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Wolfe, Tom ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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Wolfe, Tom The Bonfire of the Vanities
Bantam November 1, 1988 033030660X / 9780330306607 Paperback
Editorial Reviews&newline;Amazon.com Review&newline;After Tom Wolfe defined the '60s in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and the cultural U-turn at the turn of the '80s in The Right Stuff, nobody thought he could ever top himself again. In 1987, when The Bonfire of the Vanities arrived, the literati called Wolfe an &doublequote;aging enfant terrible.&doublequote;&newline;&newline;He wasn't aging; he was growing up. Bonfire's pyrotechnic satire of 1980s New York wasn't just Wolfe's best book, it was the best bestselling fiction debut of the decade, a miraculously realistic study of an unbelievably status-mad society, from the fiery combatants of the South Bronx to the bubbling scum at the top of Wall Street. Sherman McCoy, a farcically arrogant investment banker (dubbed a &doublequote;Master of the Universe,&doublequote; Wolfe's brilliant metaphorical co-opting of a then-important toy for boys), hits a black guy in the Bronx with his Mercedes and runs--right into a nightmare peopled by vicious mistresses, thin wives like &doublequote;social x-rays,&doublequote; slime-bag politicos, tabloid hacks, and Dantesque denizens of the &doublequote;justice&doublequote; system. If the Coen and Marx brothers together dramatized The Great Gatsby, Wolfe's Bonfire would probably be funnier. Many think his second novel, A Man in Full, is deeper, but Bonfire will never die down.&newline;&newline;You might find it interesting to compare the film The Bonfire of the Vanities, a fascinating calamity perpetrated by the geniuses Brian De Palma and Tom Hanks, with The Right Stuff, one of the very best films of the '80s. --Tim Appelo &newline;&newline;From Publishers Weekly&newline;In his spellbinding first novel, Wolfe proves that he has the right stuff to write propulsively engrossing fiction. Both his cynical irony and sense of the ridiculous are perfectly suited to his subject: the roiling, corrupt, savage, ethnic melting pot that is New York City. Ranging from the rarefied atmosphere of Park Avenue to the dingy courtrooms of the Bronx, this is a totally credible tale of how the communities uneasily coexist and what happens when they collide. On a clandestine date with his mistress one night, top Wall Street investment banker and snobbish WASP Sherman McCoy misses his turn on the thruway and gets lost in the South Bronx; his Mercedes hits and seriously injures a young black man. The incident is inflated by a manipulative black leader, a district attorney seeking reelection and a sleazy tabloid reporter into a full-blown scandal, a political football and a hokey morality play. Wolfe adroitly swings his focus from one to another of the people involved: the protagonist McCoy; Kramer, the assistant D.A.; two detectivesone Irish, the other Jewish; a slimy, alcoholic British journalist; an outraged judge, etc. He has an infallible, mocking ear for New York voices, rendering with equal precision the defense lawyer's &doublequote;gedoutdahere,&doublequote; the deliberate bad grammar (&doublequote;that don't help matters&doublequote;) of the wily &doublequote;reverend&doublequote; and the clenched-teeth WASP locution ('howjado&doublequote;). His reporter's eye has seized every gritty detail of the criminal justice system, and he is also acute in rendering the hierarchy at a society party. He convincingly equates the jungles of Wall Street and the Bronx: in both places men casually use the same four-letter expletives and, no matter what their standing on the social ladder, find that power kindles their lust for nubile young women. Erupting from the first line with noise, color, tension and immediacy, this immensely entertaining novel accurately mirrors a system that has broken down: from the social code of basic good manners to the fair practices of the law. It is safe to predict that the book will stand as a brilliant evocation of New York's class, racial and political structure in the 1980s. 200,000 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild dual main selection; author tour. &newline;Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 4.5 Stars
Price:
101.00 USD
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Wolfe, Tom The Right Stuff
Bantam November 1980 0553240633 / 9780553240634 Mass Market Paperback
Editorial Reviews&newline;Amazon.com Review&newline;Tom Wolfe began The Right Stuff at a time when it was unfashionable to contemplate American heroism. Nixon had left the White House in disgrace, the nation was reeling from the catastrophe of Vietnam, and in 1979--the year the book appeared--Americans were being held hostage by Iranian militants. Yet it was exactly the anachronistic courage of his subjects that captivated Wolfe. In his foreword, he notes that as late as 1970, almost one in four career Navy pilots died in accidents. &doublequote;The Right Stuff,&doublequote; he explains, &doublequote;became a story of why men were willing--willing?--delighted!--to take on such odds in this, an era literary people had long since characterized as the age of the anti-hero.&doublequote; &newline;&newline;Wolfe's roots in New Journalism were intertwined with the nonfiction novel that Truman Capote had pioneered with In Cold Blood. As Capote did, Wolfe tells his story from a limited omniscient perspective, dropping into the lives of his &doublequote;characters&doublequote; as each in turn becomes a major player in the space program. After an opening chapter on the terror of being a test pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americans were first attempting to break the sound barrier. Test pilots, we discover, are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines, not all of them airborne. Chuck Yeager was certainly among the fastest, and his determination to push through Mach 1--a feat that some had predicted would cause the destruction of any aircraft--makes him the book's guiding spirit.&newline;&newline;Yet soon the focus shifts to the seven initial astronauts. Wolfe traces Alan Shepard's suborbital flight and Gus Grissom's embarrassing panic on the high seas (making the controversial claim that Grissom flooded his Liberty capsule by blowing the escape hatch too soon). The author also produces an admiring portrait of John Glenn's apple-pie heroism and selfless dedication. By the time Wolfe concludes with a return to Yeager and his late-career exploits, the narrative's epic proportions and literary merits are secure. Certainly The Right Stuff is the best, the funniest, and the most vivid book ever written about America's manned space program. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. &newline;&newline;Review&newline;&doublequote;An exhilarating flight into fear, love, beauty and fiery death ... magnificent.&doublequote;&newline;-- &doublequote;People &newline;&doublequote;It is Tom Wolfe at his very best ... technically accurate, learned, cheeky, risky, touching, tough, compassionate, nostalgic, worshipful, jingoistic -- The Right Stuff is superb.&doublequote; &newline;-- &doublequote;The New York Times Book Review &newline;&doublequote;Breathtaking ... epic ... There are images and ideas in The Right Stuff that glisten like a rocket screaming to the heavens.&doublequote; &newline;-- &doublequote;Los Angeles Times &newline;&doublequote;Romantic and thrilling ... One of the most romantic and thrilling books ever written about men who put themselves in peril.&doublequote; &newline;-- &doublequote;The Boston Globe &newline;&doublequote;It's magic ... the best book I have read in the last ten years.&doublequote;&newline;-- &doublequote;Chicago Tribune &newline;Also by Tom Wolfe: &newline;The Bonfire of the Vanities&newline;The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test&newline;From Bauhaus to Our House&newline;The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby&newline;The Painted Word&newline;The Right Stuff&newline;Mauve Gloves & Madmen&newline;Clutter & Vine&newline;In Our Time&newline;The Pumphouse Gang&newline;Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers &newline;Available wherever Bantam Books are sold --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 4.5 Stars
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104.04 USD
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