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Wolfe, Tom The Right Stuff ISBN 13: 9780224014434

The Right Stuff - Hardcover

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9780224014434: The Right Stuff

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TOM WOLFE BOOK

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Review

Tom Wolfe began The Right Stuff at a time when it was unfashionable to contemplate American heroism. Nixon had left the White House in disgrace, the nation was reeling from the catastrophe of Vietnam, and in 1979--the year the book appeared--Americans were being held hostage by Iranian militants. Yet it was exactly the anachronistic courage of his subjects that captivated Wolfe. In his foreword, he notes that as late as 1970, almost one in four career Navy pilots died in accidents. "The Right Stuff," he explains, "became a story of why men were willing--willing?--delighted!--to take on such odds in this, an era literary people had long since characterized as the age of the anti-hero."

Wolfe's roots in New Journalism were intertwined with the nonfiction novel that Truman Capote had pioneered with In Cold Blood. As Capote did, Wolfe tells his story from a limited omniscient perspective, dropping into the lives of his "characters" as each in turn becomes a major player in the space program. After an opening chapter on the terror of being a test pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americans were first attempting to break the sound barrier. Test pilots, we discover, are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines, not all of them airborne. Chuck Yeager was certainly among the fastest, and his determination to push through Mach 1--a feat that some had predicted would cause the destruction of any aircraft--makes him the book's guiding spirit.

Yet soon the focus shifts to the seven initial astronauts. Wolfe traces Alan Shepard's suborbital flight and Gus Grissom's embarrassing panic on the high seas (making the controversial claim that Grissom flooded his Liberty capsule by blowing the escape hatch too soon). The author also produces an admiring portrait of John Glenn's apple-pie heroism and selfless dedication. By the time Wolfe concludes with a return to Yeager and his late-career exploits, the narrative's epic proportions and literary merits are secure. Certainly The Right Stuff is the best, the funniest, and the most vivid book ever written about America's manned space program. --Patrick O'Kelley

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  • PublisherFarrar Straus Giroux
  • Publication date1979
  • ISBN 10 0224014439
  • ISBN 13 9780224014434
  • BindingHardcover
  • LanguageEnglish
  • Number of pages480
  • Rating
    • 4.23 out of 5 stars
      54,198 ratings by Goodreads

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Wolfe, Tom
Published by Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979
ISBN 10: 0224014439 ISBN 13: 9780224014434
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Wolfe, Tom
Published by Penguin Random House, 1979
ISBN 10: 0224014439 ISBN 13: 9780224014434
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Hardcover. Condition: Good. London: Jonathan Cape, 1979. Uncorrected proof of the British edition in orange wrappers. The first four pages are unattached. Spine is sunned and there is light shelf wear to bottom of front flap. Book. Seller Inventory # L-WO1979S-A

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