Rating: 
Summary: Soundly Intelligent, Great Sense of Humor
Review: I came to "Hooking Up" after having finished Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals," another great study of thought and its effect in our society. I've actually met Tom Wolfe at Duke Univ., and was struck by how open and sensible he was. This collection of essays is more than a humorous and hip read: it's responsible. The research and journalism are sound; the depth of humanity displayed in the exposition of it is touching. The defense of Naturalism in "My Three Stooges" is something that one would have thought went without saying, but for the past four decades, hasn't. It is so good to see the inward-looking, self-absorbed writers like Updike falling at last by the wayside. Updike's problem is that he never went out into the crazy carnival of American life and lived, took chances, felt emotion in extremis, or at least spent time with people who live in these states. With Updike and Irving (Norman Mailer was always more of a self-promotion specialist than a good writer), writing is an intellectual parlor game: good for themselves, but not so exciting for the rest of us. It's nice to see Wolfe having the final word here. He's a breath of fresh air. His writing, like his lifetime pursuits, are concerned with us, all of us. He is truly the closest we've had in two generations to a writer who can at least claim pretentions of carrying the mantel of Dickens.
Rating: 
Summary: The Write Stuff
Review: I can think of no essayist writing in the U. S. today in the class with Tom Wolfe with the exception of the venerable Gore Vidal. As usual, Mr. Wolfe delivers up insightful satire on a variety of subjects: the sexual mores of America's youth, the awfulness of most modern so-called art, the decadence of the "literary" novel, to name a few. Then there is a short novel AMBUSH AT FORT BRAGG. I totally agree with Mr. Wolfe in his assessment of the artist Frederick Hart called "The Invisible Artist." Is is common knowledge now that the "art" world, that world that Wolfe describes as "scarcely a world. . . some three thousand curators, dealers, collectors, scholars, critics, and artists in New York" refused to ever acknowledge or even review Hart's beautiful sculptures at both the National Cathedral and the Vietnam Soldiers. (Something tells me that Michelangelo would have given Mr. Hart a fantastic review.) As Mr. Wolfe says so well, Hart was doomed; he had a quality not found in many so-called modern artists, he was skilled. Another great essay is "My Three Stooges." Here Mr. Wolfe gets the last laugh on Messers Mailer, Updike and Irving, all of whom attacked A MAN IN FULL as mere entertainment. While I disagree with Wolfe's assessment of some of the writers he lists as having written "wonderful" novels-- I'm thinking in particularly of WAITING TO EXHALE; I would never call that novel wonderful but a quick, mindless entertaining read-- certainly he is right that some of the Mailer and John Irving "stuff" is basically unreadable-- I've never known anyone who could have read ANCIENT EVENINGS even if they had wanted to. So Wolfe gets the last laugh on these "literary" writers. I believe many people would say, however, that Updike's Rabbit is a great character and as American as Huck Finn. But even if you disagree with Mr. Wolfe, he entertains you, makes you smile, and, yes, makes you think.
Rating:
Summary: Sharp writing by a brilliant and original writer
Review: I enjoy Tom Wolfe. His writing is sharp and has a power to it that much contemporary writing lacks. Why? Because he works hard to go out and get the background information it takes to tell the truth about something we all share. Most of us do not share the inner-self of a writer who is fixated only upon him- or her- self. That gets boring in a hurry. But in this neat volume we get some wonderful essaygs, a response to the critical savaging Updike, Mailer, and Irving gave "A Man in Full", a cut scene from the same novel (here it treated as an independent piece and is called a novella), and a sweet telling of some events associated with The New Yorker of the past and present. It is reasonable to like some of the works more than others and it is reasonable to agree with some views and disagree with others. But it is silly to simply bash Wolfe because you would prefer a different writing style. He is a stylist of the first order and has had a positive and energizing impact upon American letters for the past thirty-some years. He is beyond that type of carping. I just wish he would publish more!
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: I enjoyed this. I'd read a lot of the pieces in magazines. The NEW YORKER piece I hadn't, and enjoyed him giving them a proper skewering. The THREE STOOGES piece was a bit much, though. First off, A MAN IN FULL was a very very flawed novel. And the idea that criticism by his contemporaries was soley jealousy is self-serving. The other bizarre thing about that piece, is that Tom Wolfe goes on and on and on and on about how old Mailer, Updike and Irving are, NEVER MIND THAT TOM WOLFE IS IN THEIR SAME AGE GROUP. Wolfe is, in fact, a lot older than Irving. So who is he to knock Irving for his age? Very hypoctrical. But I love Tom Wolfe, and so I do recommend this book, with that one reservation.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best!
