76-09-B3

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Tom Wolfe's New Book

Transcript Do you remember when Tom Wolfe burst like a rocket on the literary and journalistic scene about a dozen years ago? His collection of essays published under the title THE KANDY-KOLORED TANGERINE FLAKE STREAMLINE BABY spawned a whole school of writing that imitated his rapid-fire delivery, his eye for colorful detail and vivid words describing the sounds of everything from slot machines to stock car races. Wolfe (no relation to the late, famed novelist of the same name from Asheville, North Carolina), became known as the master of trivia in journalism, reflecting the minutest aspects of America's manners and morals of the 1960's. And, a few years ago he coined the phrase "radical chic" when he covered a fund-raising cocktail party which symphony conductor Leonard Berstein gave in Manhattan for the Black Panthers. Now, Tom Wolfe has turned his attention to the current scene in one of the funniest, and perhaps wisest, books to come along in quite awhile. This new book has another unlikely title, Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter and Vine, (which refers to a catering firm and a florist). It will both amaze you and make you laugh. He launches propositions that may seem outrageous at first. He says Chicago's O'Hare Airport is the new intellectual capital of the United States, for example. Ridiculous? Maybe, but, as Wolfe points out, it's where the intellectuals change planes as they endlessly crisscross the nation on the lecture circuit. He describes one of the intellectual's lecture events, taking in all the ironies, such as the speaker's somber-to-strident denunciation of the American system before an audience of young people who have thrived under that system. Here's a sampling of Wolfe: "The conference is about to begin. The students come surging in like hormones ... Here they come, rosy-cheeked, laughing with Shasta and 7-Up pumping through their veins ... looking, all of them, boys and girls ... as if they had spent the day hang-gliding and then made a Miller commercial at dusk and are now going to taper off with a little Culture before returning to the coed dorm. "They grow quiet. The conference begins. The keynote speaker, a historian wearing a calfskin jacket and hair like Felix Mendelssohn's, informs them that the United States is a 'leaden, life-denying society.'" You'll have to get Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine to get the rest of Tom Wolfe's razor-sharp and ironic humor, but I'll share one of his conclusions with you. Wolfe is unabashedly patriotic about his country. He says that the ordinary American is "the first common man in the history of the world with the much-dreamed-of combination of money, freedom and free time." No wonder the liberal book reviewers don't know what to make of Wolfe's latest book. They can't seem to understand anyone who isn't dumping on America. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 76-09-B3 Production Date 02/22/1977 Book/Page Online PDF Audio Youtube? No
		Added Notes The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine