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Tom Wolfe A Man in Full
Farrar Straus & Giroux 0374270325 / 9780374270322 Hardcover Very Good
0374270325 Editorial Reviews nAmazon Review nEver since he published his classic 1972 essay Why They Aren't Writing the Great American Novel Anymore, Tom Wolfe has made his fictional preferences loud and clear. For New Journalism's poster boy, minimalism is a wash, not to mention a failure of nerve. The real mission of the American writer is to produce fat novels of social observation--the sort of thing Balzac would be dishing up if he had made it into the Viagra era. Wolfe's manifesto would have had a hubristic ring if he hadn't actually delivered the goods in 1987 with The Bonfire of the Vanities. Now, more than a decade later, he's back with a second novel. Has the Man in White lived up to his own mission? n nOn many counts, the answer would have to be yes. Like its predecessor, A Man in Full is a big-canvas work, in which a multitude of characters seems to be ascending or (rapidly) descending the greasy pole of social life: In an era like this one, a character reminds us, the twentieth century's fin de siècle, position was everything, and it was the hardest thing to get. Wolfe has changed terrain on us, to be sure. Instead of New York, the focus here is Atlanta, Georgia, where the struggle for turf and power is at least slightly patinated with Deep South gentility. The plot revolves around Charlie Croker, an egomaniacal good ol' boy with a crumbling real-estate empire on his hands. But Wolfe is no less attentive to a pair of supporting players: a downwardly mobile family man, Conrad Hensley, and Roger White II, an African American attorney at a white-shoe firm. What ultimately causes these subplots to converge--and threatens to ignite a racial firestorm in Atlanta--is the alleged rape of a society deb by Georgia Tech football star Fareek The Cannon Fanon. n nOf course, a detailed plot summary would be about as long as your average minimalist novel. Suffice it to say that A Man in Full is packed with the sort of splendid set pieces we've come to expect from Wolfe. A quail hunt on Charlie's 29,000-acre plantation, a stuffed-shirt evening at the symphony, a politically loaded press conference--the author assembles these scenes with contagious delight. The book is also very, very funny. The law firms, like upper-crust powerhouse Fogg Nackers Rendering & Lean, are straight out of Dickens, and Wolfe brings even his minor characters, like professional hick Opey McCorkle, to vivid life: In true Opey McCorkle fashion he had turned up for dinner wearing a plaid shirt, a plaid necktie, red felt suspenders, and a big old leather belt that went around his potbelly like something could hitch up a mule with, but for now he had cut off his usual torrent of orotund rhetoric mixed with Baker Countyisms. Readers in search of a kinder, gentler Wolfe may well be disappointed. Retaining the satirist's (necessary) superiority to his subject, he tends to lose his edge precisely when he's trying to move us. Still, when it comes to maximalist portraiture of the American scene--and to sheer, sentence-by-sentence amusement--1998 looks to be the year of the Wolfe, indeed. --James Marcus From Publishers Weekly nHowever the National Book Award judges managed to get hold of Wolfe's much-delayed second novel in time to give it their nod as an NBA finalist, they were quite right to do so. It's a dazzling performance, offering a panoramic vision of America at the end of the 20th century that ranges with deceptive ease over our economic, political and racial hang-ups and at the same time maintains a brisk narrative pace that makes the huge book seem only a quarter of its real length. Balzac had the same gift. The man in full of the title (the phrase comes from an old song) is Charlie Croker, a good-ole-boy real-estate developer in Atlanta whose sprawling South Georgia plantation, massive mansion in the best part of town, half-empty skyscraper tower named after himself, horde of servants, fleet of jets and free-spending trophy second wife have left him terribly vulnerable to bankers deciding the party's over. As a former football star, howe
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4.00 EUR
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Tom Wolfe Ambush at Fort Bragg
Random House Audio 0553478966 / 9780553478969 Audiobook CASSETTE New
0553478966 In Tom Wolfe's audio-only Ambush at Fort Bragg, no one escapes the author's satiric barbs. The doughy, rumpled network producer of a hard-hitting 60 Minutes-style TV show dreams of fame, while the limelight always shines instead on the tough-as-nails blonde investigative reporter in the perfect silk blouse with every hair always in place. The TV team, in their zeal to get the story, entrap a trio of skinhead gaybashers by having an exotic dancer (with the pitch-perfect name Lola Thong) lure them into a trailer, where hidden TV cameras capture their unwitting confessions. As usual, Wolfe makes it impossible to predict where your sympathies will land. Actor Edward Norton gives a delicious reading, especially in capturing the North Carolina drawls of the guilty men. n n nBook Description n nHe's been called the inventor of the New Journalism--and possessor of the age's most distinctive prose style.ááNow in this original novella, serialized to critical acclaim in Rolling Stone magazine in December 1996, Tom Wolfe, author of the bestseller The Bonfire of the Vanities, turns his penetrating eye and devastating wit to the world of TV news... n nAs the producer of a prime-time TV newsmagazine, Irv Durtscher fancies himself the Federico Fellini of television journalism.ááFor who else can draw 50 million viewers, satisfy the network's gluttony for profits, and advance the cause of social justice?ááThe only problem is that no one else recognizes Irv's genius.ááInstead, all the accolades go to the blonde bombshell anchor who won't give balding, near-sighted Irv the time of day.ááBut suddenly Irv has a chance to break the most sensational story of his career--one that will surely catapult him into the national spotlight and into Madame Bombshell's heart.ááFor months the wheels of justice have ground to a halt as three soldiers from Fort Bragg have categorically denied that they savagely beat and murdered a member of their company because he was gay.ááNow, Irv Durtscher, self-proclaimed soul of a soulless industry, is poised to expose the truth.ááWith a fortune in surveillance equipment, he has infiltrated a bar near Fort Bragg, in the hopes that the unwitting soldiers will hang themselves on videotape.ááWhat he gets is pure dynamite.ááBut Irv's story won't be complete until he arranges to ambush the three young toughs and show them the footage.ááWhat happens when one of New York's media elite confronts the Lords of Testosterone?...not what you think. n nAmbush at Fort Bragg is classic Wolfe--a blistering send-up of one man's drive for fame and glory and the lengths to which the media will go to showcase their version of the truth. This is Wolfe at his very best--timely, relevant, and right on the money about many aspects of 90s America: the media, the military, the South, discrimination, and homophobia. n nNot available in any book format, Ambush at Fort Bragg has been published by BDD Audio on cassette and CD.
Price:
13.30 EUR
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Tom Wolfe La hoguera de las vanidades (Spanish Edition)
Anagrama 8433920545 / 9788433920546 PAPERBACK Very Good
8433920545 Editorial Reviews n nProduct Description n###############################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################
Price:
24.24 EUR
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Tom Wolfe The Bonfire of the Vanities
Bantam 0553275976 / 9780553275971 PAPERBACK Good
0553275976 Amazon nAfter 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 aging enfant terrible. n nHe 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 Master of the Universe, 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 social x-rays, slime-bag politicos, tabloid hacks, and Dantesque denizens of the justice 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.
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4.00 EUR
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Tom Wolfe The Purple Decades-A Reader
Berkley 0425103455 / 9780425103456 PAPERBACK Good
0425103455 Editorial Reviews n nProduct Description nThe Purple Decades brings together the author's own selections from his list of critically acclaimed publications, including the complete text of Mau-Mauing and the Flak Catchers, his account of the wild games the poverty program encouraged minority groups to play. n--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. n nAbout the Author nTom Wolfe is the author of a dozen books, among them such contemporary classics as the bestselling The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, and The Bonfire of the Vanities. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he lives in New York City. n--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Price:
2.00 EUR
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