- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (8 Nov 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330318195
- ISBN-13: 978-0330318198
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 221,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Tom Wolfe began The Right Stuff at a time when it was unfashionable to contemplate American heroism. Nixon had left the White House in disgrace, the nation was reeling from the catastrophe of Vietnam, and in 1979--the year the book appeared--Americans were being held hostage by Iranian militants. Yet it was exactly the anachronistic courage of his subjects that captivated Wolfe. In his foreword, he notes that as late as 1970, almost one in four career Navy pilots died in accidents. "The Right Stuff," he explains, "became a story of why men were willing--willing?--delighted!--to take on such odds in this, an era literary people had long since characterized as the age of the anti-hero."
Wolfe's roots in New Journalism were intertwined with the nonfiction novel that Truman Capote had pioneered with In Cold Blood. As Capote did, Wolfe tells his story from a limited omniscient perspective, dropping into the lives of his "characters" as each in turn becomes a major player in the space program. After an opening chapter on the terror of being a test pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americans were first attempting to break the sound barrier. Test pilots, we discover, are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines, not all of them airborne.
Wolfe traces Alan Shepard's suborbital flight and Gus Grissom's embarrassing panic on the high seas (making the controversial claim that Grissom flooded his Liberty capsule by blowing the escape hatch too soon). The author also produces an admiring portrait of John Glenn's apple-pie heroism and selfless dedication. By the time Wolfe concludes with a return to Yeager and his late-career exploits, the narrative's epic proportions and literary merits are secure. Certainly The Right Stuff is the best, the funniest, and the most vivid book ever written about America's manned space program. --Patrick O'Kelley
Review
"An exhilarating flight into fear, love, beauty and fiery death... magnificent." People"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most wonderful stuff,
This review is from: The Right Stuff (Paperback)
Tom Wolfe is an outstanding writer, and this book shows him at his best. Wolfe recounts the careers of the first US astronauts, from their early hell-raising lives as test pilots to the first space flights and beyond, in exquisite, entertaining prose. His descriptions, whether of a crashed pilot "burned beyond recognition", or the minute-by-minute experience of the first astronauts in the Mercury programme, are mesmerising. Perhaps his greatest achievement is to describe the astronauts (eg the Peugeot-driving John Glenn) both as heroic, larger-than-life figures and as real, believable human beings. Summary: an extraordinary book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Impressionistic, with little analysis or insight into the period,
By
This review is from: The Right Stuff (Paperback)
You carry your expectations to a book, and this one was a disappointment to me. This book, in my view, offers a sophisticated version of hero worship. But, while showing many of the foibles of the characters, it is worshipful and indeed, facile myth generation. You get a bunch of you-are-there style descriptions - the kind of light stream-of-consciousness that made Wolfe famous as a hip young beat journalist - and they are fine as far as they go, but at least for me, I felt there is far too little substance behind it.
In spite of Wolfe's somewhat cynical veneer, the characters fall into some pretty simplistic stereotypes. You get the tough, natural aristocrat, Chuck Yeager, the real yet unknown superstar, and then you get the media-sensation astronauts, who are promoted for political propaganda reasons. Thus, there is John Glenn ("the clean marine") and a host of other less colorful characters. I did not feel I got to know much about them. Glenn, whom I worked for in the Senate 20 years ago, comes off as the most boring of straight men, which I don't think encompasses him well at all. Then there is the period of history in which it all takes place, the Cold War. Wolfe offers nothing much of interest about this frightening period of technological competition between the US and USSR. I felt it was just kind of a useful background for Wolfe. This stands in stark contrast to Wolfe's wonderful Electric Coolaid Acid Test, which really plumbed a lot of the 1960s psychedelic spirit - that was why I expected so much more, I suppose. I would recommend this as a fun read, but not much beyond that. It is strictly throwaway and does not demand much concentration or stimulate the reader to dig deeper elsewhere, which for me signals a failed reading experience.
22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The return of the hero,
By rp "rp" (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Right Stuff (Picador Books) (Paperback)
When I was at university (a couple of years ago) I had a few 'truths' drummed into me. All in a subtle, needling were-not-telling-you-what-to-think-but-this-is-what-you-have-to-think type of way. First, genius doesn't exist. Second, there are no absolute 'truths' (hence the stupid speechmarks that crop up around every other word these days). Third, the Hero was dead.I was taught that the Hero (as a concept/character type/role model) didn't apply to us these days. It was a macho construction, or something. The Right Stuff brought back the notion of heroism - that fantastic, boy's own, Indiana Jones, Spiderman, stick the poster on your wall type of heroism that takes you back to your childhood. And why not? Chuck Yeager, Alan Shepheard, John Glenn. The things these men went through to break the sound-barrier, to get man into space were astounding. They risked their lives every time they got into their aircraft, yet they were cool as snowmen. Tom Wolfe brings the danger, the adrenaline, the burnt-to-a -cinder plane crashes to life in wonderfully sympathetic, excited, yet brilliantly crafted style. This is the best of Tom Wolfe's books. Partly, I think, because he actually respected/admired his subject this time around. I absolutely loved this book. It was so nice to read a romantic book about recent history, rather than the cynical political stuff you get spoonfed at University.
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