Think we may be on to something here. After WWI will certainly be visiting Mr. Wolfe again.

Tom Wolfe's Hooking Up is a collection of essays on a variety of themes which he explores more fully in I am Charlotte Simmons: American Exceptionalism vs. colonial apologetics; the morphing of the date into the "hook-up" and other interesting modifications in American sexual mores; and most entertainingly his response to being called "not real literature" by Updike, Mailer, and Irving.

In addition, he includes a novella, Ambush at Fort Bragg about a group of journalists involved in a "gotcha" TV show: not quite "To Catch a Predator," but a kissing cousin. As always, one of Wolfe's excellent qualities is his ability to get inside the heads of the characters and present them, in their own distinct voice, with a completely consistent justification for their actions and beliefs - no matter how repellant those end up being.

This is a good introduction to Wolfe's style - if you like the first couple of essays, you'll probably like his other work, and if you don't, then he's probably not for you. I liked it immensely.

This book was a mixture of non-fiction and fiction. Much of it was focused on what he has written and the public reactions to it. This was interesting in many ways, although the 40th anniversary of The New Yorker piece was not so meaningful to me because I've not been a reader of that magazine nor had much interest in that world.

Tom Wolfe was always well informed and wrote not just to entertain, but also to enlighten. I enjoyed re-reading his tale of the founding of the semi-conductor industry. His piece on the later trends of the sexual revolution which gives the book its title is not quite up to date now; what seemed shocking then is just matter-of-fact today. His look at social biology was interesting, but with the passing of time, I sense that he expected more to come of it in the short term than has occurred. My favorite chapter is "My Three Stooges," in which he takes to task those who belittled his 11-year project: A Man in Full, which I happened to have thoroughly enjoyed. He explains how fiction SHOULD be written, by someone with the eye of a journalist who wants to know a piece of the world and relay it faithfully, warts and all. The "intellectuals" who trashed his best-selling long novel were obviously jealous and so taken with their own sophistication that they could not appreciate what real literature should look like. He also provides a bit of an example of what this sort of writing looks like with the long chapter entitled "Ambush at Fort Bragg." His commitment to the truth, whether it is unpopular, inconvenient, or against current political correctness is without wavering, and that's what makes his writing, fiction or non-fiction, so cutting and eye-opening. It's sad that we have lost him. I hope this book has inspired others to imitate his method and philosophy of writing.

Hooking Up by Tom Wolfe (Farrar Strauss and Giroux 2000)(818) is a collection of recent nonfiction works by the eminent author. The title work begins with the author's update on the struggle between the sexes. The book jacket sums it up best: "Only yesterday boys and girls spoke of embracing and kissing (necking) as getting to first base. Second base was deep kissing, plus groping and fondling this and that. Third base was oral sex. Home plate was going all the way. That was yesterday. Here in the year 2000 we can forget about necking. Today's girls and boys have never heard of anything that dainty. Today's first base is deep kissing, now known as tonsil hockey, plus groping and fondling this and that. Second base is oral sex. Third base is going all the way. Home plate is learning each other's name." As far as Tom Wolfe can discern, the playing field has changed. I can only hope he's wrong. There are several other pieces contained in this volume, but none captured my interest like the title piece. My rating: 6.5/10, finished 8/12/14.

Found on the charity book shelf at my mum's local supermarket, to her seething jealousy because they never have anything she wants. Some of the language and attitude on display in this collection made me uncomfortably aware that the year 2000 is longer ago than I thought, but I love Wolfe's writing and I learned a lot: about Silicon Valley, about a 20th-century American sculptor, and about finding the perfect hook for a piece of journalism.

The first and title track essay is pretty weak, but everything that follows is absolutely incredible. Crazy I hadn’t listened to it until now.

