is alternative history, it deviates from actual events only slightly. In this version, America's decision to abandon serious scientific inquiry prompted China to step in, and to the great chagrin of a former SSC physicist named Guy Carpenter, China apparently succeeds where America did not. The lead on the Chinese project happens to be a woman Guy knew rather well as a student at Cornell. Penny, Guy's wife of many decades, has always been unreasonably jealous of his first love, whose reappearance on the scene stirs up some poorly resolved issues between them.
The fortunes of Guy and Penny go through rather drastic swings, but at no point did anything feel contrived or unreasonable to me. Furthermore, I cared very much. I despaired when Guy did, and felt delighted for him every time his situation improved.
This is probably the first I've read of Herman Wouk. It won't be the last.
What I mean is that, as a tech writer, I've spent a lot of time conveying detailed info in a way that is no more dry and yawn-inducing than absolutely necessary, and A Hole in Texas is written by someone with a great deal of understanding of partical physics, in addition to well formed opinions of how the U.S. Congress and popular media operate. It's informative -- and also riveting.
The story ties into a recent historical event, namely, the untimely demise of the Superconducting Super Collider project, killed by Congress in 1993 in favor of a far more costly but sexier competing endeavor. I know something about the SSC, as my work in the early 90s largely involved developing proposals and other marketing literature that attempted to shore up the DOE's interest in the thing. When the ax fell, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union brought an end to other government spending that was also important to my employer, things around me began unravelling very quickly.
Anyway, that's my background. If this is alternative history, it deviates from actual events only slightly. In this version, America's decision to abandon serious scientific inquiry prompted China to step in, and to the great chagrin of a former SSC physicist named Guy Carpenter, China apparently succeeds where America did not. The lead on the Chinese project happens to be a woman Guy knew rather well as a student at Cornell. Penny, Guy's wife of many decades, has always been unreasonably jealous of his first love, whose reappearance on the scene stirs up some poorly resolved issues between them.
The fortunes of Guy and Penny go through rather drastic swings, but at no point did anything feel contrived or unreasonable to me. Furthermore, I cared very much. I despaired when Guy did, and felt delighted for him every time his situation improved.
This is probably the first I've read of Herman Wouk. It won't be the last.
June 25, 2025
Herman Wouk writes excellent best-sellers--they are well written and very entertaining. This is one of his lesser known works. If you like his more famous novels, e.g. The Caine Mutiny, you will enjoy this one. Highly recommended.
September 9, 2020
Herman Wouk has long been one of my favorite authors. I have read both The Winds of War and War and Remembrance many times. And, The Caine Mutiny blew me away upon my first reading last year. These books are filled with intelligent and interesting history, exploring love, family and hope. I love each of those characters. So when I came upon this book in a used bookstore I was excited to open the front cover and begin another epic journey with Wouk.
In A Hole in Texas we meet a 60 year old physicist named Guy Carpenter. He is married and the father of two, one of whom is a new baby. He works on things I know nothing about. Super Collider's and Higgs Bosun subatomic particles. After Congress defunded the projects he was working on, he is left to watch as a Chinese scientist he once knew makes the discoveries he was after. As a result, his calm life turns chaotic as people suspect he may have leaked details to the Chinese.
Unfortunately this book fell short of my expectations. In his more beloved books the characters are so sympathetic and likable, so real, that they became true friends to me. These were people whose stories affected me. Moved me. Made me laugh and cry. Unfortunately Micah's story did none of that for me.
In A Hole in Texas we meet a 60 year old physicist named Guy Carpenter. He is married and the father of two, one of whom is a new baby. He works on things I know nothing about. Super Collider's and Higgs Bosun subatomic particles. After Congress defunded the projects he was working on, he is left to watch as a Chinese scientist he once knew makes the discoveries he was after. As a result, his calm life turns chaotic as people suspect he may have leaked details to the Chinese.
Unfortunately this book fell short of my expectations. In his more beloved books the characters are so sympathetic and likable, so real, that they became true friends to me. These were people whose stories affected me. Moved me. Made me laugh and cry. Unfortunately Micah's story did none of that for me.
