I recently saw a biography of Tom Wolfe (not to be confused with Thomas Wolfe who was also a writer). I had heard of this book and the poorly reviewed movie, but I never had much interest in reading it. I ordered a copy from thriftbooks.com (a bookseller I highly recommend). Mr Wolfe died in 2018. He was 88 years old. After I started reading this book, I looked up some info about him and his books. A lot has been written postmortem about him.
The big question (for me, anyway) was: was Tom Wolfe a racist? Turns out it depends on who you ask. There are certainly a lot of racist remarks in this book. Many, many racial slurs. But, is HE a racist? Or just someone who observes racism? He famously said, “I had always looked down on sociology as this arriviste discipline. It didn't have the noble history of English and history as a subject. But once I had a little exposure to it, I said, 'Hey, here's the key. Here's the key to understanding life and all its forms.”
His understanding of humanity and Wall Street and life in the boroughs of New York City certainly displays a grasp of sociology. No one escapes his critique.
He was born in Virginia on March 2, 1930. Along with his writing style, he was known for his white suits, which were considered to resemble the attire worn by white slave owners of the south. His politics tended towards the right. He was a great admirer of George W. Bush. However, some of his writing made fun of the rich, white, elitists.
I still would highly recommend this book. It gives the reader the opportunity to experience New York in the 1980s. It’s billed as satire. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny but, when you relay the story to someone else, you realize just how funny it really is. I wasn’t all that happy with the ending, but I think he puts the blame squarely on the people that needed to be exposed for the greedy politicians that they were.
Anyway, that’s my review. I’ll probably pass this on to my granddaughter, who (brag, brag) will graduate from Florida State with a degree in film production and move to NY this summer.
P.S. Just be forewarned that the book is long. Over 600 pages long.