Had to be honest and say "I didn't like it." That should in no way detract from the mastery of Tom Wolfe's writing, and if you like him and you want to know a lot about stuff that happened way back (like everything you never wanted to know about The New Yorker in the '60s), by all means take a gander. There was a lengthy essay about the germination of Silicon Valley, but I found inaccuracies in the depiction. My favorite part of the book was his novella, "Ambush at Fort Bragg," about "ambush" journalism, trapping three military guys who had killed a gay guy. I also really liked, and will keep, his definition of "the naturalistic novel:" 1) scene-by-scene construction 2) liberal use of realistic dialog 3) interior point of view 4) notation of status details, the cues that tell people how they rank in the human pecking order. Mr. Wolf believes that the younger generation has turned to movies and away from novels because they no longer are relevant. Movies are great at points 1 and 2, but cannot achieve 3 & 4. Since he writes such novels, of course, this whole discourse is in his favor, but I found his argument convincing.

I read this book right after finishing "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby" and the transition was smooth and seamless, despite the thirty some years between them. In both cases Wolfe does what he's best at: looking at various aspects of this great American experience, and writing about it in a way that you simply can't ignore. Hooking up is in fact not so much about where the sexual revolution has ended up at the time of the turn of the millennium, though he goes into some detail on that as well, but several other topics, ranging from silicon valley to neurobiology, the public reaction to his novel "A Man in Full", as well as another excellent short story, "Ambush at Fort Bragg."

Amazingly wide-ranging observations on modern American society.

Nietzsche predicted that because "God is Dead," humans would lose their moral foundations and drive themselves into "barbaric brotherhoods" - humans will fail because we do not believe in God with his "fearsome finger"

Wolfe on Susan Sontag - from Marshal McLuhan - "indignation endows the idiot with dignity"

Egyre jobban szeretem Wolfe írásait, ha esszé, akkor igen, így is lehet ezt csinálni. Valamiért sosem kedveltem azokat, akik olyan mondatfelépítményeket kreálnak, amikben olyan szavak vannak, amik az értelmező szótárból is hiányoznak, valamint már a mondat első 15 sorában menthetetlenül eltéved az ember és rémülten menekülne, de már késő, a mondatszörny felfalta. Arról már nem beszélve, hogy az írója sem tudja, miről beszél. Hiába, eccerű vagyok. Ez nem azt jelenti – mentsem Wolfe-ot és magam –, hogy írónk is oly egyszerű volna, mint jómagam (nem sikerült a kimagyarázás), viszont ő az, aki úgy tud esszét írni, hogy az letehetetlen. Most őszintén, ki gondolná, hogy az Intel története olyan izgalmas tud lenni, hogy muszáj egyhuzamban elolvasni? Na meg a Szilícium-völgyé is egyúttal. Ott van a nagyszerű paródia a The New Yorkerről, nem beszélve a saját regénye történtéről, az irigykedő(?) Updike-kal, Irvinggel és Shaw-val. Csupa élvezet és nagy nevetések.
Amit még kifejezetten szeretek az írásaiban, az az, hogy úgy játszik az olvasójával (jó, velem néhány esetben biztosan), hogy csak a végén döbbensz rá. Felsorolja minimum háromféle megközelítését ugyanannak a problémának, mindet tökéletesen okadatolva, bólintasz is mindre, egyetértesz velük, míg a végén Wolfe fogja magát, és egy negyedik megközelítéssel cáfolja az első hármat s arra már valószínűleg te is rájössz, hogy az volt az igazi. Nem, nincs ötödik verzió, aminek olvastán rájössz, hogy az első négynek nem volt igaza. Vagy ki tudja, mégis van? :)
Hagy gondolkozni (még akkor is, ha ez a fentiek fényében ellentmondásosnak tűnhet), rávezet arra, hogy soha semmi nem egysíkú, mindent lehet akár ugyanazzal az egy állítással cáfolni és igazolni is. Nagyszerű esszéista, művelt, okos, jól ír. Élvezet olvasni.

Como suele pasar en las compilaciones, hay de todo. Artículos en exceso largos, que pierden la línea, y verdaderas joyas, como el del final.

More arrogant then I remember him usually but the prose is flawless and subjects weird and wonderful