Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe was recently featured in the Sept. 8, 2008, Time Magazine.

In 1998, we read Tom Wolfe’s recently published “A Man in Full,” a heavy tome that I’ve just gotten from the shelf and dusted off. I remember it was hot enough off the press then that I had to buy the thing. The waiting list at the library was too long. 

Mostly what I remember about the book was a scene at a horse stud farm.  It starts on page 301 in the 1998 first trade edition.  This is a G rated blog, so I’m sorry I can’t share it with you here.  There are four audio and seventeen print copies available at our library,  and probably some copies at your own library, if you’re curious.

We read another horse-related book, Jane Smiley’s “Horse Heaven,” which I liked better.  From Smiley’s book I learned about calming ponies and companion animals for race horses, which can also apply to humans just as easily.

In Time Magazine, Wolfe answered Ten Questions.  Here’s the link. The ’60s classic The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test celebrates its 40th anniversary.    He talks about New Journalism and Hunter S. Thompson.  I wrote about Wolfe and Thompson in a post called There Will Be Blog. 

I didn’t read the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, but I did take on Bonfire of the Vanities even before the movie came out.  In 1987, while traveling, my husband chose a seat next to Wolfe in the Boston airport. I would have chosen to sit farther away, since Wolfe looked so spiffy in his customary white suit, and I looked so scruffy after a day roaming the city on foot and on the T.  Wolfe was on a book tour plugging Bonfire.  In the book, Wolfe mentions scruffy travelers at airports.  Apparently, I wasn’t the first or even the worst one he’s ever seen.

Spoiler Alert: The concept of “Bonfire of the Vanities” has been used in a number of books, including The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, which we read in 2004, the year it was published.  In 1497 in Florence, Italy, Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican priest, and his followers gathered up thousands of items of what they considered moral laxity, such as musical intruments, wordly art (including works by Michelangelo and Botticelli), mirrors, chess pieces — you get the picture– and had them burned.  The following year, Savonarola and a two of his followers were condemned, tortured and then burned on the same spot.

This is the link to a New York Times review about A Man in Full.  It doesn’t say anything about horses.     A Man in Tune With His Heritage; In His New Novel, Tom Wolfe Unearths His Southern Roots 

 Here’s a link to a review of The Rule of Four:  BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Deciphering a Mysterious Text and Puzzles of the Soul You’ll have to find a Bonfire of the Vanities review on your own. Cathy