Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost as good as the rest, 15 May 2006
I love Tom Wolfe's novels - whenever I need true and utter escapism, they never fail to deliver what I am looking for, and this book is no exception. Once again the author skillfully provides insight into the lives of a vivid and varied range of characters, all centring on Charlotte Simmons, the first year university student struggling to cope with the culture shock of leaving behind small town life. At times the empathy I felt with Charlotte overwhelmed me and (much as I usually berate those who make statements like this) found myself marvelling that a male author could emulate such an intrinsically female viewpoint so effectively.
I did, however, feel marginally disappointed with the ending, which felt rushed and each character dealt with a little too easily. But don't let that put you off - this is well worth buying.
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ANOTHER TRIUMPH BY TOM WOLFE, 5 Nov 2004
How does one describe the release of a new work by Tom Wolfe? It's an event, an eagerly awaited occasion and, in this case, a triumph. In preparation for his story of Charlotte Simmons Mr. Wolfe visited numerous campuses throughout the country, talking, listening, observing with his telling eye for nuance and detail. Of this experience he has said, "....I went to a lot of fraternity parties, and this is where age comes in. Most people had absolutely no idea who I was, I was just this old guy at the party. I was too old to be a drug enforcement agent, so I was not a threat. That worked very well...In my mind anyway this is both the story of a young woman in a difficult, new environment and also a depiction of the American University today." Of course, that is precisely what this story is about, but no one could write it as has Mr. Wolfe. Charlotte leaves her small Blue Ridge Mountain town believing that as a freshman at Dupont University she will expand her mind, increase her mental acuity. She is both brilliant and beautiful. But rather than finding young people with similar lofty goals she meets wealthy, blase students much more interested in sex, beer, and drugs. In an unfamiliar environment, longing to be accepted, Charlotte soon finds herself abandoning her lofty ideals in order to be a part of this intriguing new life. That's far from the end of her story, but you should read it from beginning to end in the words of Tom Wolfe. Sure to be compared to Mr. Wolfe's groundbreaking "The Bonfire of the Vanities," "I Am Charlotte Simmons" is one more sterling achievement by one of America's foremost writers.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I am.... not that impressed, 14 Dec 2006
There is no denying Tom Wolfe's capacity for writing deepy compelling fiction with modern relevance, but I would complain that his narrative structure is becoming a little formulaic. You could draw a graph to map the similaraties between 'Bonfire of the Vanities', 'Man in Full' and this, his tale of American college campus promiscuity and superficiality. Each draws together a disparate cast of narrators, many of whom veer towards cartoonish stereotype, towards a semi-farcical denouement. Whereas his use of multiple perspectives once seemed highly dynamic and mobile, it is starting to feel clumsy and laboured. From the pea-brained 'student-athlete' and the embittered nerd, to the left-wing professor and the ball-breaking basketball coach, it is all a bit too categoric, too neatly representative to be brilliant satire.
Wolfe, as proponent of New Journalism, is expert at identifying and exposing an area of modern cultural decline, but can be lazily sketchy when it comes to his protagonists. Only the central character, the eponymous Charlotte, is a genuine bundle of contradictions - detestably fickle to the final pages - one moment haughty and snobby, the next moment a desperate sycohpant. You may not like or identify with this characterisation, but more crucially you may find youself questioning its veracity.
Moreover, Wolfe's been praised by some for his ear (or eye?) for youth culture, but some of his fictional pop references are cringingly embarassing: 'Dr Dis' anyone? Similarly cringing is the pseudo-intellectual musings of Adam Gellin's 'Milennial Mutants', although this is probably intentional. Wolfe is a master of dialogue though, even if he feels compelled to translate it all in italics throughout the book. Nevertheless, this a highly entertaining read, not many authors can make 600 pages pass so quickly.
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