August 9, 2020
This book is a racist, misogynistic, nerd's fantasy that reads like a trashy romance novel dropped on the floor and rolled in some high energy physics before being brushed off and put back on the shelf.
The main character goes around getting hit on by all the female characters. But he stays true to his wife, who abandoned him in a fit of jealous rage, but don't worry, because they make up in the end. Gross. I need to go brush my teeth after finishing this book. And take a cold shower.
Any "science" takes a back seat and basically is only present only as techno-babble. This is in keeping with the lowest common denominator writing style.
The main character goes around getting hit on by all the female characters. But he stays true to his wife, who abandoned him in a fit of jealous rage, but don't worry, because they make up in the end. Gross. I need to go brush my teeth after finishing this book. And take a cold shower.
Any "science" takes a back seat and basically is only present only as techno-babble. This is in keeping with the lowest common denominator writing style.
October 1, 2013
Guy Carpenter, a 60-year-old physicist is married, the father of two, including a new baby and lives a quiet ordinary life. He once worked on the Superconducting Super Collider, a gigantic federally funded project in Texas aimed at finding the elusive Higgs bosun subatomic particle. Congress defunded the project leaving Carpenter out to dry and the Higgs bosun a mystery, leaving a large hole in Texas. Now Chinese scientists publish a work that claims to have discovered the Higgs bosun. Carpenter’s quiet life is now chaotic. He was once romantically involved with a key member of the Chinese team, Dr. Wen Mei Li, while a grad student at Cornell. Was Carpenter a leak since he once worked on the project? Congress and perhaps the CIA want to know. A beautiful movie star turned congresswoman becomes interested in him. An ambitious reporter is at his tail and can ruin him.
For those expecting another “The Winds of War” or “The Caine Mutiny” it falls short. It is a simple, fast-paced read. At times it dragged, and the dialog was often trite and canned. Nevertheless, it still held my attention. The best part of the story is its satirical nature as Wouk jabs at congress, the media, and Hollywood.
For those expecting another “The Winds of War” or “The Caine Mutiny” it falls short. It is a simple, fast-paced read. At times it dragged, and the dialog was often trite and canned. Nevertheless, it still held my attention. The best part of the story is its satirical nature as Wouk jabs at congress, the media, and Hollywood.
November 12, 2023
Herman Wouk's storytelling and sense of humor, which peppers at least every other page, always keep my attention; this book is no exception. Unlike many other Wouk books, the main character is not Jewish and there is only a passing focus on Jewish topics, primarily the deep irony and slapstick of the Yorseit party, and the Jewish lawyers. Like many (all?) other Wouk books, A Hole in Texas contains a strong thread, or in this case multiple threads of love, romance, and relationships. The idea occurred to me that the main character's early love autobiographically parallels, to some extent, the author's experience portrayed in Wouk's Inside Outside in the context of his own long marriage. His poignant portrayal of the challenges of a widowed spouse, however, does not appear to be based on his personal experience since his wife passed away in 2011, seven years after publishing this book. Wouk's The Language God Talks: On Science and Religion (2010) inspired my interest in astronomy, and I enjoyed reading his scientific forays in this book as well, which likely all trace back to his research about the atomic bomb for Winds of War/War and Remembrance.
I enjoyed the unexpected mention, towards the end, of a particular upstate New York City.
I enjoyed the unexpected mention, towards the end, of a particular upstate New York City.
July 16, 2018
It’s a good tale with characters from interesting perspectives, but it’s dialogue-driven to the extent the personalities are only paper-thin, speaking with almost the same voice. It reads much more like a screenplay script than it does a novel and that’s kind of how I enjoyed it; I imagined it as a movie.
Herman Wouk is one of my all-time favorite writers; I’m familiar with his youthful ambitions for comedy writing and that is where this book comes from. It is a romp, sort of out of the mold of DON’T STOP THE CARNIVAL or INSIDE, OUTSIDE, but not nearly as well-written.
I am a science teacher so I was intrigued that the main character Guy Carpenter was a physicist who’d worked on a super collider and that the plot centered around the discovery of the Higgs Boson. I enjoyed all of that and appreciated Wouk’s effective research. But as I earlier alluded, the character development was nonexistent and the relationships were overly predictable and shallow. Don’t read this book if human interest is what you’re looking for, just read it for a tale about science and politics!
