# Is Tom Wolfe arguably the greatest current American writer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480 "2004-11-02T02:36:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/21 "2004-11-02T18:01:13Z")
Three more nominees: David Foster Wallace Neil Stephenson Phillip Roth ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/22 "2004-11-02T18:21:43Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > He’s in a running fued with Updike and Mailer and Roth, whose pencils he is not fit to sharpen, as a novelist. For some reason, he’s charmed English papers which especially have been trying to make him out as a great novelist. (nit) - the feud is with Updike, Mailer and Irving. Wolfe respect and likes Roth. Having said that, I couldn’t agree with you more, **Exapno** - Wolfe doesn’t hold a candle as a novelist to most of the names listed in the thread. He is an interesting journalist - especially when taken within the context of his time and what he did to influence journalistic style. I still love _The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test_ as a piece of non-fiction reportage. But as a writer, as in fiction? Not even close. Not even worth considering. When Roth can write American Sabbath, the Human Stain, I Married a Communist and his latest book - all in his 60’s, and all critical and commercial successes - is there any question that he is the dean of active American writers? ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/23 "2004-11-02T18:23:41Z")
Richard Ford, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/24 "2004-11-02T18:37:25Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#): > > David Foster Wallace I always thought that he writes like a graduate student trying too hard. I don’t think he’s talented enough; or if he is, he sure hasn’t learned to wield that talent well. I second (or third) Irving–although I think his best work has already been written. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/25 "2004-11-02T19:19:01Z")
As much as I like David Foster Wallace, I don’t think he has enough of a body of work to judge whether he’s in the running for greatest current American writer. Phillip Roth, Norman Mailer, Don DeLillo, John Updike, Thomas Pynchon, and John Irving certainly do. My vote’s with Roth, although I think the “greatest current American writer” nomenclature’s a pretty useless thing in itself. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/26 "2004-11-02T19:31:27Z")
I can’t believe I forgot to mention E.L. Doctorow. But I agree with what several other posters have said, that if you had to give the title to any one writer, it would be Phillip Roth. I’m still surprised that Irving is getting mentioned so many times - I thoroughly enjoy most of his work (Widow for One Year excepted), but I just have never thought of him as “great”, and didn’t think he was generally regarded as such. ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/27 "2004-11-02T20:57:48Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Wrong Wolfe. _Gene_ Wolfe is the greatest current American writer. I’ll 2nd that. He has an expansive body of work that has been both widely acclaimed and dismissed due to where it’s found in most bookstores - the SF&F aisle. DeLillo writes prettier sentences, but Wolfe tells better stories. ---
**Author:** ![gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gentle)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/28 "2004-11-02T22:21:05Z")
What’s this obsession with the greatest this and that? They’re all (arguably) great writers. There’s no number one, objectively speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/29 "2004-11-02T23:11:27Z")
One of my definitions of “greatest writer” is the one who packs the most fun into the fewest words. On that standard, and limiting my choices to book-length writers, I nominate Carl Hiaasen, with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Elmore Leonard. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/30 "2004-11-02T23:54:47Z")
I’ll agree with the premise that Tom Wolfe is among the “greats” – I refuse to say “greatest” because I haven’t read even a fraction of the “important” works of this century. I’ll also put John Irving in there, and Kurt Vonnegut, although each of the latter suffer from style repetition in their later works. I’ll say that “Infinite Jest” was good enough that Wallace will still be known (if only for that one work) for a long time to come. Neal Stephenson, despite the Baroque Cycle, still basically writes fiction that serves as entertainment – not as a stimulus for debate, or to provoke thought or emotion – and so as good as he is at his _craft_, his _importance_ to anything other than the expected quality of entertaining fiction will sadly be minimal. Likewise Orson Scott Card, except that he may be remembered for _Ender’s Game_ provided he’s not still writing sequels and prequels that dilute it when he should be resting on his damned fine laurels. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/31 "2004-11-03T00:23:46Z")
> [@Diogenese the Cynic](#): > > A Man In Full was also a critical and popular success. Horrible horrible book! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/32 "2004-11-03T00:48:33Z")
The person who reviewed the new book for _Newsweek_\* didn’t like it, but the review was so vehement, I suspect maybe they know each other. My vote goes to Don Robertson, for The Ideal Genuine Man, Paradise Falls, and his Civil War trilogy. I haven’t read his other books yet, but the people who gave them to me and said “You have to read this man!” They were right about the first four, so I’m thinking the rest of them will be just as good. I like Gene Wolfe too (what an imagination he has) but I think the other writers mentioned here (Roth, Updike, Morrison, Ford, etc.) will be read a hundred years from now and will do a better job of conveying all the different truths of 20th century American culture. I don’t think Thomas Wolfe is in the same league. (I’ve only read Bonfire.) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/33 "2004-11-03T00:49:42Z")
Damn. Can’t code. Can’t even count. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/34 "2004-11-03T00:57:45Z")
Is this thread arguably the most pointless thread started on the SD this week? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/35 "2004-11-03T02:40:06Z")
Tom Wolfe. Never Thomas Wolfe. Yet another different Wolfe entirely. Nor is he Tobias Wolff. Who wasn’t the one who wrote about Nero Wolfe. Wolf Blitzer is a different mammal altogether. I thought the Newsweek review was surprisingly mild. It’s not as harsh as Michiko Kakutani’s in [The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/29/books/29wolf.html) but makes exactly the same point. Wolfe relies on lots of detailed reporting to try to set a scene, but the details aren’t convincing and he fails to create characters. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/36 "2004-11-03T04:02:53Z")
Dang it, if the board would let me go home again, I could have edited the third mistake in my post. I give up. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/37 "2004-11-03T04:16:11Z")
I’ll take Richard Russo and Kent Haruf above the others mentioned, but they’re all quite swell. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480/38 "2004-11-03T19:24:54Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > One of my definitions of “greatest writer” is the one who packs the most fun into the fewest words. On that standard, and limiting my choices to book-length writers, I nominate Carl Hiaasen, with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Elmore Leonard. 😃 Oh, in light of that definition, I offer up Tom Robbins. That man turns a phrase like no other. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-tom-wolfe-arguably-the-greatest-current-american-writer/272480.md?page=1)