The Ang Lee-directed movie version of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk comes out November 11. That’s wide release, anyway. The world premiere happens October 14 at the New York Film Festival. The author of the book, Ben Fountain, is a friend of D Magazine. Zac profiled him. Ben wrote a story for us last year about SMU’s Southwest Review.
We’re working on our November issue right now, and I’m supposed to write something about the movie. In preparation, I went looking for a copy of the book. I loaned mine to someone who didn’t return it. Or it’s in my house someplace, and I can’t find it. Not sure which. So I went to the flagship Half Price Books on Northwest Highway. I’m here to report that I got the only copy on the shelf. It is a first edition. Ten bucks, with tax.
I’m 50 pages into my second tour of what Entertainment Weekly called the 54th greatest novel of all time, and I’m enjoying it even more than I did the first time around. I spoke yesterday with a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader who has yet to read the book. That’s amazing to me. Even if you’ve never cheered on the sidelines for the Cowboys, if you live in Dallas, you need to read this book. Do it before the movie comes out.