Herman Wouk is one of my all-time favorite writers; I’m familiar with his youthful ambitions for comedy writing and that is where this book comes from. It is a romp, sort of out of the mold of DON’T STOP THE CARNIVAL or INSIDE, OUTSIDE, but not nearly as well-written.
I am a science teacher so I was intrigued that the main character Guy Carpenter was a physicist who’d worked on a super collider and that the plot centered around the discovery of the Higgs Boson. I enjoyed all of that and appreciated Wouk’s effective research. But as I earlier alluded, the character development was nonexistent and the relationships were overly predictable and shallow. Don’t read this book if human interest is what you’re looking for, just read it for a tale about science and politics!
September 22, 2021
Eh. Nothing like the epic Wouk novels I love and read over and over again, it gets pretty in depth about physics, government process, academia, and Hollywood, things I’m not that well versed in, and while Guy was likable, the female characters were more like sketches, especially the central femme fatale “Wendy”. Not sorry I read it, but would not read it again.
January 13, 2013
I'm trying to figure out when I read this. Published 2005, Goodreads says, but copyright 2004, per the book itself. I had the hardcover which I bought after I found it remaindered in a Daedalus catalog and noticed who the author was. I thought the book was not up to his earlier standards when he was younger, The Caine Mutiny, for goodness sake, and The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, which made a significant impression on me (both the books and the miniseries). Made sense, since he was in his late 80s at the time, right? On the other hand, some of his other books seemed dated to me when, on the basis of the ones I loved, I pursued them. For example, Marjorie Morningstar and Youngblood Hawke. I guess I read most of those books in the '80s, although Winds of War could have been earlier. and The Caine Mutiny, way before, so who knows if I'd have the same critical opinions of the two I then thought seemed dated. Maybe I should say A Hole in Texas isn't up to his highest standards.
Anyway, Herman Wouk has published another book now that he's 97 (!) years old. I just read a review of it. The Lawgiver It was on the basis of that that I looked for A Hole in Texas, and guess what? When I found it it had a 4x6 index card with my handwritten review. Why, I don't know. But it's a good thing, or otherwise I'd recall very little as it wasn't so memorable. But maybe it should have been. Here's my review, from circa 2005:
This story is about a 60-ish year old scientist. His significantly younger wife is jealous of an old college girlfriend. The girlfriend is a Chinese physicist. The scientist becomes suspected of treason and is caught up in a media circus. The context is the race to discover the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle. The book is really about how the US stopped supporting science. It is about cultural decay. It is a fun political thriller and romance, a little slow at 1st.
Anyway, Herman Wouk has published another book now that he's 97 (!) years old. I just read a review of it. The Lawgiver It was on the basis of that that I looked for A Hole in Texas, and guess what? When I found it it had a 4x6 index card with my handwritten review. Why, I don't know. But it's a good thing, or otherwise I'd recall very little as it wasn't so memorable. But maybe it should have been. Here's my review, from circa 2005:
This story is about a 60-ish year old scientist. His significantly younger wife is jealous of an old college girlfriend. The girlfriend is a Chinese physicist. The scientist becomes suspected of treason and is caught up in a media circus. The context is the race to discover the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle. The book is really about how the US stopped supporting science. It is about cultural decay. It is a fun political thriller and romance, a little slow at 1st.
October 25, 2017
My father-in-law devoured books like I devour tortilla chips. He passed away this spring and we have been gathering an organizing his collection of books that must have once numbered nearly a thousand. I found "A Hole In Texas" on one of his shelves and was amazed to find out that Herman Wouk is still alive. He wrote this book in 2004.
So funny to read something by Wouk that involves super colliders and cell phones. I remember him for such classics as "The Caine Mutiny", "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance."
"A Hole in Texas" is based on a super-conducting, super-collider project that was begun in Texas during the Reagan years and killed during the Clinton years. The scenario is that the Chinese have just captured the elusive Higgs bosun, which sets off a round of soul searching and finger pointing in Washington. Guy Carpenter, a physicist who worked on the project, is thrust into the madness.
