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A review by gilmoreguide
Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe
3.0
Religion is dying…but everybody still has to believe in something. It would be intolerable—you couldn’t stand it—to finally have to say to yourself, “Why keep pretending? I’m nothing but a random atom…” So, my people, that leaves only our blood, the bloodlines that course through our very bodies to unite us. All people everywhere, you have no choice but—Back to blood!
In previous works Wolfe has been prescient at capturing the zeitgeist of particular moments in American culture. The Bonfire of the Vanities first introduced us to Masters of the Universe—those vainglorious men so soaked in their own hubris, the concept of their demise was inconceivable (and apparently accurate based on the last round of financial malfeasance from Wall Street). A Man in Full covered the advent of over-leveraged, uber-consumer titans, date rape, trophy wives, and the real-estate boom while I Am Charlotte Simmons, was a depressing look at the wide world of high-end college pay-for-play athletics and the cosseting of barely literate, socially stunted but athletically gifted giants. Under each of these books is the flammable specter of race relations.
Wolfe returns with what feels like his most journalistic novel, simply because his portrayal of what is happening in America is so spot-on, it’s painful. This is a novel with volume, where virtually every character is guffawing, screeching, posing, or preening in their unquenchable need to be seen and heard. Wolfe maintains the unending barrage of noise by including the inner dialogue of many of the key characters, meaning there are no lulls or break in the narrative. All is exaggerated and volume Trumps content.
To read more of this review go to The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2012/10/back-to-blood/
In previous works Wolfe has been prescient at capturing the zeitgeist of particular moments in American culture. The Bonfire of the Vanities first introduced us to Masters of the Universe—those vainglorious men so soaked in their own hubris, the concept of their demise was inconceivable (and apparently accurate based on the last round of financial malfeasance from Wall Street). A Man in Full covered the advent of over-leveraged, uber-consumer titans, date rape, trophy wives, and the real-estate boom while I Am Charlotte Simmons, was a depressing look at the wide world of high-end college pay-for-play athletics and the cosseting of barely literate, socially stunted but athletically gifted giants. Under each of these books is the flammable specter of race relations.
Wolfe returns with what feels like his most journalistic novel, simply because his portrayal of what is happening in America is so spot-on, it’s painful. This is a novel with volume, where virtually every character is guffawing, screeching, posing, or preening in their unquenchable need to be seen and heard. Wolfe maintains the unending barrage of noise by including the inner dialogue of many of the key characters, meaning there are no lulls or break in the narrative. All is exaggerated and volume Trumps content.
To read more of this review go to The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2012/10/back-to-blood/