Tom Wolfe's America: Heroes, Pranksters, and Fools

(Hardback)

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While The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities remain perhaps his best-known works, Tom Wolfe's journalism and fiction continues to enjoy a large audience, perhaps chiefly because of the variety of his subjects and his controversial approach to them. Here, McEneaney offers an account of the man and his works, explaining along the way Wolfe's use of irony, his obsessive themes, and even his use of pranks. More comprehensive in scope than any preceding book on Wolfe, it offers accurate and accessible commentary based upon what Wolfe admits about his own work. In this new book, Wolfe's work is put in journalistic and literary context. The reliability of Wolfe's journalism is discussed, especially when there are alternative narrations to events he has depicted. McEneaney also examines the Wolfe's use of pranks that he plays on readers at times, and uncovers the influences on Wolfe that have contributed to his unique style. Finally, the author discusses Wolfe's impact on other writers. Readers will gain access into Wolfe's world through this detailed and colorful work.

Reviews

Following a short biographical chapter on American contemporary writer, Tom Wolfe, McEneaney (Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York) offers scholars an analysis of Wolfe's journalism, essays, and novels. The text emphasizes the literary qualities of Wolfe's journalism and fiction as they relate to his sociological perspective on American society, and the questions he raises about social trends, patriotism, religion, manners and mores against the backdrop of American history and society. McEneaney also considers how Wolfe uses influences from French, English and past American literature in an original way that comments on American society; his peculiar and unique use of ironic counterpoint; and the relationship of Wolfe's satiric strain to his understanding of private and public morality. * Reference & Research Book News *
Free of jargon, full of careful analysis of Wolfe's writing and his 'America,' appreciative of the serious intentions (for good or evil) behind every 'prank' and holy 'fool' from the Beats to the Black Panthers and the neoconservatives, McEneaney's well-written, well-researched, and well-balanced study of a controversial, often-underrated writer focuses attention on Wolfe and on the rich array of American literary adventures that followed WW II. . . . Highly recommended. All readers. * Choice *

Author Bio

Kevin T. McEneaney is the author of two books, The Enclosed Garden and longing, which has been translated into French and Japanese. He has published over 50 encyclopedia articles and is the Co-editor of The Irish Literary Supplement. He teaches at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Rockland County, New York.