The book reads more like a Christopher Buckley novel than what I remember about Herman Wouk. The dialog is snappy, the characters are cartoonish and the pace is quick. I found "A Hole in Texas"
to be an easy and fun read.
So funny to read something by Wouk that involves super colliders and cell phones. I remember him for such classics as "The Caine Mutiny", "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance."
"A Hole in Texas" is based on a super-conducting, super-collider project that was begun in Texas during the Reagan years and killed during the Clinton years. The scenario is that the Chinese have just captured the elusive Higgs bosun, which sets off a round of soul searching and finger pointing in Washington. Guy Carpenter, a physicist who worked on the project, is thrust into the madness.
The book reads more like a Christopher Buckley novel than what I remember about Herman Wouk. The dialog is snappy, the characters are cartoonish and the pace is quick. I found "A Hole in Texas"
to be an easy and fun read.
January 18, 2011
I guess it might've been more timely if I had been reading this book when they tried to use the SSC in Europe - but this is all still a very current topic. Raising fears of US vs. China (the new threat) and comparing it to the science race of the US vs. Russia is also timely. Plus, yeah, it was a gigantic waste of money to stop the project, and I really do bet that the economic impact of those people in Texas was terrible. Because these scientific endeavors are so expensive, you either have crazy Richard Branson funding them or the government. Both are risky investors, I'm sure. But I think that's it is all very important because we can't just exist in the world, we do need to learn about it! Throw in some Enquirer type intrigue about the scientists and you could really see this all happening in Washington. It's believable to a non-scientist like me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 4, 2016
I am NOT a science person, so I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the scientific detail, but since the character was known for being able to explain complicated scientific information to laymen in the story, it follows that even I could understand what was discussed in the book. Kind of a quirky, fast read with everything from Hollywood scripts, to physics to congresswomen talking to their dead husbands.
February 26, 2025
Wouk has penned some phenomenal and vital work. Wouk wrote two separate stories, in two volumes each that I've read at least a half dozen times. While I have no problem calling all of his work solid masterpieces, the sprawling epics, Winds of War-885 pages, and its sequel, War and Remembrance-1042 pages, capture everything marvelous, inspiring, and heroic about America's greatest generation; the War Years.
Following that epic, Wouk wrote his second series, The Hope-704 pages, and The Glory-688 pages. Wouk, a great narrator of history, takes the reader through the saga of Israel, the tenuous peace to the war of 1948, and the remarkable accounting of the 6-Day War of 1967.
Wouk also won the Pulitzer for The Caine Mutiny, an amazing fictional work, massively successful Broadway play-The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and later the movie, The Caine Mutiny, starring Humphrey Bogart, which garnered seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
While a work of fiction, the subject matter is factual. The "hole" refers to the massive Superconducting Super Collider gouged into the earth in Waxahachie, Texas. The mechanism, intended to be the world's largest particle accelerator, something like the Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland, was a machine designed to confirm the Higgs-Boson particle, which I would try to explain but would fail miserably. It's very "science-y" and heavy in physics, far beyond my scope of understanding. The Supercollider project, canceled by Congressional budgetary cuts before its completion, sends a lead scientist and the main character, Guy Carpenter, on a different life trajectory.
However, the massive project returned to the forefront of American interest when China announced that upon learning that the Americans axed the project, they began construction of their own the next day. Now, decades later, they have won the race to Higgs-Boson discovery.
The announcement shocks the American science community and leaves them sitting second as global scientific leaders. It also concerns the American military when rumors of a "boson bomb" surface. If the Chinese could make the Higgs weaponized, the energy of the new particle would make conventional nuclear weapons seem like the bang child's cap gun.
The reader should find the plot is interesting enough. But, even though it does take a deep dive into advanced mathematics and the mundane bureaucracy of the American Congress, it's the narration that makes it engaging. Wouk's ability to meld the intricacies, the highs, lows, and pitfalls of marriage into a much larger issue holds the magic.
In my opinion, Wouk writes women, men, and their relationships so well that it's frightening. For example, the following excerpt has Carpenter (the MC) confiding to a Congresswoman who's recruited him to help skewer the Congressman who
killed the Supercollider project about a romance he (Carpenter) had with a female Chinese scientist studying with him in the USA.
