I and Claudie is a delightful and captivating novel about a couple of bungling but good-hearted con men who (barely) make their way across Texas over a two-year period in the 1930s. Their adventures, Anderson said, were in no sense autobiographical, but sometimes I am sorry they are not. The charming con men outwit lumbermen, oil men, and others, but are sometimes the victims themselves. Clint Hightower (the I in the title) is a smooth- talking maker of deals; Claudie Hughes, all 6'6" of him, is his slower-of-mind sidekick who does all the real work and, often unwittingly, saves the day.The...