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A review by austinstorm
Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe
Not sure if I'll finish this one. Too doctrinaire, the big cultural observations wash all the characters away. Better than A Casual Vacancy, but feels too similar after suffering through that 'grown-up' book - one per year is enough!
Scattered thoughts:
Wolfe at his best does the cultural observey thing, but also focuses on the decisions that seem small in the moment but actually define our lives. His characters rarely make the right choice, but it's still worthwhile.
The tight focus of Charlotte Simmons made it better than this one. Here it's just too much - the characters are really simple. They're like the movie Magnolia, but I suspect there are no biblical plagues or Aimee Mann songs coming to save this.
Scattered thoughts:
Wolfe at his best does the cultural observey thing, but also focuses on the decisions that seem small in the moment but actually define our lives. His characters rarely make the right choice, but it's still worthwhile.
The tight focus of Charlotte Simmons made it better than this one. Here it's just too much - the characters are really simple. They're like the movie Magnolia, but I suspect there are no biblical plagues or Aimee Mann songs coming to save this.