11/16/2004|||110061500460166534||||||

THE RIGHT STUFF?

Tom Wolfe's new novel, "I Am Charlotte Simmons", has had middling reviews, to say the least. David Brooks takes issue with the critics' conventional wisdom:

"It's easy to write a negative review of a Tom Wolfe novel; hundreds of people do it every few years. First, out of the thousands of sociological details Wolfe gets right, you pick out some he gets wrong (thus establishing your superior hipness). You mention that he obsesses over the superficial details of life while you ignore his moral intent (thus hinting at your own superior depth). Then you graciously allow that many of Wolfe's scenes are hilarious, while lamenting that his characters are not fully developed. Then you call it a day."

|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2004/11/right-stuff-tom-wolfes-new-novel-i-am.html|||11/16/2004 02:17:00 pm|||||||||

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