Here We Go Loop De Loop

by William Jack Sibley

"Put me in a car with Bill Sibley on a road trip across the nation and everything will be just fine. His spectacular voice, his aptitude for creating instantly indelible characters in richly funny scenes, his perfect pacing and splendid particularity are dazzling and hypnotic. Storyteller supreme! Here We Go Loop De Loop lifted my mood entirely." - NAOMI SHIHAB NYE, Young People's Poet Laureate, Poetry Foundation

"Wonderful example of generous escapism and a book to be recommended." - KIRKUS REVIEWS

"A satirical small-town Texas comedy with welcome, surprising heart. Sibley's boisterous comic novel blends small-town satire and humanist warmth as it unspools its tales of isolated people learning to love. His prose is sharp and evocative. At its best, Here We Go... finds these snared coyotes daring to find new ways to love." - BOOKLIFE

"Larry McMurtry meets A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is Sibley's best yet - a rollicking screwball comedy with a heart as big as Texas." - STEVEN L. DAVIS, Author, Past President, Texas Institute of Letters

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A COWBOY, AN HEIRESS, HER BROTHER'S HUSBAND ... AND A BADASS 72 MERCURY MONTEGO.
This is the story of a her loving a him - who's in love with another him - and that other him enduring an unrequited love for the original her. With a small-town Texas appreciation, this book is replete with humor, adversity, and the tenacity of survivors unwilling and unable to acknowledge defeat. Here We Go Loop De Loop by William Jack Sibley has greed, lust, sexuality, spiritual enlightenment, more lust, xenophobia, and the meaning of a life worth living, all woven into a single, outrageous knot in the insulated town of Rita Blanca, Texas. The author, a fifth-generation Texan and a resolute seeker of wisdom, truth, and the occasional virtuosic lie, with humor and reflection, has wrought a story of humanity through characters doing the best they can - just not terribly well.

332 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2021

About the author

Award-winning William Jack Sibley is a fifth generation Texas rancher and a versatile writer whose work has spanned from the likes of writing dialogue for television’s Guiding Light to serving as a contributing editor at Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, to seeing his plays produced off-Broadway and regionally. Sibley is the author of a dozen screenplays, nine stage plays, and three novels (Any Kind of Luck, Sighs Too Deep For Words, and Here We Go Loop De Loop).

Sibley’s previous works have won the National Indie Excellence Book Award and USA Best Book Award while succeeding as a finalist in the Lambda Literary Award, Foreword Reviews Book of the Year, and more. Sibley currently is the Secretary of the Texas Institute of Letters, as well as a member of The Dramatist Guild and the Writers Guild of America. He lives in San Antonio. For more, visit www.williamjacksibley.com.

Reviews

[Tissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lyndeckers and, to a lesser extent, the Pennebakers are two parts insane and one part funny, a combo able to pull in anyone gravitating too close to them – starting with the reader.

[Keep reading @ Bookshelves & Teacups]

[PaperMoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

True to form with this author - a parade of bright, brash, slightly kooky but memorable characters get introduced throughout yet another character driven plot set in a rural Texan township where southern drawl compete with shirtless brawn and big-hair. As per Todorov's theory - equilibrium is broken when one exerts a disruptive force - and so we find the lives of three notable families impacted by three visitors from faraway lands, bringing with them new ideas, kind hearts and different perspectives. Straight, bi-curious and gay characters of all ages and genders mix-it-up amidst serendipitous / chance meetings and connections - I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times at zany scenarios that verge almost to the farcical. 4.5 stars.

[John Musgrove · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for a book club. Writing is okay - just not a page turner as I had hoped.

[William Sibley · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Put me in a car with Bill Sibley on a road trip across the nation and everything will be just fine. His spectacular voice, his aptitude for creating instantly indelible characters in richly funny scenes, his perfect pacing and splendid particularity are dazzling and hypnotic. Storyteller supreme! Here We Go Loop De Loop lifted my mood entirely." - NAOMI SHIHAB NYE, Young People's Poet Laureate, Poetry Foundation

"Wonderful example of generous escapism and a book to be recommended." - KIRKUS REVIEWS

"A satirical small-town Texas comedy with welcome, surprising heart. Sibley's boisterous comic novel blends small-town satire and humanist warmth as it unspools its tales of isolated people learning to love. His prose is sharp and evocative. At its best, Here We Go... finds these snared coyotes daring to find new ways to love." - BOOKLIFE

"Larry McMurtry meets A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is Sibley's best yet - a rollicking screwball comedy with a heart as big as Texas." - STEVEN L. DAVIS, Author, Past President, Texas Institute of Letters