Their dalliance, which occurred long before Carpenter married his current wife, remains an unrequited love. However, Carpenter's wife, Penny, aware of the past relationship, holds onto a streak of hot jealousy over the matter. The resurrection of the Higgs-Boson topic leads to revisiting that affair, and the drama of a love triangle ensues.
"..you can be real plausible, Guy and your tale of chaste first love and wet autumn leaves—well, I even believed that, sort of. But that platonic weekend in Shanghai, uh-uh. I tell you this as a friend and a woman. If you try it on that keen wife of yours, she'll gut you like a trout.."
A few chapters later, that Easter egg gets scrambled. Then, in the aftermath of Carpenter's utter foolishness, drunk and defeated, he confesses to his cat about Penny, who is all but out the door on him and their marriage.
".. I'll try, Sweeney, but it's hard. I've been gutted like a trout, kitty, like a goddamn trout.."
And it's not the fact the Carpenter falls on his sword. It's how Penny, his wife, welcomes her husband home, serves him cocktails before a favourite, lavish supper with sweet words and loving gestures, lulling him into dropping his guard, all the while sharpening the knives with which she skewers him to the wall after slicing through his thin excuses and weak lies.
Wouk makes that old saying, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," burn across the pages with such ferocity that you drop the book to avoid blistering your fingers.
"A Hole In Texas" isn't a Pulitzer contender, perhaps not even a NYT Bestseller, but at a mere 278 pages, it is a great read by a magnificent storyteller.
Following that epic, Wouk wrote his second series, The Hope-704 pages, and The Glory-688 pages. Wouk, a great narrator of history, takes the reader through the saga of Israel, the tenuous peace to the war of 1948, and the remarkable accounting of the 6-Day War of 1967.
Wouk also won the Pulitzer for The Caine Mutiny, an amazing fictional work, massively successful Broadway play-The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and later the movie, The Caine Mutiny, starring Humphrey Bogart, which garnered seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
While a work of fiction, the subject matter is factual. The "hole" refers to the massive Superconducting Super Collider gouged into the earth in Waxahachie, Texas. The mechanism, intended to be the world's largest particle accelerator, something like the Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland, was a machine designed to confirm the Higgs-Boson particle, which I would try to explain but would fail miserably. It's very "science-y" and heavy in physics, far beyond my scope of understanding. The Supercollider project, canceled by Congressional budgetary cuts before its completion, sends a lead scientist and the main character, Guy Carpenter, on a different life trajectory.
However, the massive project returned to the forefront of American interest when China announced that upon learning that the Americans axed the project, they began construction of their own the next day. Now, decades later, they have won the race to Higgs-Boson discovery.
The announcement shocks the American science community and leaves them sitting second as global scientific leaders. It also concerns the American military when rumors of a "boson bomb" surface. If the Chinese could make the Higgs weaponized, the energy of the new particle would make conventional nuclear weapons seem like the bang child's cap gun.
The reader should find the plot is interesting enough. But, even though it does take a deep dive into advanced mathematics and the mundane bureaucracy of the American Congress, it's the narration that makes it engaging. Wouk's ability to meld the intricacies, the highs, lows, and pitfalls of marriage into a much larger issue holds the magic.
In my opinion, Wouk writes women, men, and their relationships so well that it's frightening. For example, the following excerpt has Carpenter (the MC) confiding to a Congresswoman who's recruited him to help skewer the Congressman who
killed the Supercollider project about a romance he (Carpenter) had with a female Chinese scientist studying with him in the USA.
Their dalliance, which occurred long before Carpenter married his current wife, remains an unrequited love. However, Carpenter's wife, Penny, aware of the past relationship, holds onto a streak of hot jealousy over the matter. The resurrection of the Higgs-Boson topic leads to revisiting that affair, and the drama of a love triangle ensues.
"..you can be real plausible, Guy and your tale of chaste first love and wet autumn leaves—well, I even believed that, sort of. But that platonic weekend in Shanghai, uh-uh. I tell you this as a friend and a woman. If you try it on that keen wife of yours, she'll gut you like a trout.."
A few chapters later, that Easter egg gets scrambled. Then, in the aftermath of Carpenter's utter foolishness, drunk and defeated, he confesses to his cat about Penny, who is all but out the door on him and their marriage.
