Tom Wolfe. Love him? Hate him?

Cafe Society
1

I am a huge fan of Tom Wolfe. I’ve read a lot of his articles, but my favorite works of his are the fictional novels. I’ve read Bonfire, A Man in Full and I Am Charlotte Simmons. I absolutely loved all of them - I finished them in like 2 days. Despite his political views being opposed to mine (he is an acknowledged conservative and a registered Republican,) I still think his insights into the nature of society are profound and fascinating.

Specifically, I love how he explores the subject of masculine power jockeying. He’s got to be one of the only writers I’ve read who ever really goes deep into this issue. It is a major theme in all his fiction work - the idea that even in this day in age, where victories are won “not on the field of battle by knights in armor but by men in worsted-wool-suit-temperature-controlled cubicles,” to quote Wolfe himself, humans are still basically animals and as such are susceptible to male power and machismo. The only other person I can even think of who explores this subject in depth in a non-sociological context is R. Crumb, another one of my favorite writers/artists.

His characters always go through so much debilitating humiliation - rich pompous assholes and alpha-males get put in their place, working-class stiffs endure the mundane but maddening frustrations of life, cheating students are reduced to scum by their teachers - and Wolfe makes it feel so real. I find that even though his characters are nearly all loathsome people, their grief is so tangible that it almost makes you cringe.

And I love his attention to detail, especially clothing. Like Brett Easton Ellis, some say that he goes overboard, but I think it’s fitting to his subject matter because the society that he writes about does go overboard with fashion obsession. And I also love his clumsy but entertaining attempts at parodying “newfangled youth culture.” He makes up fake rappers and even writes lyrics for them:

Yo, take my johnson, knock it on some fox’s box/my cock, sucker, I’m the fucker you forgot

-I mean…this was written by a 77 year old man! And it’s fucking hilarious! And his stodgy derision of everything that the young generation loves - cell phones, computers, televised sports, partying, rap and pop music - it’s like he is the prototypical “get off my lawn!” codger, complete with a white suit.

Does anyone else absolutely love Tom Wolfe? And if you hate him, why?

2

Loved A Man in Full.

Hated I Am Charlotte Simmons.

Liked Bonfire.

Sorry, that was quite brief. I liked the grand scope of A Man in Full, the way it looked at the largest and the smallest aspects of contemporary American life.

I hated Charlotte Simmons for the choices made.

3

**The Right Stuff ** is one of the five best books I have ever read.

4

Could you elaborate on that? Do you mean the choices that the character made?

5

Hate. His writing smacks of pretension.

6

I really like both Bonfire and Man in Full, but Charlotte Simmons was a bit of a drop off for me. I though it had some good individual elements but I didn’t think the characters were quite as sympathetic and didn’t find the resolutionsparticularly satisfying. I think he is a very good craftsman, though, for much the same reasons mentioned by the OP.

7

I thought *The Right Stuff *and Bonfire were terrific. I liked The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test for a perspective on a historical experience that I regretfully missed by about a decade. There was an actual Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test at the Unitarian church next to my high school.

8

You might enjoy some David Mamet.

I loved A Man in Full but my eyes glazed when he spent multiple pages describing a lavish estate or building. Haven’t read any of his other stuff yet.

9

I haven’t read anything but Man in Full, which is up there on my list of Most Horrible Books Ever Written.

10

I’ve only read Charlotte Simmons, and I love to hate that one. He is very “get off my lawn, kids” in that one. The kids are gasp having teh sex!!! and drinking! and oh noes, drugs and frat parties, oh my! It was to laugh.

11

I like Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction, not so much his fiction. I thought ‘Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’ was a great book. Even though Wolfe was mocking some of the aspirations of the people he wrote about, he also did such a great reporting job that he conveyed their sense of excitement about what they were doing far better than some simpering acolyte who thought everything was groovy would have.

“From Our House to Bauhaus” was an excellent examination of the way the Bauhaus movement fucked over architecture in America, and ‘The Painted Word’ did a very good job of mocking the absurdities of the abstract art scene. Excellent stuff all 'round.

I tried reading ‘A Man in Full’ but it bored me pretty quickly. You can only deflate a pompous ego so many times. And I got through about half of “Bonfire” before it collapsed under its own weight.

I think the guy should stick to nonfiction.

12

Love the “non-fiction”. From EK-AAT to The Right Stuff.

Hate the fiction.

13

I like Wolfe’s fiction, I’ve enjoyed his essays, but based on this I have doubts as to his honesty.

14

I really enjoyed “…Charlotte…” and I re-read it a few months ago.

I enjoyed reading it a second time.

15

I love his non-fiction. His put-down of modern art in “From Bauhaus to our house” is great satire, with a base of good journalism.
And I loved his fiction–until Charlotte Simmons, which made me lose a lot of respect for the guy.

Bonfire of the Vanities was great–it not only explored the fall of a man’s dreams, it was great journalism, and took me to parts of America I don’t know–the super-rich and the super poor.
Man in Full was just a re-hash of the exact same theme, which bored me. But at least it still had good journalism–it took me to other parts of America I didn’t know-- the jail system, and the underground lives of immigrants .

But Charlotte was a BAD book. It re-hashed the theme of disappointment in reaching for goals, for the third time. But what really surprised me for a Wolffe book was that it was terrible,terrible journalism. Because it tried to show me a part of America which, well, I ALREADY know about–the college campus. And therefor I know that Wolffe got it all wrong!
Aside from his silly attempt to “discover” that students actually have sex(how shocking, this must not be 1951 any more!!)–his plot was unbelievable. The top man in a popular fraternity does NOT invite the most geeky, uncultured girl on campus to the formal dance. (Hell, no smooth fraternity guy even looks at a girl who isn’t a member of the right sorority.Wolfe should have known that from his own college days, and it hasn’t changed since then.) And the top jock on campus does NOT take 300-level philosophy courses. And a hick girl from a rural area with no computer at home does not become a first class researcher at the library early in her first semester