Thursday, January 03, 2008
Tom Wolfe: Another Dud on the Way
The Times reports that Tom Wolfe is "leaving" his longtime publisher, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, insteading signing up with Little, Brown to publish his new novel, "Back to Blood."
One suspects that the real story here is that Farrar, Strauss didn't want Wolfe at the price he was requesting, and his agent, Lynn Nesbitt, is spinning the decline as Wolfe's decision.
After all, Wolfe's last two novels, "A Man in Full" and "I am Charlotte Simmons," were truly dreadful, almost unreadable.
In AMIF, Wolfe reported that Atlanta was, apparently, growing. In IACS, Wolfe discovered that college students like to drink. Now, with that same unerring feel for the zeitgeist, he's writing about immigration and Miami. "Miami is not only exciting, it's red-hot," Wolfe tells the Times.
That would have been a prescient observation back around the time Brian De Palma made "Scarface," in 1983, or Michael Mann created "Miami Vice" in 1984, or when he remade the show into an (underrated) movie in 2006, or maybe even when Jerry Bruckheimer created "CSI: Miami."
Prediction: Back to Blood will not only be a stinker, but it will bomb financially. ¶ 9:46 AM
One suspects that the real story here is that Farrar, Strauss didn't want Wolfe at the price he was requesting, and his agent, Lynn Nesbitt, is spinning the decline as Wolfe's decision.
After all, Wolfe's last two novels, "A Man in Full" and "I am Charlotte Simmons," were truly dreadful, almost unreadable.
In AMIF, Wolfe reported that Atlanta was, apparently, growing. In IACS, Wolfe discovered that college students like to drink. Now, with that same unerring feel for the zeitgeist, he's writing about immigration and Miami. "Miami is not only exciting, it's red-hot," Wolfe tells the Times.
That would have been a prescient observation back around the time Brian De Palma made "Scarface," in 1983, or Michael Mann created "Miami Vice" in 1984, or when he remade the show into an (underrated) movie in 2006, or maybe even when Jerry Bruckheimer created "CSI: Miami."
Prediction: Back to Blood will not only be a stinker, but it will bomb financially. ¶ 9:46 AM
Comments:
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Miami Vice, the movie, was not underrated. It was reviewed as what it was: a piece of Michael Mann throwaway, pretty to look at, with some nifty action scenes, but NONE of the heart and complexity of his other good movies. Collateral Damage is the underrated Mann movie.
# posted by 
: January 3, 2008 10:50 AM
: January 3, 2008 10:50 AM
It's just "Collateral," actually. If memory serves, "Collateral Damage" was a truly lame Arnold film.
Miami Vice wasn't MM's best, but it was indeed underrated, mostly because most critics panned it. Watch it again--it has some big flaws, but when it's good, it's really, really good.
Miami Vice wasn't MM's best, but it was indeed underrated, mostly because most critics panned it. Watch it again--it has some big flaws, but when it's good, it's really, really good.
Now Richard, I think you're being too harsh on Wolfe. He's the new Balzac! The new Zola! After all, he's told us this himself.
# posted by : January 3, 2008 1:41 PM
: January 3, 2008 1:41 PM
Since when does Tom Wolfe need to be taken seriously as an author anyway?
# posted by : January 3, 2008 4:18 PM
: January 3, 2008 4:18 PM
um, since he wrote electric koolaid acid test and other great works that helped redefine journalism in the 1960s? the problem is that he thinks he can write fiction.
# posted by : January 3, 2008 4:41 PM
: January 3, 2008 4:41 PM
Sure, Bonfire was a pleasant enough romp. But was it great literature?
# posted by : January 3, 2008 5:53 PM
: January 3, 2008 5:53 PM
Oh for heavens sake. This is so silly. Rich, we love you, but it is shameless for you to sniff about Tom Wolfe, when people have so clearly voted with their feet over and over again and you are still trying to duplicate your first success. "Great literature" indeed. The Victorians thought Dickens was shit, except for the millions who couldn't wait to read the next installment.
# posted by : January 3, 2008 9:14 PM
: January 3, 2008 9:14 PM
I liked "A Man in Full." --Except for the story part. And even that was good until the end.
Standing Eagle
Standing Eagle
Oh, 9:14, that's nutty. Because I'm a writer, I'm not allowed to comment on other writers without it really being about my own jealousies? Nah. There are a couple of other writers about whom that'd be true, and frankly, I'd tell you in advance; I don't have a problem admitting literary envy. I realized long ago that I'm not Faulkner. Perhaps more useful, I think there are any number of occasions on which I've praised other writers (Mailer, for example) on this blog.
For the record, I have great respect for Wolfe as a journalist and a literary stylist, and I thought Bonfire of the Vanities was really pretty good. But A Man in Full became incoherent after about 200 pages, and I Am Charlotte Simmons was just horrible—a huge misstep. And I'd feel that way however many copies of my own two books I'd sold.
Also, comparing Wolfe to Dickens is just absurd. Whether you thought of Dickens as high or low culture, he was a great read. You just can't say that about 2/3 of Wolfe's fiction.
For the record, I have great respect for Wolfe as a journalist and a literary stylist, and I thought Bonfire of the Vanities was really pretty good. But A Man in Full became incoherent after about 200 pages, and I Am Charlotte Simmons was just horrible—a huge misstep. And I'd feel that way however many copies of my own two books I'd sold.
Also, comparing Wolfe to Dickens is just absurd. Whether you thought of Dickens as high or low culture, he was a great read. You just can't say that about 2/3 of Wolfe's fiction.
Huh. This may say more about my deficient literary tastes than I'd like, but while I realize AMIF and IACS aren't great works of art I actually throughly enjoyed reading both of them and found them hard to put down. And even if Wolfe is saying something we all already know, I found them to be pretty good analyses of contemporary America (I didn't grow up here, which might explain it).
Chacun à son goût, I guess.
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Chacun à son goût, I guess.
# posted by : January 6, 2008 12:03 PM
: January 6, 2008 12:03 PM<< Home