".. I'll try, Sweeney, but it's hard. I've been gutted like a trout, kitty, like a goddamn trout.."
And it's not the fact the Carpenter falls on his sword. It's how Penny, his wife, welcomes her husband home, serves him cocktails before a favourite, lavish supper with sweet words and loving gestures, lulling him into dropping his guard, all the while sharpening the knives with which she skewers him to the wall after slicing through his thin excuses and weak lies.
Wouk makes that old saying, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," burn across the pages with such ferocity that you drop the book to avoid blistering your fingers.
"A Hole In Texas" isn't a Pulitzer contender, perhaps not even a NYT Bestseller, but at a mere 278 pages, it is a great read by a magnificent storyteller.
August 26, 2023
Not His Best - But Quite Readable
Herman Wouk deservedly ranks as one of America’s better novelists of the 20th century. I discovered Wouk through his best known work (?) "The Caine Mutiny", and subsequently read most of his novels from "Aurora Dawn" and "City Boy" to his very enjoyable and popular World War Two books. I even read "Youngblood Hawke" - no small feat! I thought that Wouk had long ago hung up his typewriter and I was not really on the lookout for any more of his books till I happened on “A Hole in Texas”, published in 2004.
It is not a long read, coming in at about 280 pages and, while not a great book, it is a harmless diversion and seems to be quite educational on the technical elements of the story. Paraphrasing the novel’s central character, a nuclear physicist named Guy Carpenter, and in the words of this non-technical reviewer, it tells the story of the US effort to discover the God Particle (the Higgs Boson) that could lead to a weapon more destructive than the nuclear bomb. Not surprisingly, this involved big sums of money dedicated to building a Super Collider in Texas - a huge underground ring that could enable particles to move at an accelerated pace and collide with each other generating the smallest particle (the Higgs Boson) that could convert energy into matter. The US eventually pulled the plug on this money pit in the 1990s leaving a town in Texas with a big hole and a workforce looking for a new line of work. The cast of characters ranges from the aforementioned displaced nuclear physicist from the original Super Collider work, to the Chinese physicist and old paramour of Carpenter who actually (?) discovers the particle and therefore puts the Chinese at the forefront of nuclear physics and a new bomb, and on to a cast of characters from Washington and Hollywood.
This small synopsis covers a lot of territory, so it to Wouk's credit that he chose to keep the story on the lighter, brighter and briefer side. I’m not sure that I could have withstood a Youngblood Hawke level treatment to this story! As i was expecting, the book ends with everyone living happily ever after, although i think Guy may have been smarter if he had ditched the wife and snagged the congresswoman. But then again, that is really not Herman Wouk's style.
Herman Wouk deservedly ranks as one of America’s better novelists of the 20th century. I discovered Wouk through his best known work (?) "The Caine Mutiny", and subsequently read most of his novels from "Aurora Dawn" and "City Boy" to his very enjoyable and popular World War Two books. I even read "Youngblood Hawke" - no small feat! I thought that Wouk had long ago hung up his typewriter and I was not really on the lookout for any more of his books till I happened on “A Hole in Texas”, published in 2004.
It is not a long read, coming in at about 280 pages and, while not a great book, it is a harmless diversion and seems to be quite educational on the technical elements of the story. Paraphrasing the novel’s central character, a nuclear physicist named Guy Carpenter, and in the words of this non-technical reviewer, it tells the story of the US effort to discover the God Particle (the Higgs Boson) that could lead to a weapon more destructive than the nuclear bomb. Not surprisingly, this involved big sums of money dedicated to building a Super Collider in Texas - a huge underground ring that could enable particles to move at an accelerated pace and collide with each other generating the smallest particle (the Higgs Boson) that could convert energy into matter. The US eventually pulled the plug on this money pit in the 1990s leaving a town in Texas with a big hole and a workforce looking for a new line of work. The cast of characters ranges from the aforementioned displaced nuclear physicist from the original Super Collider work, to the Chinese physicist and old paramour of Carpenter who actually (?) discovers the particle and therefore puts the Chinese at the forefront of nuclear physics and a new bomb, and on to a cast of characters from Washington and Hollywood.
