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Review
"'This is a book that will be a sharp pleasure to reread years from now, when it will bring back, like a falcon in the sky of memory, a whole world that is currently jetting, or jazzing, its way to somewhere or other' Newsweek"
Metro, April 16, 2007
"a great example on how the genre cocked a snook at journalistic convention."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Tom Wolfe puts together a pastiche of journalistic articles about 1960's America, ranging from such esoterica as demolition derbies to the media-celebrity culture of New York. As always, Wolfe's style of Beat-Journalism cuts sharply to the point without resorting to overused clichés, describing such cultures in his own highly original style and capturing his view perfectly.
Some of his articles are about life in the grime of reality, and some seem to be almost a grotesque caricature of life in the celebrity set. However for me this was an excellent retrospect of 1960's culture, whether as a reflection of reality itself, or as a reflection of how certain popular cultural icons were perceived by the general public.
Wolfe's style and wit are to me, unsurpassed and I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the 1960's. Most complimentary of all, I would recommend this book to myself, for a second read sometime in the future.
Some of his articles are about life in the grime of reality, and some seem to be almost a grotesque caricature of life in the celebrity set. However for me this was an excellent retrospect of 1960's culture, whether as a reflection of reality itself, or as a reflection of how certain popular cultural icons were perceived by the general public.
Wolfe's style and wit are to me, unsurpassed and I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the 1960's. Most complimentary of all, I would recommend this book to myself, for a second read sometime in the future.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In a series of independant snap-shots of aspects of contemporary American culture in the 1960's, this snappily written book has something for everyone. It is a more interesting read now than when it was first published.
The title piece covers the custom car genre and contains first-hand accounts of encounters with some of the great characters of the time such as Ed Roth and George Barris. Also of interest to car enthusiasts is the chapter on "The last American Hero", with extraordinary tales of Junior Johnson the NASCAR race driver, and his formative days racing the police whilst running moonshine from the illicit stills in the hills.
Similar pieces cover the modern art scene, fashion, and numerous off-beat facets of New York life.
Highly entertaining - highly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
13 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
The Ultimate Bathroom Book
1 Jun 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a collection of short tales about contemporary New York and America written in the early 1960s. As you might expect, Wolfe is a little more rough around the edges here, and so there is a little hit and miss. However, The Last American Hero, about driver Junior Johnson and the early beginnings of NASCAR, is breathtaking - here are the true buds of Wolfe's ideas on American Masculinity that were to flower in The Right Stuff.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Get It If You Can Find It - Fantastic Read!
20 Nov 2004
Format:Paperback
Tom Wolfe began his career as a "New Journalist" with this book back in 1965, and when I discovered it some thirty years later I instantly became a fan of what this man is sellin'. The articles collected in here range a wide variety of topics, and even the duller pieces are punctuated with traces of brilliance.
The most memorable for me (seeing as I haven't read it in a few years) deal with some interesting and illuminating topics, both of their time and somehow relevant today:
The title piece dealing with custom cars (what's the hottest reality show staple besides weddings and home decor?)
Phil Spector's oddness (chilling in light of his recent legal troubles)
The beginnings of what would become NASCAR (now the biggest sport in the South)
Cassius Clay AKA Muhammed Ali (the role of the black athelete in American society is still being worked out)
Vegas' rise from the desert
There are countless others, products of their time and yet transcending eras to speak to us today. Again, not every piece works, but it's a credit to the book as a whole that I can't recall which ones were failures.
If you can find this, get it. You'll look at thinks differently afterwords...
The most memorable for me (seeing as I haven't read it in a few years) deal with some interesting and illuminating topics, both of their time and somehow relevant today:
The title piece dealing with custom cars (what's the hottest reality show staple besides weddings and home decor?)
Phil Spector's oddness (chilling in light of his recent legal troubles)
The beginnings of what would become NASCAR (now the biggest sport in the South)
Cassius Clay AKA Muhammed Ali (the role of the black athelete in American society is still being worked out)
Vegas' rise from the desert
There are countless others, products of their time and yet transcending eras to speak to us today. Again, not every piece works, but it's a credit to the book as a whole that I can't recall which ones were failures.
If you can find this, get it. You'll look at thinks differently afterwords...
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Interesting, but a bit of a slow read
15 Aug 2001
Being a huge fan of the other two Tom Wolfe books I've read, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and "A Man In Full", I was naturally curious to read Wolfe's first book. Unfortunately, I didn't find it to be as sharp or witty as his more recent work, possibly due to this one being non-fiction. I found it to essentially be a set of rambling observations about the state of life in America in the 60's. His choices of subject are clever and put a whole new spin on my view of the United States of the mid-twentieth century but on the whole I found large stretches of the book to be quite dry and, in my opinion, unnecessarily convoluted.
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