Review: I first read a favorable review of this book in The Wall Street Journal so I bought it because I enjoyed Mr. Wolfe's other books. I then read a New York Times review which wasn't really a review but a political diatribe against the author. After actually reading the book I find that his style and observations so compelling and interesting that I can't believe I was reading the same book as the Time's reviewer. Mr. Wolfe's story about his run-in with Mailer, Updike and Irving is very funny and rings true. The sales numbers tell the story. "The Invisible Artist" is another favorite. I only wish Mr. Wolfe would write a piece about the election fiasco and split in the country. I also wish he would write more material and more often as he is a national treasure. His journalistic based style is similar to that of Neal Stephenson and Richard Dooling. I enjoy those books so much more than Updike's pondering himself.
Rating:
Summary: I can't help it, I just love him
Review: I found it hard to follow his line of reasoning at times. He seems to be against a lot of things, and be the only man who really knows what everything is about. I usually find that a difficult attitude to cope with. And after the introduction, I almost put the book away. Very cliche, everything-used-to-be-better-in-the-good-old-days material. But Wolfe grabbed my attention again by exploring the foundation of current mainstream paradigmes. And he kept my attention, racing through current issues in science, business and art, up to the last two chapters. And by then I was so hooked, I could even forgive him the embarrasing chaper My Three Stooges, in which he (not wanting to brag of course) can't stop telling us what a super-mega-bestseller A Man in Full was. And how he was on the cover of Time Magazine (yes TIME! What magazine again? Oh Time magazine). All this is purely functional information for the story of course, the point being...., eh, the point being, I guess, that he is a better writer than John Irving, John Updike and Norman Mailer. I can even forgive him all that. Why? Because he tells such a damn good and juicy story! Even his bragging makes better reading than most writer's earnest efforts.
Rating:
Summary: Sharp observer at work.
Review: I have always admired Wolfe's ability to describe the social landscape in artful precision, and these essays (plus novella) are no exception. The parts I found most enjoyable were his takes on the evolutionary-biology-neurology rise, the bio of Silicon Valley's founder, and the fun he had with the New Yorker in his early days. One of the things that makes Wolfe great is his perpetual optimism and wonder about the new. I didn't care for the novella all that much (I'd already read it in Rolling Stone). It's a bit flat. Also the little essay about criticism and Updike, Mailer, and Irving was a bit disturbing. It seems to me that both camps are wrong: the modern novel should not be pigeon-holed; there are many different styles of writing a work of fiction and neither Wolfe or his critics have an appropriate stand to dictate otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: They May Be Short, but They are Welcome
Review: I have missed Tom Wolfe. I loved the time I used to spend with the reporter dressed in a white suit who spoke with the poet's voice. Unfortunately his battle with the demons of depression has limited the opportunities he allows me to visit. As the old saw says, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," and I welcome the opportunity even a collection of short stories affords. It is not five-star material, but I am grateful for the chance to experience one of America's great journalist's unconventional and outspoken thoughts on our culture. In this collection, Wolfe travels this country, observing "the lurid carnival actually taking place in the mightiest country on earth in the year 2000." He focuses his keen eye and applies his sharp tongue to teenage sexual mores and the new sciences of genetics and neuroscience. He profiles William Shawn, the editor of The New Yorker, and Intel founder, Robert Noyce. The stories may be short, but the satire and the observations that made vintage Wolfe a legend, remain honed. They may not rate five stars, but they offer an opportunity to re-experience a master.
Rating:
Summary: Intellectual Entertainment
Review: I love Tom Wolfe's novels and books yet I had always heard he was a "conservative" but never knew why. His books didn't ever strike me as conservative or liberal but equally critical of both. This books is a collection of articles that will explain why he is called a conservative. Yet you will also see why he is an intellectual (something he would hate being called because he is critical of them). However, whatever your philophy, you'll find find something to agree with and much to contemplate. Also, Wolfe has the ability of taking an "intellectual" arguement (even if it is biased) and making it something easy (even fun) to read... and this is no mean feat. The reader for this tame is also fantastic. My only critisism with the book is that it is a little too egocentric and biased for me to take on regularly particularly when he uses selective logic to favor his views.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: I'd read a lot of these pieces in their original magazine form. Some of them have been updated, and I enjoyed reading the updates (the piece on Robert Noyce and Intel has been updated since its 1983 publication in "Esquire"). Some had been published before that I had NOT read. I'd been dying to read the piece on the "New Yorker" after reading ABOUT it. And I really loved it!! The "New Yorker" is so revered, it's delightful to see Wolfe give it some well-deserved and high-spirited criticism. And then some pieces are published here for the first time (I loved the "Rococo Marxism" piece.) "My Three Stooges" does smack a bit of "me thinketh thou doth protest too much", because Updike, Mailer and Irving had a point. (A MAN IN FULL was a flawed novel). But they are more deserving of Wolfe's criticsim than he is of theirs. I didn't need to read "Ambush at For Bragg" again, having read it in "Rolling Stone." But the "re-runs" were worth having, if it meant having the new and unread stuff. Wolfe is one of the greatest things we've got going in the writing world, and proof of that fact are in these pages.
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