"This book is no doubt a different kind of love story with hilarious characters. The emotional interaction of the characters is perfect; the reader gets to see everything that makes them human. This is such an entertaining and beautifully written book. The biggest positive of this book is the rich dialogue. The use of detailed descriptions helps in seamless comprehension. The author's vivid description of what a ranch is and how it works, using the actions and dialogues of the characters, is a big plus to the book. I was enthralled at the effortless and consistent expression of the Texas lingo through the conversations. There was absolutely nothing to dislike about this book. Therefore, I'd gladly rate it 4 out of 4 stars. Lovers of hilarious family stories would have a great time reading this book." - ONLINEBOOKCLUB.ORG

[Laura A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally found a summer read I loved!!! I want to go to Rita Blanca and be a fly on the wall when the Pennebakers (the wealthiest family in town), the Lyndeckers (the unluckiest family in town) and even the Jansky's (2nd wealthiest and most snobby family in town) were together.

The Pennebakers and Lyndeckers have family histories, regrets and hopes for the future. How they deal with their present day situations is what made me laugh out loud, "ponder", and sympathize with each character.

Mr. Sibley's writing captures the heat and dryness of South Texas, the hilarity of the all-female fight in the Emporium, and the tenderness of the patriarchs desire to ride off in the sunset on his own terms.

Grab a cold longneck and lower the thermostat and enjoy "Here We Go Loop De Loop".

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rich, funny, entertaining read.

Here we go loop de loop is a cracker. With well written and interesting characters you can't help but slide into Texas with them and forget the real world.
It's quite an emotional read that was pulling at my heart strings but also resonating with the other things too. It had me laughing out loud and, I admit to a few tears too.
So, if you're looking for something that will have you immersed for hours, make you laugh, cry, get you frustrated and fulfilled then grab this with both hands, run and hide away from reality with your cuppa.

[BookTrib.com]

HERE WE GO LOOP DE LOOP is an engaging comedy that offers readers an escape into the surprisingly fast-paced world of a little town in Texas. Sibley has given readers a string of laughably ridiculous scenes that you’d have to read to believe, but luckily his prose is so chock-full of sensory description you’ll have no trouble picturing each moment.

Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/08/19/texas...

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book since I was handed it at a bookstore in San Antonio when I told them I was looking for something set locally (or close to it). This book somehow both mocks & embraces small-town Texas life. Just one of the many contradictions within it that make this book an entertaining, breezy read. It also manages to both live in the present while holding on to the past.

[Retha Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, fun, fun! If you're a native Texan, an adopted the Texan, or a pitiable soul who's never set foot in the Lone Star state, you'll enjoy this laugh-out-loud romp. Sibley writes with heart and compassion. Let's hope we hear a lot more from him!

[S.A. Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of hearing William Jack Sibley read part of Here We Go Loop De Loop at the 2022 San Antonio Book Festival and immediately knew I had to buy the book. Sibley is a fifth-generation South Texan, and it shows. Only someone with those roots could create dried-up, run-down, small town Rita Blanca—and make the reader fall in love with it. The plot revolves around two families. The Pennebakers consist of Marty, reluctant heiress to the family ranch; her dead brother Tom; and her father Pete, who’s dying of cancer and contrariness. The larger Lyndecker clan is headed by Pettus, who single-handedly raised his five siblings and is still giving them a home as adults. The Pennebakers are land-rich, money-rich, blue-blooded Texas aristocracy. The Lyndeckers are land-rich, money-poor, perpetually down on their luck, pure-D Texas trash. The entire Lyndecker family is drop-dead gorgeous, and Pettus has loved and left every woman in town. He is currently loving (with no plans on leaving) Marty, who left her semi-glamorous life in New York City to come home and care for Pete in his hour of need, if only he’d let her. To Marty, Pettus is just her dead brother’s old friend and a pleasant way to pass the time.

Wealthy investment banker Chito Sosa arrives in town and introduces himself as Tom Pennebaker's widowed husband, whom not even Marty and Pete knew about. When he announces he is there to honor his husband’s dying wish to improve Rita Blanca, everyone’s lives are turned upside down. Add subplots involving feuding florists, an immigrant family desperate to leave the U.S. for a better life in Mexico, and the various ups and downs of the Lyndecker clan, and the story becomes more enthralling with every turn of the page.

The characters in this novel are likeable misfits, and the improbable situations they get themselves into are somehow totally believable. Tenderfoot readers will be treated to the occasional true-to-life picture of South Texas ranching as it really is--and most likely will never forget it. (The author is also a fifth-generation rancher!) More than anything, Here We Go Loop De Loop is a love letter to a small town and its people, who are trying their hardest to do their best but not knowing quite how to go about it.

With its satirical reliance on small-town Texas life, Here We Go Loop De Loop probably isn’t for everyone, but it had me laughing out loud, batting back tears, cheering the characters on, and interrupting my husband’s reading to share passages from the book. Not going to give the plot away, but the last line of the book had me chuckling for days.