Tom Wolfe: Bonfire of the Vanities, Kool-Aid Acid, Radical Chic, The Right Stuff & More

[Extollager]

I haven't yet read any books by this New York author, who just died:

Tom Wolfe: Bonfire of the Vanities author dies aged 88

However, I think I'll give Radical Chic a try, which (as I think I have seen) he regarded as his best book; and it's short.

Has anyone read him?

How Tom Wolfe Became … Tom Wolfe

 

[Hugh]

Well in the early 70s I thought “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” was one of the books to read, as did many of my peers. As you probably know, it’s a somewhat idealised account of Ken Kesey and the scene around him and copious quantities of LSD. It may still be a good read for its slant on the times.

I tried “The Pump House Gang”, and “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby”, but I found the style of writing in one, or both of them, over-experimental and irritating. That was in the early 70s. I didn't get far with either book.

 

[Vertigo]

I read the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test when I was a student but (probably not unsurprisingly) I remember very little about it except that I do seem to remember them accusing the Beatles of ripping off their nomadic bus lifestyle with the Magical Mystery Tour album.

 

[Vince W]

The only Wolfe I've read is The Right Stuff just after the film came out. The film pales before the book.

 

[hitmouse]

I enjoyed Acid Test. Worth reading with the Hunter S Thompson book on Hells Angels.

 

[Bick]

Yes, I went through a Tom Wolfe phase in my life, and read several. All very good: The Right Stuff, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full.

I was saddened to hear he had died.