This small synopsis covers a lot of territory, so it to Wouk's credit that he chose to keep the story on the lighter, brighter and briefer side. I’m not sure that I could have withstood a Youngblood Hawke level treatment to this story! As i was expecting, the book ends with everyone living happily ever after, although i think Guy may have been smarter if he had ditched the wife and snagged the congresswoman. But then again, that is really not Herman Wouk's style.
April 9, 2021
I lost track of how many times I flipped to the inner back cover to check the publication date. This has a decidedly old-fashioned feel to it, and by that I mean it’s a paean to middle class white males of a certain age.
Every woman who meets Guy Campbell, astro physicist, throws herself at him — even a former actress now Congresswoman who got her political seat because her geriatric Senator husband bit the dust. But the archaic feel doesn’t stop there.
There’s the swanky university faculty fine dining room with its lobster dinners, impressive wine list, and ready champagne. And how the faculty members nonchalantly drove home after downing pre-dinner drinks, drinks with dinner, dessert wines, and a quick one for the road.
Or the night Guy’s wife serves sweetbreads for dinner (who does that anymore?) after their nightly routine of sipping martinis while watching the 6 o’clock news. Then he downs a few more while she does all the work, and also eventually the dishes — after spending the day at home with their infant daughter.
At one point the wife leaves in a fit of pique with their baby and takes a nonstop coast to coast flight that for some reason takes 11 hours. And maybe it did take that long in the 1950s, but this book is allegedly set in the late 1990s when it was a 6-hour flight.
And the racist jokes. So. Much. Racist. Stuff.
Honestly, it felt like a 1960s era manuscript got dusted off and a more modern storyline, involving the Higgs Boson, woven in so that Wouk could make a few more bucks before he was forgotten. It’s a far cry from his best work, “Winds of War”, though. So, skip this one. Go read that instead.
Every woman who meets Guy Campbell, astro physicist, throws herself at him — even a former actress now Congresswoman who got her political seat because her geriatric Senator husband bit the dust. But the archaic feel doesn’t stop there.
There’s the swanky university faculty fine dining room with its lobster dinners, impressive wine list, and ready champagne. And how the faculty members nonchalantly drove home after downing pre-dinner drinks, drinks with dinner, dessert wines, and a quick one for the road.
Or the night Guy’s wife serves sweetbreads for dinner (who does that anymore?) after their nightly routine of sipping martinis while watching the 6 o’clock news. Then he downs a few more while she does all the work, and also eventually the dishes — after spending the day at home with their infant daughter.
At one point the wife leaves in a fit of pique with their baby and takes a nonstop coast to coast flight that for some reason takes 11 hours. And maybe it did take that long in the 1950s, but this book is allegedly set in the late 1990s when it was a 6-hour flight.
And the racist jokes. So. Much. Racist. Stuff.
Honestly, it felt like a 1960s era manuscript got dusted off and a more modern storyline, involving the Higgs Boson, woven in so that Wouk could make a few more bucks before he was forgotten. It’s a far cry from his best work, “Winds of War”, though. So, skip this one. Go read that instead.
May 30, 2022
This was a good book. It is full of politics and intrigue domestic bliss and disappointment. Science (not sure if it is accurate) and unrequited love. Guy Carpenter and Astro physicist is thrust into the limelight when an old love interest from China is a the center of the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle. There is not to much rah-rah chest thumping American nationalism is the book which makes it enjoyable. Quite out of date now as the Higgs boson particle was found in 2013 not as a solely American discovery but an international discovery at the Large Haldron Collider in Geneva in 2013. This book was written in 2004.
February 18, 2025
Wouk draws fine characters
Through Herman Wouk’s body of writing, he always draws complex, rich characters. His plotlines are often well-machined stories, especially in The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance. The plotline of this one is a bit flimsy by comparison to his best, and sometimes a bit hard to buy into completely. His description of the Higgs Bosun is as palatable as any other that doesn’t require deep knowledge of particle physics. The hints that there might be a “Boson Bomb” are essential to the tension of the plot, but not terribly compelling. An entertaining book.
