Utopia Texas

Betty Byrd
Outskirts Press (2010)
ISBN 9781432717520
Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (5/11)

One of the blurbs on the back of “Utopia Texas” says the story “will make you feel as if you lived it” and I couldn’t agree more.  Byrd’s superb character development, excellent plot execution, and expert writing skills offer the reader a story of the elite in the oil drilling industry you will ponder for some time after finished reading.

The main character, Brya Harrison, is manipulative yet sweet.  Her character depicts the imagined Texas oil baroness: feisty, direct, spirited, aggressive, and in denial to the reality that is going on in the family around her.  She and her oil tycoon husband, Cole, live in a mansion with the services of a maid and chauffeur. Her hearing-impaired daughter, Olivia, comes into the picture as being difficult and early on in the story becomes pregnant.  Brya manipulates the child’s father to leave the marriage as soon as Maggie is born.

Olivia lacks parenting skills and succumbs to the deep beliefs of Christian Science religion while neglecting her child.  Child abuse prevails until Byra and her husband, Cole, intervene and send Maggie to boarding school.

As the plot thickens, so do the characters and their actions. Greed and power, accompanied with the desire to stand aside the male-dominated oil industry, Byra’s life continues to face challenges.  Byrd gives the reader a page turner throughout the book while feeling you are part of the dysfunctional family, rooting for some and wishing others would get psychological help or get out of denial.

I loved reading “Utopia Texas!”  I am familiar with some of the areas of Texas that are mentioned in the book and can only imagine what it was like in the mid-1940s and into the 1950s.  Byrd certainly pulled me in throughout the story and I definitely didn’t see the ending as she depicted it.  To me, that is the skill of an outstanding and brilliant writer.

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