I know he’s a Republican but I love Tom Wolfe’s novels and I think he’s one of the best contemporary writers we have. His newest novel, entitled I Am Charlotte Simmons is going to be released on Nov. 9. I’m totally psyched. I loved both Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full like sex. I hope this one is as good.
The plot summary says it’s about a fictional ivy league university and the culture therein.
I like Wolfe. Bonfire of the Vanities is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I also nearly crapped myself reading Radical Chic. He can take people apart in such an incisive way.
I didn’t read A Man in Full because I heard it wasn’t so good, but maybe I’ll give it a shot some day.
They ran a one-page excerpt in the New York Times Book Review. (Why? Because they have a new editor, and he’s shaking things up. :rolleyes: )
After I read it, I was strongly - strongly - tempted to write them a letter asking why they have such a vendetta against Tom Wolfe that they would want to do something this horrible to him.
Really. It was from the beginning of the title character’s diary, where she goes off to college. It reads like what Tom’s girlfriend would have written in 1955. Unfortunately, it’s set in the present.
I have to think that the rest couldn’t possibly be that bad. But I also couldn’t get into A Man in Full even after two tries. I liked Bonfire of the Vanities, but the book also proved that Wolfe could not even imagine a female character to save his life, let alone write one. Why he should want to try to write first person in the mind of a college girl is beyond comprehension.