Through Herman Wouk’s body of writing, he always draws complex, rich characters. His plotlines are often well-machined stories, especially in The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance. The plotline of this one is a bit flimsy by comparison to his best, and sometimes a bit hard to buy into completely. His description of the Higgs Bosun is as palatable as any other that doesn’t require deep knowledge of particle physics. The hints that there might be a “Boson Bomb” are essential to the tension of the plot, but not terribly compelling. An entertaining book.
March 20, 2022
Not the typical Herman Wouk novel, but then what is? Marjorie Morningstar? The Caine Mutiny? War and Remembrance? A Hole in Texas is not about Texas per se. This is more of a send-up along the lines of Catch 22, except it's about Congressional embarrassment over having defunded a physics project that China ultimately beat us on. Wouk's terrific ability for character development, dialogue, human vulnerability, all woven into a situation of scientific relevance made a wonderful, light read. I really enjoyed it.
January 18, 2018
It has been many years since I read anything by Herman Wouk. I read one in high school that was on the reading list - either _Winds of War_ or _Caine Mutiny_. That was a long time ago. _A Hole In Texas_ is quite different in that it is a novel about the latest forefront in nuclear science. That speaks well of his flexibility and breadth. It would have taken a good deal of research and keeping up with current news on the part of Wouk in his senior years. It was an enjoyable novel.
July 14, 2020
The hole was dug for the Superconducting Super Collider, money for which was cut off by Congress before it was finished but after many millions of dollars had been spent. This book is only partly a novel...it goes into considerable detail about the science of the project. It is well written and enlightening. Warning: Wouk is a ex-Navy man with considerable technical knowledge, and the book makes demands on the reader's ability to understand physics and engineering.
January 13, 2024
Although written by Herman Wouk, his novel "A Hole in Texas" in my opinion doesn't quite measure up to the standards he set in his previous best selling books such as " The Caine Mutiny" and Marjorie Morningstar". The plot and character development is good but the story seems disjointed at times with too many characters tangled together as the story moves from scene to scene. Taking this into account though and considering the author, it's still a worthwhile read.
November 12, 2017
I have been a Herman Wouk fan for many years. In fact, I often will choose one of his books without considering the title. This one was a disappointment and I found I was forcing myself to get to the end hoping for some kind of Wouk magic. Sorry, but it just didn't happen. But I'll keep reading Herman Wouk.
May 31, 2024
No direction
The first 50 pages of this book dealt with atoms, electrons, protons, etc. Also the politics of funding and defending a super collider. With imaginary people and an imaginary politician. It didn't get more interesting as I continued reading. Not my cup of tea but others may have a different opinion.
The first 50 pages of this book dealt with atoms, electrons, protons, etc. Also the politics of funding and defending a super collider. With imaginary people and an imaginary politician. It didn't get more interesting as I continued reading. Not my cup of tea but others may have a different opinion.
November 23, 2025
Enjoyable read which will get you turning pages quick, especially if your a middle aged white liberal (which feels like the target audience of this book). Politics, science, and affairs collide in the search for the Higgs-Boson, but the journey, stereotypical characters, and Guy Carpenter himself, give off a dated macho vibe that doesn't quite fit.
July 5, 2017
A light read, certainly, when compared to Winds of War or War and Remembrance.
Still, interesting subject matter. Not many books on physics are able to achieve such a light-hearted style. It reminded me of something by Neville Shute.
Still, interesting subject matter. Not many books on physics are able to achieve such a light-hearted style. It reminded me of something by Neville Shute.
April 3, 2018
Interesting mixture of science, politics and romantic drama. Same old story-- scientific progress is hopelessly embroiled in the other two! Back in the day I had some exposure to the Superconducting Super Collider project due to my job at the time, which heightened the interest level for me.
July 2, 2024
Once past the science instructions the story took off.
It has been a long time since I read Wouk. I'm so pleased that I decided to read "A Hole in Texas". I am now ready to pick up Wouk's work that I have not yet read.
It has been a long time since I read Wouk. I'm so pleased that I decided to read "A Hole in Texas". I am now ready to pick up Wouk's work that I have not yet read.
May 22, 2017
A light read, science "made easy" for laypeople like me. I enjoyed most of it, but got a bit bored toward with the last 1/4 of the book. The characters are all a bit quirky, which I liked.
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