The House of Blue Lights

One summer, Joe Roberts lodged at the House of Blue Lights, a ramshackle beach house. He found people, a landscape, and a rich vein of stories - some fact and some close to myth. From recent history, for example, Roberts tells of Oscar Wilde's ill-fated visit and the great storm of 1900.

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One hazy southern summer, en route to New Orleans, Joe Roberts lodged at the House of Blue Lights, a ramshackle beach house sitting just off Highway 87, at the very tip of the Bolivar Peninsular and facing Galveston Island, on the Gulf of Mexico. Fascinated by this part of Texas, he found a rich vein of stories; some historical fact, others close to myth. Galveston Bay was once the homeland of the mysterious Karankawa Indians whose fearsome reputation kept generations of European colonists at bay. From more recent history, he tells of Oscar Wilde's ill-fated visit, and the great storm of 1900 when 3600 homes were destroyed and 6000 people drowned. Equally, this book is about the people Roberts met. His hostess, for instance, Mary Alice, a former stripper who would recount with alacrity the night she danced for Elvis, and Lucky Paradise, the geriatric country singer. Roberts paints a picture of life in this American backwater.